Beginner’s Guide to Living on a Sailing Yacht

Although it’s simple to romanticise the concept of living permanently aboard a boat, such an alternative lifestyle necessitates planning, organization, and the capacity to adapt to change. When you decide to move abroad, develop a list of the things you’ll need and discuss any deal-breakers with your partner. Before you change your lifestyle, get the boat ready for living on board.

Decide if this is what you want

Sailboat living may be a fulfilling and transformative experience. Many people live abroad for adventure, while others do so to live more simply and save money. Whatever your motivation, it’s critical to consider the challenges of living abroad and the trade-offs you’ll need to make.

Living on a sailboat calls for meticulous upkeep, efficient planning, and a genuine desire to lead the lifestyle. If you’re ready to adapt your lifestyle, own fewer goods, and keep up with maintenance, you can live on a sailboat successfully without any prior experience.

Living on a boat full time: the essentials

Space

The amount of living space on different liveaboards is what distinguishes them from one another. For instance, some boats are best suited for a single individual to live aboard, while others are larger and can house small families and couples. Though it comes with an added cost of life, such as the cost of maintaining the vessels, the extra space is generally priceless.

There are fewer cabinets and smaller closets when you go from a 185-square-meter house to a 12-meter yacht. There is also no two-car garage. You’ll need to organize your kitchenware, tools, memories, and clothing in advance. If at all feasible, leave your business gear at the office and your winter clothing in off-boat storage.

Comfort & Connectivity

Make sure the boat has ample ventilation, is dry, and is heated. You’ll have to use a completely different set of cleaners and tools when condensation and mildew become a fact of life.

Plan your connectivity requirements. You’ll need a connectivity solution so you’re not cut off from work, friends, family, and entertainment, whether it’s a dish for TV or high-speed internet access via the marina WiFi.

Maintenance 

Boats, which are large equipment with numerous external elements, always need ongoing maintenance. Failure to follow a proper maintenance schedule might cause small issues to require costly overhauls and repairs. If you live there permanently, poor maintenance could make it difficult to enjoy yourself. You can always call a contractor for every issue though!

Save water and electricity on board

Convenient and clean living on a sailboat depends on conservation. Even though your shore connection provides you with infinite fresh water, your septic tank will eventually fill up. Shorter showers and other water-saving measures might be necessary as a result, which are healthy habits to form everywhere.

The electrical system on your sailboat is also built to function both with and without shore power. With a battery bank, you may eliminate your reliance on shore power by installing solar panels or a wind turbine, both of which are reasonably simple.

Costs of living onboard full-time

It’s frequently vital and helpful to precisely estimate the costs of being a full-time resident aboard a yacht, especially the costs associated with the lifestyle you want. Living on a boat full-time entails paying for electricity, slip fees, Homeowners’ Association (HOA) dues, insurance registration for protection, anchoring and mooring fees, maintenance expenses, and food and water.

The greatest method to control spending is to create and adhere to a budget. Boat insurance may cost the same as home insurance, depending on the size and value of the vessel. Since you won’t be heating, cooling, or lighting as much room, your property taxes and utility costs will often be lower. You’ll probably spend less on petrol, water, and garbage disposal.

How much does it cost to dock a yacht at a marina?

Prices vary widely over the world, but an approximate estimate shows that you may be spending anywhere from 300€ to 3,000€ each month on a 9 to 12-meter sailboat. How near you are to the coast, parking availability, and if facilities are included are just a few of the several advantages that might be taken into account.

The greatest thing you can do is investigate the region where you want to dock, then check around at several marinas to see what prices you should consider.

Safety and Security

You must choose whether to welcome strangers onboard and if children and pets will be secure near the docks. Install CO2 and smoke alarms, and a propane sniffer, inspect fire extinguishers regularly and pay attention to the fundamentals like bilge and battery levels. You could also think of the following:

  • Can you safely make the nighttime trip from the parking lot to the slip?
  • Will your exquisite car be safe outside the garage all the time?
  • Who would you call if your boat begins to list while you’re on vacation?

Best places to live while onboard

Certainly, any location with a lot of water would seem to be a good place for a liveaboard, but what other options may there be? To put it another way, you must choose whether it would be a lake, river, sea, or bay. You may wish everything to be a possibility. If so, you are free to moor the boats anywhere you like. However, the sites listed below are some of the top live-aboard destinations worldwide:

  • Dubai, UAE
  • Miami, USA
  • Gulf of Mexico
  • Argosaronic Gulf, Greece
  • Ionian Islands, Greece
  • Sicily, Italy
  • Mallorca, Spain
  • Lagos, Portugal
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