Living on a sailboat: all what you need to know

▌Twenty Eight Feet: life on a little wooden boat, by Kevin A. Fraser

DAVID WELSDORF LIVES ON THE LIZZY BELLE, a small 28-foot wooden sailboat that he rescued from scrap seven years ago. Despite the cramped quarters, both physically and financially, he insists he enjoys luxuries like taking a swim in the sea without leaving home. “For me, the most important thing is having a space that makes me feel good, and this one has so much character and history, what more could I ask for?”

“One of the most exciting moments of my life,” he continues in this short documentary, “was when I set off for Puerto Rico. I couldn’t believe that after two years I was finally making my first solo voyage to the Caribbean. I think I’ll remember that moment for the rest of my life.”

And who hasn’t dreamed of living on a sailboat at some point? David Welsford’s story sounds cathartic and incredibly liberating, and that’s true in many ways. But it’s important not to get carried away by romanticism. Beyond its spiritual benefits, life in the limited space of a boat can be a constant challenge—not for everyone. Two people might see it like this:

Person #1: The advantages of living on a sailboat include freedom, the gentle rocking that lulls you to sleep, being in touch with nature, the ability to leave civilization behind at any moment, and the wonderful neighbors at the dock.

Person #2: The disadvantages include the lack of freedom, the annoying rocking that keeps you awake, exposure to the elements, distance from civilization and basic services, and those awful dockside neighbors.

• Learn more: Reasons not to buy a boat

Moral: It’s a matter of perspective. Since everyone must judge for themselves, this post doesn’t aim to convince or dissuade anyone. We’ll simply point out what to consider if you choose to live on a sailboat and warn that this lifestyle does have its costs.

It is not wise to buy a sailboat in a hurry

Choosing the Right Sailboat for Living Aboard

First things first: we need a boat. Finding the right one takes time (months or even years) and patience. It’s not wise to rush into buying a sailboat without properly understanding what you need and what you don’t.

For this, we recommend reading the entries linked at the end of this post. They cover essential aspects in detail that we won’t revisit here, such as the dangers of romanticizing boat life, the type of sailboat that suits you best, and how much you’ll need to budget.

The Ideal Sailboat for Living

One of the biggest drawbacks of living on a sailboat is the lack of space—even on a larger one. There’s no attic, no basement, no walk-in closet, no storage room.

As we’ve discussed in other posts, the cost of maintenance increases exponentially with the size of the boat. If you’re on a tight budget and fear that a large boat will drown you financially, but you don’t want to feel trapped in a matchbox either, you’ll need to strike a balance between:

1. Buying the smallest boat that meets your needs.
2. Buying the largest boat you can truly afford, where each occupant has enough space to settle comfortably, with room for everything: a place to clean up, a reasonably usable kitchen, a socializing space, somewhere to stretch out and read, a bed to sleep in, a nook for guests, and enough storage. Ideally, your belongings should be stowed neatly and never block access to vital elements like seacocks.

We’ve dedicated an entire post to how to choose the best sailboat for living aboard, but here’s a preview: to enjoy minimal comfort and avoid sharing your bed with gear bags or constantly shuffling things around, your liveaboard sailboat shouldn’t stray far from 33 feet in length. It’s not much, but it gives you somewhere to be. For example, check out this video, where a couple showcases their Plastilupi Half Cast 30, a boat just over 9 meters.

Once the initial enthusiasm has passed, someone may discover that life on board is not for them.

Sailboats and Life as a Couple

However, sometimes the space you need isn’t so much physical as it is psychological.

Living with your partner on a sailboat may sound romantic, but such a space offers no escape when it’s healthy to take a break from each other. It’s not uncommon for lack of space to cause tension.

We’re quoting ourselves here from another blog post: “When you live in the tight quarters of a boat, everything is magnified. So if your relationship has issues, they can get out of hand and become unbearable. That’s why, if you’re going to live on a boat with your partner, it’s important that both of you are sure you want this kind of life and that neither of you drags the other into an adventure they’re not cut out for.” (Especially, we now add, if you need both incomes to cover the costs).

Once the initial excitement wears off, someone might realize that life on board isn’t for them. The result could be a boat for sale—or a new solo sailor on the seas.

Some people fill their boats so much that they become floating containers.

Living with the Bare Minimum

Imagine you have 24 hours to pack up and leave your home, taking only the essentials. What would you bring? The following might be an improvised and somewhat silly list of things we consider vital, regardless of their size or weight:

• Washing machine
• Refrigerator
• Dishwasher
• Coffee maker
• TV
• Computer and accessories
• Kitchen utensils
• Clothes
• Bicycle
• Photography equipment
• Sports and travel gea
• rMusical instruments
• Books
• Etc.

Now think about what it means not to have some of these things. Are you willing to go to the laundromat periodically or wash clothes by hand if there’s no space for a washer? Where will you hang your laundry? Would you change your eating habits because you can’t cook as you usually do? And what about your appearance? There’s not much room for a wardrobe on a boat, so practicality will take priority over fashion—lots of T-shirts, shorts, and sneakers. In winter, the less bulky clothing, the better.

Some people fill their boats so much they turn them into floating containers. The result: it’s hard to navigate, and the essential appeal of this lifestyle is lost. The common advice is that if something new comes aboard, something old must go.

Many people resign themselves to living with certain imperfections

The Difference Between Liveaboards and Full-Time Cruisers

This aspect of sailing marks the key difference between full-time cruisers and people who simply live on a boat. The sailing program for many liveaboards is to never sail, whether due to work or family obligations that keep them in port, lack of money or interest in setting sail, or because they’ve been pushed into a seemingly cheaper floating life, hoping to earn extra income through under-the-radar charters. We can’t say what percentage this is, but it wouldn’t be surprising if the majority of liveaboards fall into this category.

Maintaining a Sailboat

Unless we can afford to have others take care of our boat, this lifestyle isn’t just about lounging on deck with a cocktail (though there’s that, too).

To make things work, we’ll need to find joy in certain maintenance tasks without letting the sum of small (and big!) problems consume us. Remember this: on a boat, there’s always something that needs doing.

Additionally, a boat isn’t the best place to stay when working on repairs. If you need to drill a hole for pipes or cables, your home will be a chaotic mess in an instant. And depending on the work, you’re better off not staying there overnight—nobody wants to inhale fiberglass particles. So, what do you do? Crash on a friend’s couch, head back to your parents’ place for a few days, or find a decent hotel… or maybe a cheap hostel, since, well…

None of this is terrible, and it can happen even if you don’t live on a boat, but it’s not the sort of thing you brag about on Instagram.

The difficulty of fixing certain problems (like hauling the boat out of the water) means many people resign themselves to living with issues or just slap a patch on them. If you’re buying a used boat that’s been lived in, keep this in mind.

We’ll tell you a secret: boats move in a humid environment

Cleaning

If you are a neat freak, a feng shui lover or a fan of those YouTube videos that teach you how to fold clothes neatly, it’s better not to buy a boat: it gets dirty quickly, there’s no room to keep things tidy and it attracts all kinds of stowaways: cockroaches, flies, mosquitoes and even rats.

Then, when you’re travelling, you’ll have to ration water even if you have a desalinator, which is unlikely because they cost a fortune. Water rationing will also affect your personal hygiene, the icing on the cake for your troubled relationship, right?

And then there’s mould. We’ll tell you a secret: boats move in a humid environment. When they don’t have adequate ventilation, the humidity of the warm daytime air condenses at night and mould can appear and, among other effects, ruin your books or clothes.

Watch this video from 10:20 to 12:20.

• Learn more: Humidity on the boat: how to fight against it

How much does it cost to live on a sailboat

Apart from those owners who are dedicated to charter (legal or covert), for whom their boat is, in addition to their home, their business, and who have boats that they might not be able to afford if they wanted them for their own use, the most common thing is that we find single people free of burdens, couples with their lives sorted out (or simply on track), well-off people…

In short: you need some money. There are those who underestimate the cost of living on a sailboat, as if it were limited to the price of the mooring, supplies and little else. It would be wonderful. The numbers would add up quickly: we negotiate the purchase of a 10-meter boat for $25,000, we pay $300 per month for the mooring, and now we have a house, problem solved! Well: that is not the case, at least if we want a boat in seaworthy condition.