They interest me.
There hasn't been much action here lately, so lets start a new thread...
There are a lot of pros about boat ownership, from the freedom perspective. Mobility. Self sufficiency. No property taxes. Marina people are cool. Did I mention no property taxes?
You can go wherever the climate suits your personal tastes. You can go up-river for a quiet dock, or find a busy harbor if you like to be around people. You don't have to take care of a yard. You can go on vacation and take your house with you. If your neighbors piss you off, its as simple as untying a knot and turning a key.
The efficiency of boats is a considerable thing, they can pack everything you need to live into a space that can be totally self-contained. No worries about energy bills, when you have dock-space they provide all that stuff without you getting involved with utility companies. Away from shore, you generate all your own power and carry your own water and fuel. In a SHTF scenario, you can get away from the trouble, and with a fishing pole provide for your needs in an endlessly abundant source, whereas game can be hunted out in a cabin-type setting. Bullets can run out, and game can be hard to kill. But a few dollars worth of line and hooks and artificial jigs can last through hundreds of fish, caught right off your own deck. They even have seawater
osmosis purifiers, which dispels the myth that you can die of thirst in the middle of the sea.
I try to be level headed about these things, so here are some of the "cons" of living aboard a boat. You can't take a car with you. But you can take a moped or a bicycle, so getting around is not impossible on land, to replenish supplies. And at most marinas they have a general store, and sometimes offer a "back-door" rental vehicle service. A slip will cost you roughly the same as a lot rental for a trailer park, around $300 a month if you bargain shop. This price is cheaper if you take it for the year, and more expensive if you hop around taking spots at a month-per, then move away. It can be downright cheap if you visit a marina off-season, when they have little transient traffic. Like Maine in November, when its cold and the seas are rough.
It can be cramped. If you need a very large house, boat living is probably not for you. I've found that I don't mind confined living. Paying attention to my own habits has revealed that I require a central living space, a kitchen, a bathroom, and a bedroom. You have space on the aft for a grill and a chair, and the foredeck usually offers a place to stretch out and catch some fresh air. I could make due very nicely with a small apartment and a back patio. This roughly translates to a 40ft boat, which can have a second bedroom to accommodate a guest, or a kid. That extra room makes a great storage area if the guest or kid isn't a consideration. The second bedroom is usually the size of a walk-in closet, about 7x9 ft. You can store enough supplies in there to survive for a year if you do it right.
You cannot have a traditional dirt farm on a boat. But you can have plants. You can plant anything you would grow in buckets or window-box shaped containers. You could have a hydroponic system, or a phototron. I won't elaborate, use your imagination.
The systems and appliances are often energy-efficient. There is a gen-set aboard, and the whole thing is designed with deep-cycle batteries, so augmenting the system with a solar panel or a windmill is a piece of cake. Building this into a house is a pain in the balls. In a boat, its already there.
Fuel consumption while under-way is terrible. A large boat will burn a gallon of fuel to go about a mile or three. So you could expect to burn a hundred gallons of fuel to move it 200-300 miles, depending on size and hull design. Personally, I wouldn't care about burning $300 to relocate to new scenery every once in a while. The savings in property taxes makes this a wash. Diesel-burning engines can burn furnace oil, and whatever other oils can be obtained as long as you have a basic knowledge of diesel mechanics and an understanding of your engines requirements. YMMV
People say boating is prohibitively expensive. A friend of mine is paying about $4,000 a year in taxes to own his house. Granted, its a nice house. My parents homestead costs them roughly the same. Then they have all the assorted utilities, which can be roughly the same as dock fees. Often, more. But you never really own your house when you think about it in those terms. In a boat, you can haggle with the marina. You can find a dock that is perfect for your needs, and keep on truckin' if its not. You could even find a marina who's owner will accept barter. You could pay him in any manner he accepts. It could be labor, or money, or pot, or silver. Good luck finding that in the county courthouse.
As a lurking member of a boat forum, I've noticed the economic hardships of marinas are being reflected in a magnified manner of the overall economy. People are selling boats for cheap, and marinas are actually trying to stay attractively priced to keep their customers. This is a free-market reaction to be taken advantage of. Nobody will be bailing-out a marina, and when people have economic problems their toys are the first to go. This pattern will continue if people want to keep their credit ratings in good standing. Mortgaged boats will continue be sold for the balance due, or for cash market value if freely owned. And the cash market value is shit right now.
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The following pictures are taken from boats.com listings. Since they are classified ads, most will cease to exist in a few months, or a year. All of these are taken from boats that fit the following search requirements: Under $100,000 (most were actually under $50,000). Under 50ft in length (most were under 45ft in length). The central theme is affordability, and can be captained without much help, if any. It is more practical if you can pilot your own vessel without any help. It becomes much harder to maneuver a boat when it exceeds 45 ft in length, by an order of magnitude. For some reason boat people draw the line at 46 ft, and say the next four feet of waterline is the biggest four feet in the world. I have no experience to offer a contrary argument, so I will abide by that advice.
Heres a 41' Hatteras SportFish, one of my favorites. I like the squared off shape. This is a nice boat. Notice the size of the chairs and the little dinghy on the rear. This boat is actually quite large, and very wide. The average bedroom is 12 ft wide. This boat is 14 ft wide. Motor homes are normally less than 8 ft wide. You can't compare these things to a bus.
Heres a Silverton boat. Affordable. I dislike the topheavy-looking shit piled all over it, but that is only canvas, the actual boat is slick. Unfortunately, it appears there is no lower helm, which means you cannot pilot the ship from inside the cabin like a car, you must steer it from up top. And that would suck asshole in a storm.
Heres a 58' Hatteras YachtFish built in the mid-1970's, my absolute all time favorite -- this picture does not do it justice. Pictures of boats are extremely hard to find.