Anyone ever live on a boat or in an RV?

[Blackbeard's Delight]

I'm not sure how I've come across blogs and such on this topic, but recently I have been reading of people who basically quit their day jobs to travel and live full time on a sailboat or in an RV. It's a minimalist lifestyle with it's ups and downs, for sure. But there is a romantic freedom that's kindled in hearing about people who can travel wherever, whenever and see so much, experience places and people you'd never meet by living in a brick and mortar home with a regular 9-5 job.

I can't consider that lifestyle right now, as I am married with two young boys to care for. I'd be lying if I said I didn't look on Ebay for used 30' sailboats though! I am curious if anyone on B&B has lived on the road or the sea? Or even just spending a bunch of vacation time with this lifestyle? It would be great to hear about your experiences.

 

[sinbad339]

I know I've seen posts from Slash McCoy showing him on a boat. In fact, the cockpi9t looked similar to a Catalina 27 I used to own.

 

[onefallinghope]

I know that Turtle just came back from a 3 month road trip in his RV.

 

[puros_bran]

I've more or less lived in a semi truck for 20 years. Not exactly what you meant but pretty close. Lol

 

[Champion of Capua]

I lived on an ammunition ship in the Navy.

 

[Blackbeard's Delight]

I've more or less lived in a semi truck for 20 years. Not exactly what you meant but pretty close. Lol

I lived on an ammunition ship in the Navy.

I'd say these both count... although not an RV or sailboat, they are more unconventional living situations. Probably not the same 'floating like a leaf on the wind' sense of freedom, but both share the living and traveling without being tied down to a home part.

Were the experiences enjoyed? Or were you counting the minutes to get home in your own bed?

 

[garyg]

Signing on to see where this thread goes - I've lived all over, but compared to the world a pimple's dash away from home .. did live most of one summer on a boat in a semi furnished marina, I liked it actually wishing right now I had a boat moored someplace other than the backyard .. and that it had cover ..

 

[oc_in_fw]

I would enjoy being on a boat in the middle of the night, and looking up at the brilliant stars.

 

[puros_bran]

For the most part I've enjoyed it. Lately its alot less enjoyable but that's due to well meaning but misguided regulation and oversight.

I spent the first ten pulling a dry box trailer just going where the freight took me. Then eight years pulling chemicals with a tanker trailer. For the past two I've worked in niche Thoroughbred race horse transportation.

 

[Slash McCoy]

I know I've seen posts from Slash McCoy showing him on a boat. In fact, the cockpi9t looked similar to a Catalina 27 I used to own.

The Cal 2-27 (what I have) and the Catalina 27 are practically clones. The Cal is a couple hundred pounds heavier, a couple inches wider, and has a small bridge deck in the cockpit at the companionway which would help to keep water out of the cabin if the boat were pooped by a big breaking sea. In a head to head race with the original stock sails, in calm-ish water the Catalina would eventually nose ahead, given skippers of equal skill. In heavy weather the Cal will carry more sail. Or, I should say, be safer with a given amount of sail due to more fixed ballast. Windward performance advantage is to the Catalina in calm water, the Cal in rough, IMHO. So while neither is a true racer or all-out cruiser, if your interests are more in racing or day sailing on lakes, bays or sounds, the Catalina would be a marginally better choice. If you are more interested in coastal cruising, the Cal 2-27 would be marginally better, all things equal. For liveaboard, either will work for a single person but will be a bit crowded for a couple. I live on my Cal but I have to step outside to change my mind.

The thing about living on a small boat is, you see these brochures and ads in the magazines that say this little boat "sleeps 6 in comfort!" Well, first of all, no. So better to fix it up to be more comfortable for one person, if you are going to live aboard. That means the typical 4 berths in the main cabin have to be re-thought and got rid of. My boat of course didn't have a shower. It has one now! The original galley sink is the size of a ladies shoe box. I am rebelling. My next project is a tremendous stainless steel deep sink next to the shower, the kind you see in laundromats for hand washing clothes. Big enough for my biggest pot. Big enough for ALL my pots and pans. Big enough to hand-wash clothes at sea, or degrease engine parts. or whatever. The old ice box is outta there. The old alcohol stove, which doesn't work anyway and is not worth rebuilding, is outta there also, soon. The vanity has got to go, too. That area will become tool and spares storage. Where the head is now will be my office. The toilet will be moved into dead space in the new shower enclosure. The after bulkhead is going to be re-thought. I will probably end up with just an insulated box around the engine, and through access into the stern engineroom/lazarrette. Last but not least the after end of the coachroof is gonna get raised, the upper after bulkhead moved aft, making a pilothouse. Steering will be moved indoors. So I will only have room for me and one boat bunny to sleep aboard, but there will be more room for me to live a normal life aboard. I could even tolerate a boat bunny living aboard if she doesn't try to move in with a uhaul trailer full of girl crap.

So basically to live aboard a boat smaller than about 40 feet, you will be doing a lot of modification if you want all the comforts of home. Or even some of them. Forget about the "sleeps 6" or "sleeps 8" nonsense.

 

[one cut]

here is a entire forum dedicated to people living in a RV.
http://www.cheaprvlivingforum.com/

 

[Toothpick]

I would enjoy being on a boat in the middle of the night, and looking up at the brilliant stars.

i recently (in August) took a trip to MI with my buddy, we went to his cottage on a big ole lake. we took the pontoon out in the middle of the night and it was amazingly relaxing. calm water, perfect weather, couple beers, nothing but the sounds of insects and lake chatter from the surrounding houses. i was surprised at how voices travel across the lake but it didn't bother me at all. its definitely a different world on the lake at night.

 

[_JP_]

"Full timers" is what the RV community calls the people who live only in their RVs. There is a lot to be said for that life style but it is not for everybody. There are online forums devote to RVing, which would be good places to start learning about it. My uncle is a full timer, and he is sitting with his friend down in the Florida Keys right now where he'll spend the winter. Like he has done for the past 35 years.

 

[Blackbeard's Delight]

The Cal 2-27 (what I have) and the Catalina 27 are practically clones. The Cal is a couple hundred pounds heavier, a couple inches wider, and has a small bridge deck in the cockpit at the companionway which would help to keep water out of the cabin if the boat were pooped by a big breaking sea. In a head to head race with the original stock sails, in calm-ish water the Catalina would eventually nose ahead, given skippers of equal skill. In heavy weather the Cal will carry more sail. Or, I should say, be safer with a given amount of sail due to more fixed ballast. Windward performance advantage is to the Catalina in calm water, the Cal in rough, IMHO. So while neither is a true racer or all-out cruiser, if your interests are more in racing or day sailing on lakes, bays or sounds, the Catalina would be a marginally better choice. If you are more interested in coastal cruising, the Cal 2-27 would be marginally better, all things equal. For liveaboard, either will work for a single person but will be a bit crowded for a couple. I live on my Cal but I have to step outside to change my mind.

The thing about living on a small boat is, you see these brochures and ads in the magazines that say this little boat "sleeps 6 in comfort!" Well, first of all, no. So better to fix it up to be more comfortable for one person, if you are going to live aboard. That means the typical 4 berths in the main cabin have to be re-thought and got rid of. My boat of course didn't have a shower. It has one now! The original galley sink is the size of a ladies shoe box. I am rebelling. My next project is a tremendous stainless steel deep sink next to the shower, the kind you see in laundromats for hand washing clothes. Big enough for my biggest pot. Big enough for ALL my pots and pans. Big enough to hand-wash clothes at sea, or degrease engine parts. or whatever. The old ice box is outta there. The old alcohol stove, which doesn't work anyway and is not worth rebuilding, is outta there also, soon. The vanity has got to go, too. That area will become tool and spares storage. Where the head is now will be my office. The toilet will be moved into dead space in the new shower enclosure. The after bulkhead is going to be re-thought. I will probably end up with just an insulated box around the engine, and through access into the stern engineroom/lazarrette. Last but not least the after end of the coachroof is gonna get raised, the upper after bulkhead moved aft, making a pilothouse. Steering will be moved indoors. So I will only have room for me and one boat bunny to sleep aboard, but there will be more room for me to live a normal life aboard. I could even tolerate a boat bunny living aboard if she doesn't try to move in with a uhaul trailer full of girl crap.

So basically to live aboard a boat smaller than about 40 feet, you will be doing a lot of modification if you want all the comforts of home. Or even some of them. Forget about the "sleeps 6" or "sleeps 8" nonsense.

Wow, great post with a ton of info! It's good to hear that boats are modifiable. I have been reading everything I can find about sailing and boat living this past week and it seems showers are rare on board. A lot of bloggers talk of how ship folk head ashore to do get groceries and take a shower... that's one luxury I'd want on a boat. So good to hear it's possible to make that happen. Seems like an RV is much less flexible in regards to modifications and upgrades like that.

Another thing I have been surprised by is how relatively affordable a solid used sailboat is! I always had the misconception that sailing was a rich man's sport, so I always thought it would be unreachable unless I finally hit the big time. I am seeing a lot of 25' - 30' boats for sale at $10k or less. A good chunk of change but certainly not unreachable.

I also hadn't thought of washing laundry the old fashioned way in a sink or whatnot... I was assuming the lifestyle would include regular trips to the laundromat. Do you have solar panels? A lot of full timers say they are either glad they got them or wish they got them. I guess if you're in a slip most of the time with power it won't matter, but in open water I'd guess it's probably an asset.

 

[Edcculus]

I have a good friend who lives on a boat. Not sure exactly how big, but its definitely less than 40'. He's done a lot of modification over the years to make it more livable. He sails a fair amount, but spends most of his time at his rented spot at the marina, which includes power, I think water (not sure about that) and access to the showers/toilets.

 

[i.am.zed]

My parents became "full timers" in their retirement. They purchased a rather large fifth wheel and a large truck to pull it with and took to the road. After about a year, they sold their house and most of their possessions (i.e. furniture and the like) and truly became full time. They absolutely loved it. After a couple years of general wandering about the country, they eventually settled on about 4 locales with campgrounds that they liked and would just migrate between them every 3 months. I can tell you there are far more people doing this than you would think and there is quite a service industry set up to cater to this community. There are companies that will handle your mail and serve as a permanent address for you, come to your camper and do any kind of repair or maintenance, swap out or refill propane tanks on site, etc. Take just the campgrounds for example. These places are a far cry from the KOAs we stayed in with our pop-up camper as a kid. They usually have at least one nicely appointed community building, swimming, tennis, gyms, dedicated sewing/craft workshops, wood working shops and even private golf courses at the more high end ones. There is a constant schedule of organized activities you can participate in. They are much more like an active senior community than a campground. One other thing on that note...I visited a couple times and it's pretty rare to see anybody under 60 at these places. Could be just the kind of places my folks gravitated to I guess.

 

[shaveitoff]

This is a question from someone who knows nothing about sailing. Is it possible for one person to handle a sailboat? If you wanted to sail down the Atlantic coast, for example, could one person do it?

 

[Mick]

We traveled in our "Toy" RV for the past 3 months (Aug-Nov)...

 

[Slash McCoy]

Wow, great post with a ton of info! It's good to hear that boats are modifiable. I have been reading everything I can find about sailing and boat living this past week and it seems showers are rare on board. A lot of bloggers talk of how ship folk head ashore to do get groceries and take a shower... that's one luxury I'd want on a boat. So good to hear it's possible to make that happen. Seems like an RV is much less flexible in regards to modifications and upgrades like that.

Another thing I have been surprised by is how relatively affordable a solid used sailboat is! I always had the misconception that sailing was a rich man's sport, so I always thought it would be unreachable unless I finally hit the big time. I am seeing a lot of 25' - 30' boats for sale at $10k or less. A good chunk of change but certainly not unreachable.

I also hadn't thought of washing laundry the old fashioned way in a sink or whatnot... I was assuming the lifestyle would include regular trips to the laundromat. Do you have solar panels? A lot of full timers say they are either glad they got them or wish they got them. I guess if you're in a slip most of the time with power it won't matter, but in open water I'd guess it's probably an asset.

I bought Mr. Wiggles for $2,000. The engine crankshaft wasn't frozen... I could roll the engine over but not start it. There was a water mark about 3/4 of the way up the flywheel. The day after it became mine I went to Cabelas and bought an outboard and mount, and the next day I went for a sail, and disregarded the non-working engine. 4 months later I finally had the Atomic running, after replacing the entire electrical and ignition (gasoline engine, if you are not familiar with the Atomic 4, or "Atom Bomb") and carburetor and burning out a starter stubbornly trying to get the thing to go. It had spark. It had fuel. It turned over. It was in time. All the necessary ingredients were there but it would not start. Finally I got it to kick over, then after a few days I could get it to run roughly for a few minutes, then an hour, then finally the day came when It just purred like a kitten. No room down there to pull the head, so I didn't. I finally figured it out... stuck valves. The prop was solitly encased and immobilized by marine growth. I got that cleared out and scraped the bottom at anchor. The electrical system was not really a system but rather a spiderweb. I fixed all that over time and now I can say that I have got my $2k worth of enjoyment out of the boat. The money you will have to spend to get a boat will depend on your needs and on being in the right place at the right time with some cash on hand, and knowing what to look for before wheeling and dealing. I had a motivated seller, an older fellow laid nearly off his feet by bad knees and a bad hip, who was watching the boat deteriorate even before Katrina, paying insurance and slip rent the whole time. I saw a decrepit old glass boat that I could saw and hammer and fiberglass into my own Simpson-esque picture of the ideal boat for me, without worrying about messing up something valuable. I got the slip lease with the boat, too, at a liveaboard-ok marina.

If you want something more sail-away, and you don't intend to make any major ocean passages ever, a 10k budget will get you going. My 2k boat is sort of the Gold Dollar of the yaching world. A 10k boat is sort of a WhippedDog level boat. 35k would be like a vintage Boker King Cutter or Red Injun, in straightrazor terms. How much work can you and will you do? Even some new boats suitable for day sailing or coastal cruising can be had for under 25k. I am thinking of something like a McGregor 26, for instance. And it is still sort of a buyer's market. Lots of folks have gotten rid of their toys and continue to do so with all the economic meltdown over the last 5 years or whatever. Got cash? Boats are available.

BTW I considered a 30 foot(?) Hunter up on the mud in Mississippi that was listed for $600. I would have had to skid it about 1/4 mile to water, and there was some vandalism of cosmetic nature, but the owner had stored all sails, cushions, etc safely, long before Katrina. I probably could have made a go of that, kedging it to water on log rollers. There was no hull damage whatsoever except some roughed up gelcoat here and there. Lots of boats go up for sail in varying condition after hurricanes. I saw a Tartan with a 2 foot hole stove in the bow well above the waterline and no mast, go for $900 once on ebay. Someone could have patched that hole good enough to sail it to its new home in a day or two. Watch for distress sales.

Yes, of course you can modify a boat. After all, if you can make a VW Beetle look like a giant mouse, or make a house look like a wedding cake, or turn a 63 Nova into a street racer, you can certainly change stuff around in a boat. Just remember some of the bulkheads you want to eliminate might be necessary for structural integrity and have to be replaced with frames, stanchions, etc. And remember, when you add stuff, you add weight. But sure, you can tear stuff out with a sawzall or a skil saw, and build stuff with plywood and fiberglass, and totally change the interior. I know a guy who didn't need a galley, but had to have a big screen TV. I know a guy with a 24 foot houseboat that has a bathtub aboard, and another guy with a Hatteras that has a hot tub. You just got to consider all the possible effects your modifications will have on the vessel in terms of stability, strength, etc. For an old beater, resale value is not much of an issue. For a brand new Beneteau, you might want to do things more professionally!

Showers are rare on small boats. Marinas have them, and laundry facillities. But the whole idea of a boat is to go sailing, and there are no laundromats at sea. Plus I hate a tiny sink for washing dishes. So, the deepsink.

I have some solar panels but I haven't messed with them. It isn't as simple as simply hooking them up to your batteries. You have to have a charge controller and it has to be properly set up for your setup. Wind chargers are popular but i don't have one fo them yet. Electric drive allows you to charge batteries via regen, from the freewheeling propellor. There is a world of stuff to learn regarding just what all is possible and practical. I say if you are interested, keep an eye out for a little day sailer you can mess around in and learn basic safety and sailing in. And make sure you have spare blades for your sawzall!