Comrade Willy
SchnoodleDoodle wholesome vibes
For context, not everyone who lives on a boat is wealthy. I live on a ‘yacht’, a 29 foot sailboat. Your walk-in closet is larger, yet because it’s privately owned and not commercial it’s considered a yacht.
Your hate is misplaced.
A 29’ boat isn’t small, what kind of walk-in closet do you think people have? Your comment makes you seem really out of touch.
29’ to live on fulltime 24/7/365 is small as fuck. 8 steps, that’s the entirety of my living space.
I’m not out of touch, you just have no understanding of small sailboats. From the front to the back on deck is 12 steps bro.
A quick google suggests a single mast sailboat can be had for around $50K. Which is a lot of money for a hobby. But it’s insanely cheap if it’s your house.
But how much does it cost to keep it at a marina per year? And repairs and such?
Don’t worry not asking to prove you’re rich and need to be eaten or whatever. Wanna know how much money I need to be able to say “fuck it” and quit my job and live on a sailboat.
Ok, I’ll break it down large, I want to see you out here.
1978 Bayfield 29, $11,800 (2018) cash cash, envelope full of bills. I put about another $10,000 into it since in upgrades. Larger anchors, chain, lines for everything, new standing rigging, upgraded electrical, home built LifePo4 batteries, GPS, AIS-B, LED lights, solar, wind, blah blah blah.
My dingy is a 2015 Riviera 12’ fiberglass $1500. My outboard is a 2009 Yamaha 2stroke 15hp $1600.
My rent is approximately ZERO. I pay jack shit to fuck all. I “live on the hook”. I have about $1600 in my mooring (3 anchors, 150’ G4 3/8 chain, crane swivel, floaty thing, two lines to the boat from the swivel).
If I was going to live here forever I would need to plan on replacing the chain, swivel, and the connectors every 3-5 years, just to be safe ($1500 just to be safe). I’m leaving after hurricane season but because I have a mangrove swamp I can hide in up to a Cat3 storm I’m here until Thanksgiving.
I have 550w of solar, a Honda eu2200i generator, a 400w wind generator, and live off of 400 amp hours of 12v batteries (2x200ah). Home built at less than half the cost of prefabs in 2020. I love them so much.
New sails will be about $4-6K. My sails are 8 years old and I’m fully expecting to get at least 5 more years from them. I’ve taken good care of them.
My car is a 2002 Toyota Echo that was $1000, I pay $100 a month to park it about a 1000yards from the public dingy dock, which 99% are free in the US. Down island is a whole other thing, lots of places charge.
I don’t have Starlink. If dickhole ever sells his interest in it, I’ll have it the next day.
You absolutely can do this, but you will need to become radically self-sufficient. I haven’t been to a slip or a dock ( other than fuel) in six years. I haul water by hand, I’m my own electrician, mechanic, sanitation worker, plumber, electric company, you name it. And paradise can fucking suck.
I dont have an oven, don’t have a toaster, I don’t have any heating or air conditioning. I do have some fans. I don’t have hot water unless I put a 20 l can in the Sun. Living this lifestyle is as much about sundowners sunset, bikinis and fun as it is about what you’re willing to fucking endure.
Marina’s will run you from $300 - $3000 a month. They are hot, noisy, you’re crammed RIGHT next to others and they are expensive.
If you want to get an idea of actual prices, take .25 up to .5 off the asking prices for pretty much anything under $80k. Search Tempest for Craigslist, search Florida.
If you decide yeah… I’ll absolutely help your effort and happy to answer any more questions you have.
[edit] Maintenance runs between $2-6k a year. If you preventative maintenance the living shit out of everything, you’ll spend a lot less a year. I do 90%+ of the work myself. I purposely bought a small boat because small boats are small problems with small bills comparatively speaking. And also when traveling to communities that are less fortunate than most Americans financially at least, it’s easier to interact with the locals on a small boat than it is on a large boat because they will accept you much faster than if you show up on a 50-ft plus.
What do you do for work? Your costs are low, but they aren’t zero. I imagine it’s nearly impossible to get work if you have to go out to your boat every day or you don’t have reliable internet.
Also, is it possible to get/run AC on a boat your size? Florida sounds like hell without AC. I don’t think I could manage living there for long without it. I guess you can get in the water to cool off pretty easily though.
Now that it looks like a storm is forming, I’ll be moving and securing vessels for the actual wealthy, and I charge a flat rate of $100/hr. (I’m the blue dot). There’s money to be made, you just have to hustle.
After 25 years in tech I’m starting to look for my “out”. I have a ton of experience with electrical (signals/rf too), plumbing, mechanical, woodworking, finishing, engines, etc There isn’t much I can’t fix. As far as nautical experience goes, I’m a novice but I recently went through a small boat certification course and planning on being a “trailer sailor” for a couple years or more to build up experience. I grew up near Charleston SC harbor, and I think the ocean is calling me back.
A couple of questions; how do you find work or how does work find you? Do you have a home base where your tools are located or are you doing these jobs in “random” ports you travel to? (You can message me if you don’t want to share your industry secrets publicly 😉 )
/edit Found your blog so I got some reading to do.
Last I heard, they’re bored and rudders are fun to play with.
We need to give them some orca proof toys.
orca sinks yacht, we need to give them alternatives
Nah, I’m cool with them having the yachts
You’re thinking Bezos yachts, these are $50-200$k boats people use as homes to see the world, not rich people. The word yacht doesn’t mean wealth, it’s just not a common mode of transportation.
The word yacht doesn’t mean wealth,
Yes, yes it does. It doesn’t mean ‘billionaire,’ but these aren’t subsistence fishermen we’re talking about here.
It was a $128,000 yacht. If you don’t think people who can afford such a yacht are rich, you are one privileged person.
You’re literally attacking middle class people for having a small yacht.
Your concept of wealthy is really skewed.
“Middle class” and “small yacht.” Most middle class people can’t even afford a house. This is something that costs more than a luxury car.
Yea no one in the middle class can afford a house, a couple of cars and a small yacht.
It’s impossible without having billions in the bank!
Sorry, you think anyone under a billionaire is middle class?
It was a $128,000 yacht. If you don’t think people who can afford such a yacht are rich, you are one privileged person.
You’d be surprised how many people own a $128,000 yacht INSTEAD of a more-than-$128,000 house.
(Of course, there are even more people who live aboard full-time on much-less-than-$128,000 yachts. For example, Sailing Uma probably have a bunch of money now 'cause they’re relatively successful Youtubers, but they started out spending only about $10k total (purchase + initial refit costs) for their 50-year-old, 36-foot boat. There’s an entire subculture of people doing basically nautical #vanlife, and they aren’t any richer than the homeless-by-conventional-standards people doing it on land.)
I’ve met them, they fucked up someone else’s boat in the marina I was at, they didn’t offer to fix or help pay, they just bailed. They definitely fit into the asshole category, in my opinion.
