Wondering what boat life is like? Here’s what it is like to live on a sailboat as an alternative, house-free lifestyle.

My friend and fellow writer, Nathaniel Poole (we met in a critique group), has been living on a boat with his wife and little dog since 2007. They took a few years off to help care for his mother, but they still have plenty of boat life experience.
Their first boat was a 50-foot yacht, but they sold it because it was too expensive to run. Now, they live on a 40-foot sailboat.
How big is a 40-foot sailboat?
His sailboat has 3 small bedrooms and 1 1/2 baths. That sounds luxurious, but it is a boat designed for vacations, not a full-time lifestyle. It is quite tiny inside. I couldn’t really use my dSLR for the photos, so these were taken with my cellphone.
Things to know if you’re interested in an onboard lifestyle:
- You can get a mortgage to buy a boat, but it’s probably better to use a line of credit because you can pay it off more easily. (And most boats aren’t that expensive.)
- Storage on a boat is tight, so they keep all of their seasonal items in a storage locker. This way they can swap their snowshoes for their hiking backpacks.
- They spend the summer moored to a buoy and live off-grid. It’s quieter than the marina. It also allows them to swim right off the boat, and sail off on an adventure whenever they want to.
- Moorage is expensive and hard to get. If you find a spot, you’ll likely have to pay year round to keep it.
- It is difficult to heat with solar power. Nathaniel used a gas heater the years they lived off-grid. Now they plug into the electricity grid in the marina.
A DIY Lifestyle
It might seem like living on a boat is a lifestyle for the rich and famous; however, most people live on a boat because it is an affordable housing alternative. However, it’s only affordable if you’re adventurous and a DIY enthusiast.
Here are a few reasons why a DIY spirit is necessary:
- It’s really hard to get a liveaboard spot in a marina. There are a lot of biases against liveaboards, and many marinas don’t allow them. Often the only way to get a spot is to inherit one from someone you know (at least in our region).
- This means most people who live on a boat full-time are moored to a buoy and live off-grid. Something that requires an adventurous spirit, particularly during a winter storm.
- As the saying goes, “A boat is a hole in the water that you throw money into.” But for anyone interested in self-sufficiency, it’s actually a good investment. The secret is to do all the repair work yourself.
Nathaniel refinishes boats and Westfalias as a trade, so he’s the perfect person for a liveaboard lifestyle. He’s done everything from wiring to refinishing the interior furnishings on his own. He made his kitchen table out of a piece of maple and sewed the awning and enclosure for his deck.
Nathaniel had a pretty convincing pitch for a sailboat lifestyle. It was so convincing that I wanted to move onto a boat!
Living on a boat allows you to travel and visit the most beautiful places. He has had some amazing experiences. The scenery is unbelievable. However, one of his favorite parts of living on a boat is how connected to the weather they are.
“When we have a seasonal storm you feel all aspects of it. The wind whistling through the rigging. The rain on the roof. A sense that you are a part of the storm. Life on a boat naturally brings you closer to the weather.”
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