No this is not clickbait, this is a genuine discussion on why you shouldn't
buy a boat. And it's come about through two recent episodes from friends of ours,
one of whom got in touch. He'd read our e-book which we put together, two e-books
recently (if you missed it links below) on "How to Become a Liveaboard" and "How to
Buy a Boat". And he said they were great, but he warned us that we've got to be
careful not to lead people into a false sense of security, in that buying and
owning and living on a boat is straightforward. He had run into a number
of issues himself, and ended up paying a lot of money with a broken engine. And
we've just heard recently, two friends of ours have recently just sold their boat
and have quit this live aboard life. It was really down to the amount of money, time
and effort that they were spending on their boat. And it got me thinking,
got us thinking, didn't it? Yeah, there're a lot of people in that situation.
Yes, so we need to be realistic about it as well. So we're gonna be warning you, aren't we?
So here are the five reasons we've put together for why you shouldn't buy a boat.
So, first reason not to buy a boat... They go wrong... all the time! Yeah they do, they need
constant maintenance. Every day, every week, every month, every year you will be
spending a great deal of your time working on bits of the boat, won't you?
And although we were warned about this before we started our sailing career.
We had no idea how much time was gonna be taken up by maintenance and fixing things.
And quite a lot of that time eats into your dream, so just be prepared!
You cannot know the amount of maintenance that's gonna be up there.
Unless you really love tinkering around in a workshop, be prepared!
Yeah well there's, so many things aren't there? I mean, just look at the boat.
You've got the rigging, you've got the sails, you've got the engine, you've got
the deck. Then there's everything below. There's plumbing, there's the electrics...
All of those things you've got to stay on top of. And you know we've said it
before, I'm no mechanic. So I've had to learn the hard way how to do basic diesel
engine maintenance. You have to do it because you know there'll be times when
you're out there, and there is no one else to fix anything but yourself,
so you've really got to stay on top of all those things. Yeah, you have you got to
become a mechanic, a plumber an electrician, You've got to be prepared,
if you don't already know about those things, to learn about them. And we mean
really you have to learn about them. So unless you are very, very rich and can
afford someone to always do all your maintenance and check things for you, and
service everything, and do all the repairs - you're gonna have to do it yourself.
But even if you are very rich things go wrong out there, they go wrong
out at sea. Engine stops, sails break, you will need to know what to do. You must be
prepared to do that. Are you prepared to do that, are you prepared to take on all these new skills?
Boats kill relationships.
Yeah, definitely.
When you're living in the small confines of a boat everything is magnified. So if there
are underlying problems in your relationship,
they will come to the fore, believe me, when you are
spending 24/7 with each other.
Yeah, and the other thing to remember is when you
start this life is you both have to be a hundred percent committed. It's no good
if one of you is dragging the other into this life, because those cracks appear
pretty quickly, and there are boats all over the world that were owned by
couples who gave it all up.
Yeah and we've seen many boats for sale, haven't we,
because of this. You know, couples have split up, and sadly they've had to sell the dream.
Yeah, there are a lot of solo sailors out there who weren't original solo sailors.
So think very hard and clearly about your relationship.
Will it withstand 24/7, small space? Any cracks that are in it now, try and repair them.
Boats are never clean.
If "cleanliness is next to godliness", if that is your motto
don't buy a boat.
It's like living in a house with the doors... all the doors and
all the windows and the roof lights - everything open 24/7. Because you have dust,
and anything that happens to be hanging around in the air, inside your
boat immediately. And not only dirt and dust, you get unwanted visitors!
We have been fighting a battle against cockroaches ever since we left the
Mediterranean. Sometimes I win; sometimes I lose. You get ants, you get
mosquitoes, you get all kinds of things. And worse than that, you can get rats as well!
So be prepared for your lovely clean home to be invaded at all times, and for
it not to be a lovely clean home. Unless you're one of these types that loves
cleaning all day and all night!
And going back to all of those things that you've
got to be on the boat - in the mechanic, the engineer, the plumber, the electrician.
Whilst you're doing all that work, your tools are going to be left everywhere.
Liz absolutely hates this, she gets so wound up by it.
Of course she forgets that I'm doing all the maintenance.
Not quite all the maintenance!
I do do the plumbing, but I put my stuff away when I finish. It's all over the
bloody boat all the time, it drives me up the wall.
Because you've only got this much space to live in. So yeah it's gonna be a quite a
culture shock when you realize just how dirty a boat can get.
Boats will change the way you look.
Yep, you don't have much space on a boat.
And your wardrobe will be compromised, so you will have to pare down all your
fancy clothes to a very small, little space.
It was heart-rendering when I had to reduce my enormous wardrobe in order to
move onto this boat. But I had to think very carefully about functionality over
beauty. So out went all the pretty dresses and the high heels, and I now
pretty much wear what you're seeing, which is shorts and t-shirts, all the
time. So my wardrobe, or my little tiny locker,
is filled with those things.
In a cold climate you're gonna have bigger things,
bulkier things. And so you have even fewer of those because there is so little
room on a boat to keep stuff.
Don't forget that when you're on a boat you
are rationing your water. Even if you have a water-maker pretty much every
boat will always be keeping an eye on how much water you are using throughout
the day and the week. So that of course means that washing clothes can really
drain your water resources. But also washing yourself as well. So I think we'll
be the first to admit we tend to wash... slightly... not as much as we should do.
And that's because we have to keep an eye on water. Yeah, cruisers are notorious for
being grubby. You wear the same thing for several days, and you don't wash for
several days, but we get used to it!
And finally just one quick word to the
ladies out there: forget makeup. Makeup just falls off in the sun, and when
you're sailing it falls off in the sea spray. And it's a pain in the butt.
So go natural! You don't need make-up anyway darling...
And finally... boats eat money.
You can plan all you want, budget all you want, but you never ever have enough money.
No, one of the big things that you have to think about is new parts because
things, as we said earlier, go wrong all the time. And if the thing that goes wrong is an
engine that's ten grand! Straight away! You've got to buy a new engine.
Rigging - you have to re-rig every ten years, if you're insured they require it.
And rigging something like Esper is really expensive.
Sails, brand-new sails. Sails blow out.
So these are really big expenses, and unless you've got huge
savings somewhere, you've got to find a way, and be prepared to pay for these things.
Yeah and these things happen when you least expect it. So forget about a
monthly budget. We see a lot of questions from newbie sailors who say what's your
monthly budget for yachting? Well we started doing a monthly budget, and it
just went out the window. You can have a monthly budget for your
day-to-day expenses, but the big expenses they really do come and bite you on the bum.
Yeah, so what we tend to say is have a monthly income and work to that
income, which is what we try to do.
And finally, boats are not an investment.
You never make money on boats, you really don't.
When we bought Esper, 12 years ago,
we paid slightly less than what she's insured for now,
but in that time we've paid the same money again,
and more on updates, parts, refitting everything.
So she's insured for probably half of what we paid for her.
They really don't make money.
So those are five genuine, honest reasons
as to why not to buy a boat. So if you are in the market for a buying a boat,
I hope these will help you galvanize your thoughts, because these come from
experience. This is from our 12 years, our own personal observations, and what
other people have told us as well. So just take them on board, they are serious considerations.
BUT, having said all that, Liz, why should you buy a boat?
Oh, because when you've worked through all the bad times (and there are a lot of them)
they absolutely, completely disappear when you're having the good times.
Thanks for watching this followtheboat extra.
If you have a comment please put it below, we're very interested to hear from you on this subject.
If you have a boat, or you're thinking of buying a boat, what's your experience been?
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Peace and fair winds!