6 ms·
At ~$100k, a 40-foot sailboat seems like a reasonably affordable option for housing in SF.
by Varcht 10y ago
At ~$100k, a 40-foot sailboat seems like a reasonably affordable option for housing in SF.
- ska 10y agoBoat (N): 1.) ... ... 5). An odd shaped hole in the water you throw money into.
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- fiatmoney 10y agoDocking fees & maintenance are what get you.
- weisser 10y agoBOAT = bring out another thousand. Source: I owned a 25 foot sailboat.
- mikeyouse 10y agoSimilar sentiment, but the old saying goes something like: "The two best days of boat ownership are the day you buy it and the day you sell it."
- narrator 10y agoFrom watching various youtube channels made by people sailing around the world, such as the excellent S/V Delos channel, I've learned that if you want to be a sailor you have to really enjoy boat maintenance. If you're one of those people who would fix crap on a boat and do small engine maintenance for fun in your spare time and even go down to the local machine shop and learn how to custom make parts just cause you liked it -- if hauling your boat out of the water to sand it and paint it while wearing protective gear makes you feel proud -- then sailing is definitely for you.
- thomasjudge 10y agoWell, maybe, though round-the-world sailors and daysailors are kinda apples & oranges. The hours-spent-having-a-blast to hours-of-maintenance ratio on something like a Hobie 16 beach catamaran is ridiculously high
- seanp2k2 10y agoYep, it really depends. If you get something old and made of wood, you're probably signing up for a lot of maintenance or a heap. There are plenty of heaps at marinas if you go look. The alternative is to get a boat guy, which is also expensive. The other other alternative is to join a sailing club which collectively maintains the vessels. There are plenty in the Bay Area if you look :)
- sliverstorm 10y agoSo what you're saying is, based on what he actually spends his time doing, "sailor" is basically a euphemism for "boat repairman"
- 10y ago
- Spooky23 10y ago"It's a trap!" There is nothing about a boat that saves money, ever. It's an incredibly rewarding hobby if you're into it, but not cheap!
- abduhl 10y ago"If it flies, floats, or fucks you should rent it" is the common advice passed around by jaded and wealthy divorced men that I know.
- biztos 10y agoI am in no position to dispute this, but I have a friend who has lived on a sailboat in the Bay Area for many years now, and for him it was a way to get out of the apartment-renting game much, much earlier than he ever could have afforded to buy a place on land. If he had done the same thing in a saner real-estate market then maybe by now his sailboat habit would have cost him as much as a flat would have, only later. But in the SF Bay I'm pretty sure he never would have caught up, and this way he's the lord & master & captain of his own tiny domain.
- walrus01 10y agoYou are only "lord and master of your own domain" to a limited extent if you're paying $700/month moorage... You've just exchanged high rent for an apartment for renting a moorage space. There are very few marinas organized on a condominium or coop share ownership model.
- walrus01 10y agosaltwater is cancer for boats. basically a hole in the water you throw money into that will always be rapidly subject to accelerated entropy due to salt water.
- justinlardinois 10y agoThere are a number of dock slip owners in San Francisco who have a boat parked there that they rent out as a living space. It's far from luxurious, but I've heard of rents as low as $100/month.
- antongm 10y agoI paid more, but yeah...it can work out.
- antongm 10y agoThat's right. If you can pony up the cash, and maintain the boat (read: elbow grease) it's not a bad choice. But you have to love the boat, and the sea.
- jf 10y agoDo you have to love fixing engines while surrounded by bilge water?
- megablast 10y agoIt is a sail boat that you want. Not much engine fixing.
- seanp2k2 10y agoInboard maintenance in cramped quarters ankle-deep in oily bilge muck is not a joke. Any sailboat big enough to live aboard is going to have an engine of some sort. Outboards are probably the least bad if you can make that work and not drop it into the sea, but most have inboards which require some degree of maintenance.
- antongm 10y agoKind of, yes.