[HN Gopher] The 'liveaboards' sailing away to a new life
___________________________________________________________________
The 'liveaboards' sailing away to a new life
Author : nigerian1981
Score : 41 points
Date : 2022-08-28 11:06 UTC (1 days ago)
(HTM) web link (www.theguardian.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.theguardian.com)
| real-dino wrote:
| I live on a boat... AMA
| notahacker wrote:
| Which canal are you on at the moment?
|
| (I also live on a boat and think about blacking as soon as
| anyone mentions maintenance costs!)
| flerchin wrote:
| Are you typically moored or a cruiser? What do costs look like?
| How do you support yourself?
| prvit wrote:
| Do you move between countries a lot? Is your passport typically
| checked?
| zoba wrote:
| Yes, I've been very curious about real world experience of
| passports in this lifestyle.
| lbrindze wrote:
| Yes, usually, but it depends on the country. On top of normal
| travel visa you also need to make sure your boat is
| documented from the country of origin and often are required
| to pay some form of tenporary import fee for the vessel as
| well. Different places have different rules, some (such as
| French Polynesia) let you extend your visa up to a year or
| more if you visit by boat but then you will need to sail
| elsewhere before you are able to come back.
|
| 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
| matkoniecz wrote:
| I am pretty sure that
|
| > We live on around PS5 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?
| pivo wrote:
| Motor or sail?
| kirbypineapple wrote:
| What's the internet situation like? I hears Starlink for boats
| is coming but costs an arm and a leg...
| klardotsh wrote:
| Near shore, LTE hotspots and/or Starlink RV are feasible
| options (or, in a marina, there's often marina and/or
| municipal WiFi around)
| walrus01 wrote:
| are you moxie marlinspike?
| contingencies wrote:
| Mark and Nadiyana were doing it so tough in French winter
| scraping that boat together that they deserve all the success
| they can muster. Missing interview question: _rubing_ (Ru Bing )
| or _chevre_?
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rubing
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goat_cheese#France
| davidw wrote:
| This blog has been kind of interesting to follow over the years,
| along those lines. Although sometimes it also makes me feel like
| I'm wasting my life...
|
| https://www.bumfuzzle.com/
| toomuchtodo wrote:
| They just sold the Grand Banks trawler and are back on a
| catamaran (last long sail around the world before the kids grow
| up and move on). More adventure ahead!
| ccooffee wrote:
| I've lost many hours reading the pages in the "Hundred Rabbits"
| collection: https://100r.co/site/home.html
|
| (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 )
| IIAOPSW wrote:
| More like a hundred rabbit holes and I can't afford to dive
| down any more of them.
| matkoniecz wrote:
| > We live on around PS5 a day
|
| Is it really including boat maintenance costs?
| rr888 wrote:
| The two most widely-used sayings about boats are that they are
| "holes in the water, into which you throw money" and "the
| happiest day of a boat owner's life is the day they buy the
| boat and the day they sell it." 5 quid a day doesn't work.
| lbrindze wrote:
| Probably not, but cruising is likely cheaper than you expect
| and (if you are currently living in a major US city)
| significantly cheaper than your current situation.
|
| 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
| themagician wrote:
| If you were really good about budgeting, you might be able to
| do it at PS50/day sustainably--and that doesn't include the
| cost of your time. You'd have to pick your spot strategically
| and you probably wouldn't be doing any ocean crossing at this
| level.
|
| Literally everything on a boat has to be replaced (other than
| the hull, hopefully) overtime. 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.
|
| Total cost is going to be somewhere around PS50-PS100/day,
| especially if you want access to a decent marina and/or mooring
| spot.
|
| PS5/day will get you nothing. That's only PS150/mo, and the
| odds are good that you need to buy at least PS150 worth of
| parts and cleaning materials a month. Depending on the boat, a
| single simple part like a latch can easily be PS150 itself
| depending on where you are going to need get it shipped from.
| At PS5 you are pooping over the side of boat which is rapidly
| disintegrating and you're probably suffering from general
| malnutrition and scurvy.
| pengaru wrote:
| For the YouTubers, seems _very_ unlikely.
|
| 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 PS5/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.
| jsmith45 wrote:
| I'd be quite skeptical of that.
|
| 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.
| real-dino wrote:
| Not in a way where your main currency is GBP.
|
| 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.
| fxtentacle wrote:
| "Follow their adventure on their YouTube channel Wildlings
| Sailing"
|
| 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.
| mr_woozy wrote:
| myself248 wrote:
| I somewhat doubt it.
|
| 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 5PS/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.
| haroldp wrote:
| Wildlings is def not running on $5/day. They likely spend
| that little on food and rent (moorings). But they are for
| sure on the extreme end of cruising cheaply. I think they own
| four shirts, and have to share them. Their boat came with
| newish sails, they use phones or tablets instead of a
| dedicated plotter, half of their boat refit was parts out of
| the marina rubbish bin, their tender looks like it belongs in
| a back yard swimming pool, etc. Probably only WindHippy or
| (old) Sam Holmes cruising cheaper on YouTube.
| fxtentacle wrote:
| socialblade estimate puts the channel of that first featured
| couple at $50 per day, which I believe would realistically
| pay for their lifestyle.
| [deleted]
| notahacker wrote:
| I doubt it includes their fuel costs
| haroldp wrote:
| Was kind of disappointed by Liz' comments like,
|
| > "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.
| ant6n wrote:
| > Challenge-and-reward is what's missing from so many lives
| these days.
|
| Just get kids -> challenge. When they're in bed -> reward.
| ok_dad wrote:
| More like: kid -> reward, finding time in bed -> challenge
| haroldp wrote:
| Graduated from that, not going back. :)
| walrus01 wrote:
| the article even references it:
|
| > 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.
| floren wrote:
| Oyster Point in South SF has signs posted around: "Warning: if
| you buy a boat, the slip does not transfer. There is a 2-3 year
| waiting list for liveaboard slips".
|
| 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"
___________________________________________________________________
(page generated 2022-08-29 23:01 UTC)