Choosing a boat to live aboard is a very personal choice and will depend on your own individual requirements and your budget. The overall cost of the lifestyle will depend on many variables such as how much cruising you plan to do, will you be using much fuel, will you be at anchor or in marinas, and will the boat itself be high maintenance?

Try making a list of the things that are most important to you. For some this will be plenty of storage, yet others are happy to live with a minimal amount of possessions. You may feel that a sheltered cockpit is important, and others may choose speed at the expense of comfort.

Have a good look around our site and begin to create a short list of boats that you may like to view. It’s unlikely that one boat will tick all the boxes on your wish list but it makes sense to prioritise the elements that are most important to you.

Wooden boats are beautiful but high maintenance; they require specialist skills, and dedicated enthusiasm. A fibreglass boat is easier to look after; it responds well to treatment but doesn’t degenerate as quickly if you don’t have time to keep up with the maintenance. Steel or aluminium boats are easily spotted on radar, but gleaming paint on the exterior of a steel boat may hide the rust in the bilges.

Living aboard and cruising, while not mutually exclusive, tend to demand differing criteria, so any combination of the two will require certain compromises. Whichever boat you choose you’ll need to significantly reduce your possessions as storage space will be limited. When deciding what to keep on board think very carefully about whether you will actually use each item. Likewise with clothes, if you think about it you may find that you only regularly wear a small proportion of the clothes you actually own.

Adequate storage will be important. You’ll want unobstructed access to the things you use regularly, such as clothing, because it’s going to be inconvenient if you have to unpack lots of things every time. If there’s something on board that you don’t use regularly you have to ask yourself, do you really need it on board? You may be able to rent storage space at a marina, but that’s only really an option if you’re not planning on extended cruising. If you are going to be based in a marina this may also provide extra services that make living aboard more comfortable, such as WiFi, electric and water connections.

When considering the size of your boat think about whether you are likely to want overnight guests on board, or do you just require accommodation for one, or a couple? The draft will depend on what kind of cruising you plan to do.

Whatever boat you end up with will be a compromise to some extent, but you will find that once you live aboard you will you modify your boat adjusting it to your own requirements as you go along. The liveaboard lifestyle has its pros and cons and there may be things that you miss about living ashore sometimes. But the sense of freedom and a love of the water can outweigh so many of the downsides!

Search for a liveaboard boat now.

Peggy

Image: Petrel 30 for sale

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