5 ms·

I've lived on a boat in the Copenhagen harbour for the last four years. I bought it in Holland, and knew absolutely nothing about boats when I started out. My

by mixmax 16y ago

I've lived on a boat in the Copenhagen harbour for the last four years. I bought it in Holland, and knew absolutely nothing about boats when I started out. My thought was that the only regrets you have when you get old are all the things you didn't do. Besides I'm enough of a businessman that I'd be able to sell it without a loss if it didn't work out. So I gave it try. Four years later I'm still here and wouldn't want to live any other way. The boat is paid for so my only expenses are $200 a month in harbour rent and roughly another $200 a month on repairs. Internet isn't a problem since 3G is everywhere now - I can surf hacker news while at anchor somewhere off the coast of Sweden. The upsides are pretty obvious: A gret free lifestyle, beautiful views, ducks right outside your window and the ability to go anywhere you want (within limits...) The downsides are that it's cold in the winter, you don't have a lot of space, and you need to become a bit of a handyman. I've bought powertools I didn't know existed five years ago. But overall it can only be recommended. Oh, and drop me a line if you're ever in Copenhagen I'll take you for a trip through the harbour, it's beautiful just before the sun sets.

cageface 16y ago
How do you deal with passports, customs, borders etc? Can you just sail into the port of a new country or do you have to pass through some kind of registration or security each time?
- mixmax 16y ago
  I'm in the European Union where you're free to travel from one country to another as you like, so it isn't a problem. Theoretically I could be borded by a customs boat, but I've never had it happen and suspect it's quite rare. I'm not sure how it would work if I went to a country with stricter control of their borders. You'd do well to keep your VHF radio open on channel 16 though(this is where boats communicate with each other when at sea). I've had customs call med up when passing the border from the Netherlands to Germany to hear who I was and where I was going. Once they got a satisfactory answer we never heard from them again.
- adambyrtek 16y ago
  This is quite simple. Every time you sail into a new country you have to approach one of the ports of entry[1]. This has to be the first place you visit and there you can arrange all the formalities (customs, immigration, health, depends on a country). Afterwards you are usually free to visit any other harbour in a given country. Rinse and repeat for each country that you visit. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Port_of_entry http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Port_of_entry
faramarz 16y ago
That's amazing! I have a client who runs an acting studio (also an actor himself) and he lives on his boat for most of the year, docked at harbour-front right in Downtown, Toronto. He tells me the harbour rental is one of best kept secrets. He only pays $100/mnth (a 1bdr studio in the area would go for $2100/mth) and lives in a beautiful yacht, with a master room and guest space, just minutes away from the downtown core and all the essentials. It's the kind of free-spirited lifestyle i'd like to live in the near future. My question is, how do you deal with icy water? don't you have to pull out the boat when ice starts to form? In Toronto you could pretty much skate out on the lake in winter.
- EGreg 16y ago
  Sure, the harbor's cheap ($200/month) say but what about the Yacht itself? Probably costs more to rent than the apartment!!!! No?
  - mixmax 16y ago
    I paid $40.000 for the boat and spent around $15.000 on repairs and upgrades. If you take a loan you're going to pay around $800 a month. In my part of the world that's pretty cheap. Might be expensive elsewhere though.
    - EGreg 16y ago
      What part of the world is this? How big is the boat, and where did you find it so cheap? I see yachts selling for over $500k... I am seriously considering this. Can you please point me to some links? I am in NYC. Maybe I can buy a yacht somewhere else and sail it to NYC?
      - mixmax 16y ago
        Do you have an e-mail? I'll mail you some links.
- mixmax 16y ago
  If your boat is in good shape and you're in a harbour it's not a problem. If you're not protected from the open sea by a bulwark of some kind the ice might drift towards land powered by wind and put a lot of pressure on a boat or whatever else is in the way. This will only happen if you're moored somewhere you shouldn't be though. Basically what happens is that your boat just gets stuck in the ice and moves with the ebb and flow of the water. The only problem you have is that you can't go anywhere until the ice breaks up. Last winter I got stuck in the ice somewhere in the Copenhagen harbour a few miles from my homeport and ended up staying there for almost three months. Here's a picture: http://tinypic.com/view.php?pic=oa2m2b&s=7 http://tinypic.com/view.php?pic=oa2m2b&s=7
rgrieselhuber 16y ago
Sounds dreamy. I'd love to see some pics of your boat and / or the view.
poet 16y ago
What kind of boat do you own? I couldn't find it in your comment history. Given the choice would you still buy that particular boat today or would it be something else?
- mixmax 16y ago
  A dutch built steel canal boat. There's a link to a picture elsewhere in the thread. Covered in ice... Overall I'm happy and would buy the same kind of boat again. The Dutch build excellent boats and have for centuries. The only thing that bothers me is that since it's a canal boat it has very low draft (0.8 meters) and almost no keel which is great if you're sailing in canals that aren't very deep, but makes for a pretty rocky ride once you hit some real waves. I'd never buy a wooden boat, and I wouldn't recommend it to anyone that doesn't work professionally with wood.
  - brc 16y ago
    Fun fact : for years Richard Branson lived on, and conducted business from, a canal boat moored in Maida Vale in the middle of London. I'm not sure if it ever moved or was permanently moored.
hristov 16y ago
How do you use the bathroom? I heard that although boats have bathrooms, you cannot use them while in harbor because they essentially dump the waste in the water. How do you shower?
- mixmax 16y ago
  Most bigger boats have a holding tank for grey water and a water tank for fresh water. When you shower you use the fresh water and dump it into the harbour, it's not that dirty just because you've showered. When you go to the toilet you use saltwater to flush and flush it into the greywater tank, which you can then empty either by having it sucked out (All European ports are required by law to have equipment for doing so, though many don't) or dump it into the ocean once you're more than 12 miles off the coast. Simple :-)
  - riffraff 16y ago
    but if you shower and dump it in the harbour aren't you basically dumping chemicals straight into it (shampoo, soap, conditioner)? Not that I think it's a big deal, I just thought rules were stricter.
    - balu 16y ago
      Not a big deal? I actually was a bit scared when reading that. Sure, one person doesn't make the game, but a harbour is full of ships.
- deleted 16y ago
  [deleted]
Luc 16y ago
If I recall there was some mention of you possibly writing an how-to style eBook about your experience?
- mixmax 16y ago
  You're right - the memory of HN is excellent :-) I've kind of shelved it for now since I'm pretty busy doing other things, but I hope that I'll have time to do it within the next year sometime. I don't think it's a great way of making money though, so it's not a top priority. More like a hobby project.
mduvall 16y ago
What about pirates and criminals at sea? (seriously.)
- mixmax 16y ago
  Well in Danish territorial waters I'm probably as close as you'll get to a pirate :-)
- rmc 16y ago
  The poster is in the European area. Very few pirates in that part of the world.
etherael 16y ago
Would you happen to know a list of places where it's practical to rent out semi permanent harbour space, either just in the EU or (preferably) all around the world? I imagine in your planning of your current situation it's possible you compiled such a list? Have always wanted to do this.
rmc 16y ago
The downsides are that it's cold in the winter Can you not sail south for winter to the Medditterranian? South of France or Italy would be a nice warm place to overwinter.

by mixmax 16y ago

cageface 16y ago

How do you deal with passports, customs, borders etc? Can you just sail into the port of a new country or do you have to pass through some kind of registration or security each time?

mixmax 16y ago
I'm in the European Union where you're free to travel from one country to another as you like, so it isn't a problem. Theoretically I could be borded by a customs boat, but I've never had it happen and suspect it's quite rare. I'm not sure how it would work if I went to a country with stricter control of their borders. You'd do well to keep your VHF radio open on channel 16 though(this is where boats communicate with each other when at sea). I've had customs call med up when passing the border from the Netherlands to Germany to hear who I was and where I was going. Once they got a satisfactory answer we never heard from them again.
adambyrtek 16y ago
This is quite simple. Every time you sail into a new country you have to approach one of the ports of entry[1]. This has to be the first place you visit and there you can arrange all the formalities (customs, immigration, health, depends on a country). Afterwards you are usually free to visit any other harbour in a given country. Rinse and repeat for each country that you visit. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Port_of_entry http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Port_of_entry

faramarz 16y ago

That's amazing! I have a client who runs an acting studio (also an actor himself) and he lives on his boat for most of the year, docked at harbour-front right in Downtown, Toronto. He tells me the harbour rental is one of best kept secrets. He only pays $100/mnth (a 1bdr studio in the area would go for $2100/mth) and lives in a beautiful yacht, with a master room and guest space, just minutes away from the downtown core and all the essentials. It's the kind of free-spirited lifestyle i'd like to live in the near future. My question is, how do you deal with icy water? don't you have to pull out the boat when ice starts to form? In Toronto you could pretty much skate out on the lake in winter.

EGreg 16y ago
Sure, the harbor's cheap ($200/month) say but what about the Yacht itself? Probably costs more to rent than the apartment!!!! No?
- mixmax 16y ago
  I paid $40.000 for the boat and spent around $15.000 on repairs and upgrades. If you take a loan you're going to pay around $800 a month. In my part of the world that's pretty cheap. Might be expensive elsewhere though.
  - EGreg 16y ago
    What part of the world is this? How big is the boat, and where did you find it so cheap? I see yachts selling for over $500k... I am seriously considering this. Can you please point me to some links? I am in NYC. Maybe I can buy a yacht somewhere else and sail it to NYC?
    - mixmax 16y ago
      Do you have an e-mail? I'll mail you some links.
mixmax 16y ago
If your boat is in good shape and you're in a harbour it's not a problem. If you're not protected from the open sea by a bulwark of some kind the ice might drift towards land powered by wind and put a lot of pressure on a boat or whatever else is in the way. This will only happen if you're moored somewhere you shouldn't be though. Basically what happens is that your boat just gets stuck in the ice and moves with the ebb and flow of the water. The only problem you have is that you can't go anywhere until the ice breaks up. Last winter I got stuck in the ice somewhere in the Copenhagen harbour a few miles from my homeport and ended up staying there for almost three months. Here's a picture: http://tinypic.com/view.php?pic=oa2m2b&s=7 http://tinypic.com/view.php?pic=oa2m2b&s=7

rgrieselhuber 16y ago

Sounds dreamy. I'd love to see some pics of your boat and / or the view.

poet 16y ago

What kind of boat do you own? I couldn't find it in your comment history. Given the choice would you still buy that particular boat today or would it be something else?

mixmax 16y ago
A dutch built steel canal boat. There's a link to a picture elsewhere in the thread. Covered in ice... Overall I'm happy and would buy the same kind of boat again. The Dutch build excellent boats and have for centuries. The only thing that bothers me is that since it's a canal boat it has very low draft (0.8 meters) and almost no keel which is great if you're sailing in canals that aren't very deep, but makes for a pretty rocky ride once you hit some real waves. I'd never buy a wooden boat, and I wouldn't recommend it to anyone that doesn't work professionally with wood.
- brc 16y ago
  Fun fact : for years Richard Branson lived on, and conducted business from, a canal boat moored in Maida Vale in the middle of London. I'm not sure if it ever moved or was permanently moored.

hristov 16y ago

How do you use the bathroom? I heard that although boats have bathrooms, you cannot use them while in harbor because they essentially dump the waste in the water. How do you shower?

mixmax 16y ago
Most bigger boats have a holding tank for grey water and a water tank for fresh water. When you shower you use the fresh water and dump it into the harbour, it's not that dirty just because you've showered. When you go to the toilet you use saltwater to flush and flush it into the greywater tank, which you can then empty either by having it sucked out (All European ports are required by law to have equipment for doing so, though many don't) or dump it into the ocean once you're more than 12 miles off the coast. Simple :-)
- riffraff 16y ago
  but if you shower and dump it in the harbour aren't you basically dumping chemicals straight into it (shampoo, soap, conditioner)? Not that I think it's a big deal, I just thought rules were stricter.
  - balu 16y ago
    Not a big deal? I actually was a bit scared when reading that. Sure, one person doesn't make the game, but a harbour is full of ships.
deleted 16y ago
[deleted]

Luc 16y ago

If I recall there was some mention of you possibly writing an how-to style eBook about your experience?

mixmax 16y ago
You're right - the memory of HN is excellent :-) I've kind of shelved it for now since I'm pretty busy doing other things, but I hope that I'll have time to do it within the next year sometime. I don't think it's a great way of making money though, so it's not a top priority. More like a hobby project.

mduvall 16y ago

What about pirates and criminals at sea? (seriously.)

mixmax 16y ago
Well in Danish territorial waters I'm probably as close as you'll get to a pirate :-)
rmc 16y ago
The poster is in the European area. Very few pirates in that part of the world.

etherael 16y ago

Would you happen to know a list of places where it's practical to rent out semi permanent harbour space, either just in the EU or (preferably) all around the world? I imagine in your planning of your current situation it's possible you compiled such a list? Have always wanted to do this.

rmc 16y ago

The downsides are that it's cold in the winter Can you not sail south for winter to the Medditterranian? South of France or Italy would be a nice warm place to overwinter.