PeachParts Mercedes-Benz Forum - View Single Post

crash9 · #13 10-31-2006, 10:39 AM

If your right for it you'll love it, but having lived aboard in LA for 5 yrs I'd throw out a few things to consider.
1)As you turn the boat more into a living quarters you'll take it out a lot less. Just to much clutter and stuff to put away. Being at the docks all the time you'll have plenty of opportunity to pick up on deals and if your really into going out a lot you'll wind up with more than one boat.
2)This is like camping out and you can't get away from thinking of it that way. You can set a storage locker up as a large walk in closet type of thing. Even if you can get a good size locker at the docks you'll want a second larger one at a public storage place.
3)Have a full boat cover made – unless your a duck.
4)Most people would be a lot more comfortable on a older, larger Chirs Connie or the like, than living in a cigar tube, but it's a lifestyle thing. A very few types can be at values that will not wind up costing you that much. We lived on an L-40 Lapworth (wooden Cal 40) and I'd have found a Yankee 30 no less confined. Some of the older Columbia's are huge inside, but aren't very desirable otherwise. An older Cal-40 will always hold it's value. That's the era you want to look for as they can be found pretty cheap and then your just paying the boat instead of the bank. I think this may be a good way to sit out the RE mess up in the Bay area, but this is not a way to make any money. You'll save by not being able to accumulate a lot of crap and that is a good idea when your young. As newly weds who'd given everything to our ex's we were in about the same spot just a lot older.
5)I don't know what the Bay area is like for living aboard, but in LA the best liveaboard marinas are in the pits. A place like Marina del Rey is like living in a fishbowl. Spend a lot of time researching marinas
Bottom line is it just isn't for most people, but for those that it is – it's great.