Someone on the live-aboard mailing list asked this question:
A while back you folks said to get the boat that bests suite why I want to live aboard.
Being unable to answer that question ( all I know is that I DO ) I was wondering what your answers to the same question is [sic]?
It is time for more introspection, then. Sorry, you can't get away from it. You will be horribly inconsolably miserable if you avoid knowing your own self. So sit down with your favorite beverage, a pad of paper and free associate for an hour. You'll come up with something. This is especially important if you plan to live with someone else. Many a marriage has gone awry because one person wanted to live aboard (and cruise) and the other thought that it would be "okay" to go along.
In the past, living on a boat at the water's edge was sometimes the
only affordable housing you could get. There was not much desire to
travel so mobility was not an important factor. Barges, derelicts would
do. If you needed to move, you found a friend with a (real, working) boat
and got a tow. This was where the bottom rungs of society lived, hence a
lot of historical animosity by terrestrial dwellers against live-aboards.
I should point out that living aboard a working vessel, not a floating
house (even then), is not always the most affordable housing
available. Our costs our comparable to living in one bedroom apartment in
a nice neighborhood. But there are other benefits...
There is the naturalist factor. When we lived in Redwood City, we could walk to the Bair Island Wildlife Preserve with a bottle of wine and see all sorts of wild things. Here in Alameda, we have all manner of wading and fishing birds. They are a joy to watch. We watch more sunsets and sunrises. There's the unobstructed waterfront view.
There is the mobility factor. We hatedthe marina at Redwood City. The neighbors were great, the facilities sucked. I disliked getting stuck in the mud (sorry guys) or planning our trips around an annoying tide window. So we changed neighborhoods. All it took was getting a new slip (not such a small feat, but we persevered), notifying the marina, PacBell and our friends. One day, we just left. If only I could find a job (that I like) in Alameda, I would be ecstatic.
There is
the travel factor. We want to go cruising. Explore the world.
We live aboard to get the boat ready without the distractions of also
maintaining another residence. It is also (supposedly) an incentive to
sail the boat more. It is sometimes difficult to sail your house. It is
also sometimes difficult to live in a work in progress, you have no space
to spread out. But this is a skill you will have to learn anyway.
There is the simple living factor. Live with less things. I believe that the blind accumulation of things is bad. It drags you down. You need bigger and bigger houses just to hold all of that junk. And how often do you use it? Of course, there are those who might think that I'm living in the wrong country. I didn't have very much when I moved aboard. I put the furniture in storage (for a year, just in case I really didn't like living aboard) and finally gave it all away to the Salvation Army. The sum total of my possession are in a 5x5x10 storage unit, the boat, the dock-box and the car. We'll sell/donate the car when "go." The storage unit will be emptied.
Then, finally, there is the boat factor. And I can't do much better than quoting Kenneth Grahame:
. . .there is nothing -- absolutely nothing -- half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats . . . or with boats . . . In or out of 'em, it doesn't matter. Nothing seems really to matter, that's the charm of it. Whether you get away, or whether you don't; whether you arrive at your destination or whether you reach somewhere else, or whether you never get anywhere at all, you're always busy, and you never do anything in particular; and when you've done it there's always something else to do, and you can do it if you like, but you'd much rather not.
So there are two types of live-aboards, IMHO:
Economic and Fanatic
The economic live-aboards can't afford terrestrial accommodations, so they choose the alternative. The economic type wants a boat that is as close to dirt dwelling as possible; hence houseboats, barges, floating houses, etc.
The fanatic loves boats. Can't get enough of 'em. Even when things go bad, they're good. (Case in point, we've had some major repair projects pop up on us this year. It has been stressful and also rewarding.)
So, which one are you? And why?!?
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