Living Aboard a Boat

There is a bit of a rebirth going on when it comes to living aboard. Yesterday I gave an interview to the LA Times Deputy Real Estate Editor and we are going to shoot some pics tomorrow for an upcoming edition of the paper. How about that? The LA Times putting living aboard back into the real estate section where it belongs.

I am working on a collection of projects to try to get a handle on the number of live aboards and live aboard marinas, as well as an idea of the trends. But I have a sense. Living aboard is still under fire from some local governments ang agencies trying to demonstrate a plan to fight vagrancy and pollution, and to clean up their waterfronts. 

The popularity of the lifestyle, however, as well as how permissive the marinas, are cyclical.  And it really does come down to money.  If a marina has a waiting list years long for its slips, it will choose the nicest boats rather than the nicest boaters.  And we’re all pretty nice, but we don’t always have those million dollar boats.  But when the number of boaters decrease, and the demand decreases, all of a sudden those self-imposed restrictions will vanish.

In many areas, living aboard is very much coming back in vogue. How do I know this? Well for one thing, the book is continuing to do well. Interest is out there. With real estate prices down and real estate less secure there is less of a desire to buy land at all cost (literally and figuratively). And local governments seem to be more understanding of the lifestyle. We are going to be putting together a list of these rules and issues over the coming months. In the meantime, I will do my best to provide you with updated news on the liveaboard community and issues that effect the every day liveaboard.

In the meantime, be sure to check out Chris Caswell’s article on liveaboards that seem to have things figured out.

Gentle breezes,

Mark

Learning to Live Aboard
Full-time living on board a boat can be mastered. by Chris Caswell
boats.com - Feature: Learning to Live Aboard

Welcome to the Essentials of Living Aboard a Boat, hosted by me, author and liveaboard Mark Nicholas. This four part series will highlight issues associated with living aboard, as well as choosing a boat as well as a marina. I hope you find this helpful. Remember, be sure to check out www.livingaboard.net for some great information, including the book: The Essentials of Living Aboard a Boat.

 

 Living Aboard 1: Introduction [5:16m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

EJ and Florrie’s website, The Casual Sailor made me laugh. Here’s an excerpt. He’s got a point!

The Liveaboard Department

2. Something of a “bum” mentality. The relaxed lifestyle of the layabout starts to become appealing when you live aboard. After a while, it doesn’t get to be too important that you dress in the height of fashion. In warmer places like Texas, it’s possible to live most of your life with two pairs of sandals, two t-shirts, and two pairs of shorts, together with a modicum of underwear. I’ve got so used to this manana philosophy that it’s beginning to be something of a shock when I have to dress up to go into Houston.

Here is a great article on living aboard by The MacNaughton Group. Click on the link for the full article.

Click: Living Aboard for the article.  Here is an excerpt:

Our feeling is that an appreciation of Nature and one’s place in it should be the primary reason to adopt the live aboard lifestyle. Closely allied to this is the live aboard’s primary learned wisdom.

How fun!  Finally, the multimedia works on the new version of the website, including the fancy video of me making an introduction.  There are some great educational videos (at least I hope that they’re great), a new look and feel, and my hope that the site is finally starting to provide some good information to people who are interested in life aboard.  Be sure to check it out!  It is still right where the old site lived, at: http://www.livingaboard.net/.

How cool.  Rob at Flashking did the design and I’m really proud of what he came up with.  Stay tuned!