13 reasons why living on a boat in a marina is better than living in a house on land

June 1, 2020 53 Comments

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Living on a boat in a marina has numerous benefits. Read on to discover 13 reasons why living on a boat in a marina is better than living in a house on land.

1. You Can Move Your Boat & Live Anywhere.

If and when you want to move (if you ever want to move) you don’t have to sell our home; you simply untie your lines and move your home to a new location. And considering your home can move with the wind (if you have a sailboat), the coastal areas of the whole world are possible future ‘homes’.

Consider how easy it is to move. Instead of getting the house ready to sell, listing it, having showings, looking for a new house, making sure the logistics all work out and on and on…you simply untie the lines and move your home to a new location.

2. People Around You Pay Millions For Your View.

In a marina, you will often have waterfront property for a fraction of the cost that homeowners in the same are are paying. In many cases, the view from the maria is even far superior!

3. The Cost Of Living On A Boat In A Marina Can Be Much Lower.

Boat owners in a marina pay a monthly rent for the boat slip. There is usually a large discount for taking out a long-term contract (ex. Over 6 months). Other costs include electricity and some marinas charge a liveaboard fee. That’s it. Compare that with the standard bills you get living in a house.

4. There Is Often A Wonderful Liveaboard Community.

Because of the proximity of the boats and the need to walk the docks to get out of the marina you’ll chat with your neighbors several times per day. If someone has an issue, everyone helps out. Everyone is always looking out for everyone else.

The social setting is fantastic. Almost every evening you’ll see liveaboards get together and enjoy a chat and drink along the dock or aboard a boat. The friendships made amongst liveaboard boaters are meaningful and fulfilling.

There is no hiding behind your front door or your gate like most house owners now do.

5. Full-time Liveaboards Have Common Values.

Liveaboards all have a love for the water, are not into buying things for the sake of buying them (no space). Most boaters are very interested in conservation, green technology, and taking care of the planet. Many work from the boat or are entrepreneurial in spirit. They value strong friendships and work very hard to make others feel welcomed and wanted.

Liveaboards give, give, and give. Someone is always cooking too much and invites others over. There’s always a last-minute decision to have sundowners and appetizers. Liveaboards generally don’t have cable/satellite TV so they’re not inundated with negative news. Although conversations about topical news will be had, it certainly doesn’t dominate the time spent together. Usually the topic of discussion has something to do with the latest boat fix that is required!

Stories are shared, jokes are told and food and drink are passed around. There is a deep feeling of respect and community amongst boaters living on a boat in a marina.

In a neighborhood people from all walks of life and values converge in one area often having very little in common.

6. Easy to meet new friends every week.

Marinas often have the usual liveaboards and long-term tenants but they also have new visitors. One week you might meet a fascinating couple who are making their way south and another week you could meet a sailing family headed to the north. No matter who stops by it’s easy to say ‘hi’ while you help them with their lines, do a quick introduction and before you know it you feel like you have new best friends. In today’s society it’s rare to meet your neighbors let alone have a constant churn of new and exciting people to meet.

7. Keeping Up With The Jone’s Isn’t A Thing.

Most boats are drastically different so you can’t compare them. And due to the lifestyle, the type of people that live on boats are not very interested in material possessions. When a neighbor gets a new tender you will celebrate with a ride around the harbor rather than think, ‘Oh man, he got the latest and best new car. I feel inferior!’

8. Less Space = Less Crap.

There is a massively reduced amount of space on a boat so the need for crap is low. A reduction in stuff is a reward in its own right. No longer will you need to fill cupboards, attics and closets with things you no longer use or need. On a boat, you only keep what you need. When something is no longer useful it gets passed on.

And boaters are always offering ‘treasures of the bilge’ – one person’s junk is another person’s desire. Boating communities often do swaps so if you want something and you wait long enough it will probably come to you.

9. Boaters Are Okay In A Flood!

If it floods, in an area prone to flooding, your house will ride the tide rather than take on water. It’s similar for hurricanes – if you want to get out of the way you can move. A house can’t. It will have to take the brunt of whatever nature is sending.

10. Can’t Beat The Wildlife.

Not only will you have dogs in the liveaboard ‘neighborhood,’ but you might just be graced with dolphins, pelicans, sea birds, and a variety of other beautiful creatures that you won’t find on land.

Doesn’t a dolphin visit sound better than a raccoon in your trash or a skunk in your garage?

11. Cleaning & Maintenance Are Drastically Reduced.

Cleaning the whole boat takes a fraction of the time needed to clean a house and there’s no law maintenance needed. If that doesn’t sell you I don’t know what will!

12. Time To Sell – Huge Marketplace Available.

If you ever want to sell your boat you’re not limited to selling to the local area. Your target market includes the whole world rather than just someone that wants a boat <insert your location>. In other words, someone from another country can buy your boat and have it moved. You can’t do that with a house! (Well…at least you can’t do it easily).

13. Crime Rates Are Far Lower In Marinas Than On Housing Estates.

When have you ever heard of someone being burgled, murdered, or violated in a marina!? Criminals are not boaters. They don’t understand the boating world and therefore would feel like a fish out of water to enter one. Furthermore, there are far more valuable things in a house – look at all the closets filled with crap that you don’t use in a house. That’s a far better prospect than a boat (with no massively huge widescreen TV, a high-tech stereo system, valuable china or other valuables).

What are your thoughts? Any questions? Please leave them in the comments below 🙂

And if you need help with choosing a marina…

Grab a copy of my best selling guide, Checklists for Sailors as there’s a Choosing A Marina checklist with over 50 questions/considerations you’ll want to gain answers to. Some questions include:

Is there a fee for liveaboard status? Do you accept liveaboards?
Is there a black water pump-out facility that comes to the boat or do we need to move the boat to it?
How easy is it to enter and exit the marina?
What is the marina hurricane policy? (Do you need to remove your boat if something larger than a Cat 1 is coming?)
Are there any restrictions on working on your boat?
What’s the hull growth like in the area? (Am I going to need to pay a diver to clean my hull every month?!)

Get more questions like these in my Choosing A Marina checklist so you know before you go! In addition to this checklist you’ll get others like, Leaving A Boat In The Marina (short-term), Selecting Insurance For Your Boat, Cleaning And Maintenance Checklists, Maintenance and Servicing Checklists, Medical Checklists, Passage Planning and more! Get your copy here: Checklists for Sailors

The Back Story To How We Ended Up In A Marina

For almost three years my family and I traveled from one location to another. We certainly were not living on a boat in a marina! We started off in the Mediterranean, crossed the Atlantic Ocean, cruised the Caribbean, and eventually, after 18,500 miles, decided to settle down for a long-term stay (1 year?) in Charleston, South Carolina.

Our choice to homeschool our, at the time 6-year-old daughter, didn’t work as well as expected. After many discussions, my husband and I decided that a proper schooling environment would be best. We decided to temporarily curtail our cruising lifestyle and instead enroll our daughter, Sienna, into the First Grade in America.

So…we’ll be living on our boat, in a marina, for at least one year – perhaps longer…

Transitioning from full-time cruising to full-time marina life was interesting. On the one hand, I’m sad that our ‘flying-the-the-seat-of-our-pants’ lifestyle has been put on hold. On the other hand, it’s nice to take a break from constant travel, massive uncertainty and having to pay over the odds for many goods and services.

With the prospect of staying in Charleston for at least a year, my husband and I discussed the idea of renting or buying a property. In our minds, having a boat was for the purpose of using the boat. If not sail to around the world; we’d want to at least use our boat to sail when conditions allowed us to do so.

Interestingly, we’ve found ourselves in a rather odd situation – sailing around Charleston on a 56’ sailboat isn’t fun.

The marina that we settled in sits right smack in the middle of a tidal river. Coming and going outside of slack tide, when the river is running fast, is almost a certain disaster. Every week a boat gets pinned up against docked boats because the engine isn’t capable of fighting the tide and making it into a slip. A boat enters a pontoon area, lines up to turn into a slip and before the skipper makes the turn, the boat is pushed onto docked boats and has to sit there until the slack tide arrives.

Furthermore, the harbor is so small that we would have to tack constantly rather than have an enjoyable easy-going sail. When we took my parents out they sat around enjoying the sights while I tacked one way, crossed the boat, and prepared to tack the other way…repeat, repeat, repeat. Perhaps this is the downside of living on a boat in a marina?

Sure, we could sail out into the Atlantic Ocean but usually, the conditions are not favorable for an enjoyable ride.

Our dream is to circumnavigate the world but our daughter’s education must come first. At the time of writing, our child had been in school for three months and thus far she not only loves the steady routine but she’s making massive strides in her academics. Sienna has made many friends, she participates in everything and it’s a joy to see her in an environment where she’s thriving.

So… we’ve ended up in a situation where we’re living on a boat in a marina where our boat is a static home rather than our originally intended vessel for travel and adventure.

Interestingly, there are many people around us that live on their boat and never leave the marina on purpose.

For us, our situation changed but for many people, they’ve made the conscious decision to live in a marina full time. Some marina liveaboards work locally and others are retired. One of our neighbors has been in our marina for seven years. He has a lovely 60’ powerboat with no engine!

From my perspective, however, I’ve felt a variety of conflicting feelings. We didn’t consciously set out to live in a marina. For some reason, I’ve felt the urge to get a property on land, but when further investigating my thought process I really can’t justify the craving.

As it stands now, I think I’m just feeling the societal pressure of living a ‘normal’ life.

As with many things in life, when I find myself conflicted I get out a piece of paper and write down my thoughts. I created a list of reasons why living on a boat in a marina is better than living in a house…and that’s what you read above.

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