A man bought a cruise ship on Craigslist
cnn.com
cnn.com
They have changed everything from the keel up in the end. They are currently laying decks and installing the engine, so maybe this one will actually get done! They are doing everything to the highest standard, which is novel for these kind of shows. It has been community funded for some time, Leo having spent all of his money early on.
To continue the cautionary tail of this thread, he bought it for $1.
No make up, no product placement, no pretense, no frills.
Just a bunch of regular people fixing a boat. If more media like this was produced, the world would be a better place.
If you like Leo's channel, another two that are kind of like it are The Essential Craftsman and Stuff Made Here.
Having a family now a boat does not fit anymore but I often think back to my Hai 7.10m
Just don’t sink it.
A small car engine powered fibreglass cabin cruiser (remember to ventilate before starting the engine!!) can be affordable, the costs would mostly be fuel (still quite a bit of money), periodical re-painting of the underwatership and small maintenance of the upper structure as well as regular engine maintenance. That probably works out to a few hundred per month if you do a lot of the work yourself.
I can imagine that when you get to Great Lakes sized boating or salt water, things get expensive.
But a slightly more serious boat, say an older Jeannau or something else that isn't immediately going to sink if you take it out on blue water is going to cost you a fair amount of money and will be - unless you are already a multi-millionaire - a way of life rather than something you only use on the weekends because of the money you'll end up pumping into it.
If you go on youtube and find the various channels where people talk about their life on their boats and what it's like you'll see that they hardly ever really talk about where they are going or what they are doing, the main subjects are always money, repairs and weather.
A boat, unlike a house, is very strongly influenced by its environment and anything that you can no longer easily put on a trailer behind a car to get it out of the water when you're not using it will require near continuous work. You won't ever be able to 'and now it is done' and then to use it for the next five years without major work on it.
If you can have it taken out of the water so you can inspect the underwatership from the outside, if there are zinc blocks look at how much they've worn and whether they've been replaced regularly, if they are completely gone you shouldn't buy the boat regardless of how well it looks.
Even in saltwater any boat you can drag out of the water with a light truck is only going to be as expensive as you make it.
https://www.theguardian.com/news/2021/sep/07/disastrous-voya... The disastrous voyage of Satoshi, the world’s first cryptocurrency cruise ship
For example the SS Rotterdam was turned into a beautiful hotel. But this project was also a money drain and millions were lost.
I think the owner is right, it is not one ship, it should be compared to restoring 15 houses at the same time.
Nearly every river worldwide has a few boats or ships in very poor condition, with a few people living onboard trying to 'renovate' the ship.
It typically takes so many years to renovate, that the bits you did first need doing again before the end. It turns into a full time renovation project with no end in sight. Many people spend 20+ years of their spare time to never actually get the boat into working condition.
It's really a sad story of wasted human labour. The fact so many have big dreams for the shiny boat they'll have after a bit of work, and instead put in massive amounts of work to see no reward.
Sorry if that's a negative take, but it feels pretty gutsy to buy something extravagant, move into it, then ask for volunteers to make it nice...
Very impressive work and vision though!
They live on board with him and "played a key role", that seems to be it.
If you read it quickly, you might not even notice that it wasn't a single guy + some volunteers.
The one instance of the word "couple" is referring to different people restoring another ship.
It's still odd, so I couldn't help being curious whether Willson, his partner, or the reporter is responsible.
Am I defending the reporter? Or complaining that they did a bad job by leaving that obvious question of the partner unanswered? Neither, I hope.
>I couldn't help being curious whether Willson, his partner, or the reporter is responsible.
I just say that this phenomenon you noticed may be accidental, and there may be no intention by any of the individuals you named in that statement, or by any other party.
Sorry, but I can't explain this situation to you any more simply than that.
I was not using the word "responsible" to mean "caused the end result intentionally".
If I run over a squirrel with my car, it's not intentional, but I'm responsible. If the other person in the car slapped me and distracted me, we might both be partly responsible.
Maybe the editor cut something out they shouldn't have (are there still editors?). Or maybe a divorce is brewing due to the ship obsession.