Liveaboard Boats for Sale
So you have decided to start looking at liveaboard boats for sale, but what exactly are you looking for? Have you done a rigorous and detailed cost analysis and all the arithmetic and sums. Have you made a realistic budget? Do you have a timeline in mind? Have you made a plan to move aboard and started a plan to terminate your shoreside accommodation? Many people don’t have a real plan where they have properly scoped out what is required. There are many issues and factors to consider. In most cases many significantly underestimate the scope of work required, the cost of doing the upgrade and an actual ability to do it.
There are three or four routes to getting a boat and living aboard. You can buy a boat that requires little to no work and is ready to move onto and start living. Unfortunately, these are relatively rare and just because someone else’s cruising dream is about to end after some years voyaging doesn’t mean many things require replacing. You can buy something cheaper that requires a substantial refit and you can possibly live aboard while you do that, been there and done that and just finished doing that again. Or you can take the slow route and decide to build from scratch or alternatively purchase some other persons unfinished project and try and complete it, been there and done that and never again. That is for the brave, and also for those with unlimited time, budget and the required skill sets.
Liveaboard boats for sale - the ready to liveaboard
route
This is for the fortunate people who have a budget that allows purchase of a new boat or one that is in great condition. Personally, I would love a new Hallberg-Rassy 34 or perhaps a HR 40C with center cockpit, and there are so many other great boats that suit good cruising and liveaboard capability. If you can go this route more power to you, and can do so without finance even better. For most of mere mortals we have to look at other opinions. If you can buy at the factory you can cruise your way home for a few years as many do. To help you do it yourself look at the latest 4th Edition of my book The Marine Electrical and Electronics Bible.
Ready to liveaboard but
needs work route
I have been this route twice, and I knowingly bought my current boat with knowing there was a lot to fix up. Of course the surveyor was a little incompetent and missed many major defects which I did not, having professionally been involved in commercial ship surveying. The previous owner was somewhat deceitful and failed to disclose lots of latent or hidden defects which cost more than planned for as each was discovered and should have bene disclosed for simple safety reasons. My current boat is a 36 foot Westerly Conway ketch, built in 1978 and very strong hand laid up FRP/GRP hull with Lloyds hull certificate. It has done 2 circumnavigations and the hull in good condition with some minor defects. A proven design with some 350 of them afloat around the world. I chose a 36 foot ketch as that is ideal for 2 people and easy to handle and having had a ketch previously I liked the sail plan options. The bigger you go the more expensive everything gets, and this reminded me of the common rule of thumb adage called the 5 foot rule, which is for every 5 feet in boat length the price doubles. There were issues, such as very old standing rigging, and the rig was uninsurable as a result. I pulled the masts and had them surveyed, all surprisingly good and I installed new standing and running rigging, along with new wind instruments and VHF and AIS antenna, radar, navigation lights and so on, as I don’t want to be climbing the mast later. It is cost efficient to do this. It wasn’t all plain sailing though, the furler was condemned, it was more 20 years old and the bearings had almost collapsed. I took the opportunity to add in a dyneema removable inner forestay for the as new unused storm sail that came with the boat. Extra expense was incurred as the booms had extensive corrosion at the gooseneck end and had to be replaced. The sails were in pretty good condition and required some minor maintenance only. I did decide to change to a loose foot main with new North sails. Read more about getting afloat and living aboard here.
Liveaboard boats for sale - Ready to Depart
Two years later and I am ready to sail away, well almost as that worklist always has something on it. Fortunately the engine had been upgraded 20 years ago and only had 300 hours on it so only minor issues with that. The electrical system required complete rewiring and was a disaster, supposedly by a professional. I stripped it all out and started again from scratch. The water systems were also a mess and requires replacement so again at the same time stripped it out and started again. The gas water heater was deemed illegal and had to come out, carbon monoxide poisoning just waiting to pounce. That brought on hot water challenges and more about that later. The upholstery was all renewed and the foam backed linings had crumbled and were stripped out. The headliners were also the same and new marine ply ones were made and recovered. There were many other issues of course and being addressed as they are uncovered, hidden faults is the curse of boating. The battery and charging issue was a major one, the batteries were all incorrect tight, hot to touch when charging and had to be replaced with the correct types. More about that and you can read about that in my book The Marine Electrical and Electronics Bible, 4th Edition. Ketches are problematical in that stern arches are hard to install due to the overhanging mizzen boom. I have a wind generator and also a hydrogenerator on the stern. More on that later. The upshot though is that I am now sailing again. I went full on to get all the major issues resolved quickly so as not to get stuck in the rut that many do when faced with a large range of problems to fix up. See this page for a summary of items on my boat that hold true for all boats. Liveaboard boats for Sale, don't let the dream turn into a nightmare.