The ‘liveaboards’ sailing away to a new life
theguardian.com
theguardian.com
> “People watch YouTubers and think sailing life is all about drinking rum and coconut water on deck,” she says.
When I have have watched that exact crew persevere through so many incredibly shitty scenarios (groundings, ankle deep in backed up toilet water, bit by a 2 meter long barracuda in the middle of nowhere, pirates, absolutely everything breaking three times in a row, dengue fever) on that channel.
The hedonistic good times are all well and good, but no one would watch a sailing channel that was only that. The whole point is that the sunset beach party is the reward for succeeding at a difficult challenge. Challenge-and-reward is what's missing from so many lives these days.
Just get kids -> challenge. When they’re in bed -> reward.
(I'm fairly sure some of their links have been on HN before, perhaps the "working offgrid efficiently" page? https://100r.co/site/working_offgrid_efficiently.html )
and all submissions from 100r.co
> Ian and Natalie refer to the ranks of abandoned yachts in the depths of boatyards as the “graveyards of dreams”. “I’ve seen it over and over again where people run out of money or they get scared and have to give up the lifestyle,
for anyone thinking of doing this for some romantic notion, consider how rapidly a $100,000 or $250,000 sailboat depreciates and what the real dollar figure is per year in maintenance cost.
boat = bust out another thousand
in any major city one of the major challenges will be finding moorage that allows liveaboards, it's very nearly impossible in seattle or vancouver without a 5-8 year wait list, and even then you'll get a less than optimal location.
Of course you could just drop anchor somewhere and use a tender to get to shore and back, there are currently at least two grungy little boats doing that at Oyster Point. No idea if it's actually legal but they've been doing it for at least a year... like many things around here, the answer may be "you can get way with it as long as you look sufficiently homeless"
Depreciation on boats bottoms out at 1990 or so, and there are many great old boats that can be had for very little.
I live on a 38' sailboat that cost $40,000. My maintenance costs are way less then rent.
And you don't buy a boat to live in Seattle or Vancouver; the idea is to sail away to an anchorage for a tropical sunset.
And as I think someone else noted, who wants a slip to dock at? Why would one need that because you are sailing around the world. You don't have a home base or anything. That's the whole entire point.
Is it really including boat maintenance costs?
Groceries, and fuel expenditures sure. Perhaps even clothing needs can be squeezed into such a budget.
But the tools, dock time, and part costs for required maintenance items really don't seem plausible to fit into that budget, even if they provide 100% of all labor themselves.
Plus if they run a YouTube channel, they have internet costs. Etc.
On a plastic boat, you don't have to black the hull, but things do break, engines need replacement oil, new filters. Painting, leaks in window frames, wifi subscriptions.
There is no way that figure is achievable outside a crazy initial investment which needs zero work, and even then, the work will pile up quicly.
The entire article is more or less an advertisement for a new lifestyle trend and they obviously interviewed people who want to show off that they belong.
EDIT: And of course, their most popular video is ... "The Yunnan Cowgirl Sails to a Nudist Island" https://youtu.be/b72bjCyJLMo?t=305
I'd say Mark and Nadiyana are professional influencers and now they got their big break by being featured in the Guardian.
I watch a bunch of these sailing channels, and most of these folks are pouring quite a bit of their YouTube revenue back into the boat just to keep it shipshape. Otherwise the "cruising lifestyle" includes a lot of shore time working random gigs to pay for some part that broke, then you get back on the water until it happens again.
I'm happy that some of them can make this work, but there's a limited YouTube audience, and so a limited number of folks who can work that particular model. Brian of Sailing SV Delos for instance, initially set out planning to continue his software consultancy while working remotely, until there turned out to be money in sharing his journey. Others have other plans that work for them. But I doubt anyone has their boat maintenance _and_ food down to anywhere near 5£/day.
Heck, a new set of sails alone (they last around ten years) will set you back several kilobucks depending on the size of the boat. So that's on the order of a dollar a day right there. A decent chartplotter/radar/AIS (pretty essential for safety) has a similar cost and lifespan, so add another dollar a day. You probably have a data connection to download weather maps, both for travel and for storm planning, and even if you're near shore using a local SIM card, that's at least a few bucks a month, and an Iridium backup even if you don't use it is a few more. Saltwater eats everything so nothing lasts as long as you'd like, whether it's instruments or appliances, and the combination of sunlight and saltwater does a number on both the standing rigging (steel cables, 10-20 year lifespan) and running rigging (ropes, ~5 year lifespan). Then add in the cost of hauling-out and repainting the bottom with anti-fouling paint every few years, and that stuff ain't cheap either.
Add incidentals like batteries, lifejackets and a PLB, a tender/RIB and outboard, and I think you're on the order of $7-10/day just for the boat, and that's if everything goes "smoothly". Doing it cheaper may be possible, but I'd like to see the breakdown.
That being said, $10/day for a lifestyle that includes unlimited travel (oh, remember to add passport and visa paperwork and entry fees, plus anchorage fees in certain harbors), is still nothing to sneeze at. I'm addicted to these channels because it's immensely interesting, after all.
In general? If you're down for living in squalor basically like a homeless person squatting on a tiny fiberglass island you don't really maintain as a seagoing vessel, rowing to shore for supplies, then I'd say £5/day would be a life of luxury in that mode.
I'm reminded of Richardson Bay near SF/Sausalito:
https://www.sfchronicle.com/local/article/sausalito-encampme...
As usual cost of living depends on lifestyle and expectations.
Everyone has different standards of what they consider “liveable” especially when it comes to boat maintenance and preparedness. I cruised for a while just fine with almost nothing in the way of systems or electronics (paper/home brew charts, no radar/ais, no ac or refrigeration) boat expenses were definitely my largest slice of expense after food/beer and it still only accounted for about $3-5k per year (amortized over a few years). Some larger maintenance items are only semi annual, other big ticket items (eg sails) can be procured used and last for another 5+ years.
Also I didn’t have an engine so I guess that costs money too to maintain but all of this is to say it’s like anything else… it’s as cheap or expensive as you make it
Literally everything on a boat has to be replaced (other than the hull, hopefully) over time. Sails and rigging only last so long depending on where you are. Even good engines need to be rebuilt after 5k hours or so. Decks need to be redone. Antifouling needs to be reapplied. And those are just the big expenses that will average out over time. Anything that lasts over 10 years on a boat that is actively sailing should get a special award. That is to say, a £100,000 actively used sailboat will require at least £100,000 every 10 years to keep it safe and seaworthy. So right there you are starting at a base cost of around £25/day.
Total cost is going to be somewhere around £50-£100/day, especially if you want access to a decent marina and/or mooring spot. At the upper end, £100/day, you can actually have quite a nice setup if you get a really good hull in the 10-14 meter range and are willing to put in the time and work to do the maintenance yourself. Plenty of left over money for groceries, shore trips, and other supplies. You could cross oceans safely.
£5/day will get you nothing. That's only £150/mo, and the odds are good that you need to buy at least £150 worth of parts and cleaning materials a month. Depending on the boat, a single simple part like a latch can easily be £150 itself depending on where you are going to need get it shipped from and how quickly you need it. At £5/day you are pooping over the side of a boat which is rapidly disintegrating and you're probably suffering from general malnutrition and scurvy. So it definitely can be done, but at this level it's really just being homeless with extra steps.
Vanlife is basically the same. You just need to accept that not showering for days and pooping in a bucket is your new normal.
Maybe the real solution to homelessness is we need to lower our standards of living, so 'homes' can be more affordable.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rubing https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goat_cheese#France
I suppose you don’t have to declare that you are in a country you visit by boat, but the consequences of not doing so could be extreme if you are unlucky and caught by the local authorities
(I also live on a boat and think about blacking as soon as anyone mentions maintenance costs!)
> We live on around £5 a day
from article is a big misunderstanding or a blatant lie.
But what kind of minimal funds are needed to pay for a boat, fuel, repairs, docking fees etc. Can it be cheaper than renting/owning flat?
Yachting, I have no idea.