Anacortes liveaboard

I got on a waiting list a few years ago at the marina in Bellingham, and was told there was a roughly 10 year waiting list. After that, there is apparently another waiting list before you can liveaboard full time. I'm wondering if there are some boaters in that area with knowledge of marinas in that area that accept a new liveaboard without such a long wait. I know Blaine is easier to get into, but I would prefer to live in a bigger town. Is Anacortes or La Conner any easier to get into, or do you have to go to a much more remote location like Port Townsend? I would prefer to avoid the Seattle traffic scene if at all possible. Thanks for any insights.

Pretty hard to find a slip at all in Anacortes these days, let alone a live aboard. There are a couple of condo style marinas, you buy and own the slip, not sure but that might give you some rights to live aboard.

I've done the liveaboard thing in the PNW. Long ago it was simply find a slip, move aboard. Bob's yer uncle.

No more. Almost all of the marinas in the PNW have waiting lists to get a slip. Many marinas have a limit of 10% of total slips for liveaboards. A few marinas will go beyond that. A growing number are not allowing liveaoards at all. So, long wait to get a slip, longer wait to get liveaboard status. One way to get around it is to find the little odd ball places. I've used Google Maps and Google Earth to spot out of the way clusters of boats. Then some leg work to find out who to talk to. It's time consuming, and you have to be willing to consider 'primitive' places. But, sometimes you wind up living in an interesting community of independent souls.

A gross generalization is that the closer you get to Seattle and the good cruising grounds the tougher it is to find a slip and liveaboard status.

A previous post mentioned condo ownership marinas. Some will allow liveabords, some not, some limit the #s. All the ones I've looked into are very expensive.

Another option would be the less snooty outlying yacht clubs.

La Conner no longer allows live aboards. Cap Sante in Anacortes has wait lists for both slips and live aboards. There is also a deposit required to join their live aboard wait list. Oak Harbor has a wait list and a limit to 40 live aboard boats.

Most marinas place length limits on what size boat can be used as a live aboard. Some also limit the number of persons on board and pets. Waste tanks are always required. All will have a finite limit on the total number of live aboard vessels allowed. There are also varying rules for how many nights per month a person can stay on board before being considered a live aboard tenant.

Virtually every public marina will assess a surcharge for having live aboard status. In Oak Harbor we pay $65/month to be live aboards. We pay it even if we spend three months in the summer going to Alaska. And we pay for our slip while out cruising in order to guarantee we have some place to come home to.

Condo or private marinas will generally have a HOA type agreement or rules governing how many vessels or slips are granted live aboard status.

The best approach is to start calling marinas and putting yourself on their wait lists. Get on the wait list for your size boat or the anticipated size you are thinking about. Ask lots of questions.

You might try the Everett Marina, they are one of the largest marinas on the west coast.

Steppe said:

La Conner no longer allows live aboards. Cap Sante in Anacortes has wait lists for both slips and live aboards...

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Hi Steppe. This may not qualify as "good news", but it is good information that I need to know about and adapt to. Thanks very much for your insights. I sent a personal message to your Trawler Forum inbox.

I’m glad liveaboarding is limited now.
I remember on LaConner K dock (where we now are) there were a lot of livaboard tenants 10 or 15 yrs ago. Old listing boats w lots of weed on their bottoms and bird dung on the cabins were everywhere. Antennas and extension chords abound. Loud football games and loud what some call music. Stuff to trip over on the walkway ect ect.

We have shrimp and crab boats now all on one side (10 or 12) but they’re not so bad. Desirable no, as they almost never take dock carts back but “not so bad”.

I don’t think marinas were conceived, funded or built for people to live in. Most or even all of the liveaboards here on TF would be fine w me but the liveaboard option, because it’s cheap, attracts a lot of trashy type people. But also there are nice people living aboard. And of course there are advantages to liveaboards like security of several kinds. But if a marina permits liveaboards you’ll get the undesirables along w the nice people. And you’ll notice the prior MUCH more.

But overall if a marina can be filled w regular tenants that’s what it should be.

I kinda miss the open floats in Alaska where there were lots of liveaboards. But also I remember one boat (big Cruise-a-Home) that usually had at least two big dogs on the fore deck barking their heads off walking around in their own dog s#*it that you can smell a long way off .. you don’t want me to continue. Worst example I could think of. And that’s a good thing. But there’s so many transient boat people in Alaska liveaboard boating is too much of w way of life to squash or limit. And there’s so many interesting people coming and going. Most of the time liveaboards in Alaska are a positive.

The majority of liveaboards we know probably take better care and interest in their marina than the typical mostly absent "regular tenants"...

All it takes are a few bad apples - liveaboard or otherwise - to sour a responsible person's perception. It's kind of a microcosm within our own community. The general public views those of us with "yachts" as being rich and even worse, being the primary polluters of our water ways. Which is, of course, generally untrue and quite the opposite.

Moonfish said:

The majority of liveaboards we know probably take better care and interest in their marina than the typical mostly absent "regular tenants"...

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I would agree with this. I have never lived aboard, but for the most part they have been assets to a marina community. There is a couple that live aboard full time a couple slips away from me. They use their boat and often are away from the dock. Next to them is another couple in a new Selene that live aboard much of the year. Great neighbors. There have been two large sailboats that had live aboards that fantastic dock neighbors.

OTOH, in the marina across the fairway from us there is a real sketchy guy living on an old sailboat. He isn’t too bad when he hasn’t been drinking but...

The biggest problem we have seen in the PNW are the folks living on boats that are simply anchored out in some harbors. They are a very real nuisance and much more of a problem than live-aboards that are in marinas.

To the OPs issue, I would start to look seriously to the West side of the sound. Yes, the communities are smaller and the marinas not as fancy. However, there is less traffic and costs are much lower. The other place to look is further South. There are many marinas South of Seattle all the way down to Olympia.

Do the marinas take into consideration the make/year of boat? Wouldn't a marina pick and chose based on the boat? I would think a person with a brand new Fleming, for example, might find themselves at the front of the queue.

dhays said:

To the OPs issue, I would start to look seriously to the West side of the sound.

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Based on what I am learning from this thread, I have to agree with you. Supply and demand seem to be "demanding" that I become a lot more flexible as far as where I look for a liveaboard slip in the spring. I can and will do that. Thanks for your feedback.

leeman said:

Do the marinas take into consideration the make/year of boat? Wouldn't a marina pick and chose based on the boat? I would think a person with a brand new Fleming, for example, might find themselves at the front of the queue.

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Some marinas have been doing that for years. Mostly the privately owned/operated ones. I lived aboard in a small private marina in Portland nearly 20 years ago and the dockmaster said the owner wouldn't allow any living aboard wood boats. Before being accepted, I even had to show current photos of the boat to prove it was in good condition and would not be an eyesore. However, even municipal ports will need to know the make/year of a boat prior to making any decisions.

seattleboatguy - Since you mentioned wanting to live in a "bigger town" Bremerton might be a good option. They completely redid the entire marina about 10 years ago (very nice wide, concrete docks, etc.) but have had challenges filling it. Granted, Bremerton isn't the nicest or most exciting town, but there's plenty to do there. For awhile the Port of Bremerton was actually offering an entire year of moorage free if you signed a 2-year lease. Not sure of their vacant liveaboard status, but I have known a couple of boaters that lived there and liked it very much. Plus, it's just a 35-min ferry ride from downtown Seattle...

Bremerton has a liveaboard wait list. In fact there might not be any marina’s that don’t have a liveaboard wait list. In 2010 most marina’s had a 15% vacancy rate but a 100% of allowable liveaboards. Now most marina’s are at 100% occupancy with very long liveaboard wait lists. However, these list can turn very fast, especially during the winter. Many new liveaboards find the winter to harsh and once the marina’s start going down the list many are not prepared to move in.

My advice, get on as many lists as possible. The other trick, just get a slip and fly under the radar.

Most people don’t realize that in 2000 the State of Washington made an administrative ruling outlawing living on DNR land. They used this ruling to go after individuals living onboats. Fortunately a group of liveaboards at Shilshole Marina formed the Washington Liveaboard Association. The WLA had success in fighting back against the ruling but the end result was the Sate putting in liveaboard Caps in the aquatic leases to the marina’s. While at the time it had little affect as there were many fewer liveaboards. Over time the demand to liveaboard has increased but like all housing supply has not kept up or in our case, supply is frozen.

tiltrider1 said:

Most people don’t realize that in 2000 the State of Washington made an administrative ruling outlawing living on DNR land. They used this ruling to go after individuals living onboats. Fortunately a group of liveaboards at Shilshole Marina formed the Washington Liveaboard Association. The WLA had success in fighting back against the ruling but the end result was the Sate putting in liveaboard Caps in the aquatic leases to the marina’s. While at the time it had little affect as there were many fewer liveaboards. Over time the demand to liveaboard has increased but like all housing supply has not kept up or in our case, supply is frozen.

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I didn't realize that. My condo marina is partly on DNR owned land. We just renewed the lease a couple years ago.

Another option to call is Brownesville.

Another option

An option no one has mentioned yet,
How about buying a piece of land that has a dock or home that has dock space and then renting the home out. You'd probably cover the entire cost of the home with rental and have a free slip. No one to bother you about staying there full time since your the land lord.

There’s always Alaska.

bshillam said:

An option no one has mentioned yet,
How about buying a piece of land that has a dock or home that has dock space and then renting the home out. You'd probably cover the entire cost of the home with rental and have a free slip. No one to bother you about staying there full time since your the land lord.

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Problem is you don’t own the land under the dock. You lease it from the State. The State has been adding a no liveaboard clause to all our DNR leases over the last 5 years.

Blaine Harbor is owned and administered by the Port of Bellingham. You can get a slip there and, as a port customer, wait on a much shorter list for a slip in Bellingham. Will it be a liveaboard slip? Unlikely, but many do indeed fly under the radar.

Moonfish said:

seattleboatguy - Since you mentioned wanting to live in a "bigger town" Bremerton might be a good option...

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Moonfish : Thanks for the information on Bremerton. That might be a reasonable compromise for a while. I will check them out.

tiltrider1 said:

My advice, get on as many lists as possible. The other trick, just get a slip and fly under the radar.

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Tiltrider1 : I think your "get on as many lists as possible" suggestion is a good one. "More is better."

localboy said:

Another option to call is Brownesville.

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Localboy : I must admit that I had never even heard of Brownesville, but I was able to find the marina on Active Captain. Thank you for your suggestion.

Sabre602 said:

Blaine Harbor is owned and administered by the Port of Bellingham. You can get a slip there and, as a port customer, wait on a much shorter list for a slip in Bellingham. Will it be a liveaboard slip? Unlikely, but many do indeed fly under the radar.

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Anson & Donna : I had sort of ruled out Blaine initially. But, the more I learn about the current liveaboard situation on Puget Sound, the more attractive Blaine becomes. I will certainly add that to the list of waiting lists that I will sign up for. Thank you for your suggestion.

Seattleboatguy; looks like you're from Virginia...? if so, you could also run into some significant Wash state tax; they don't have a cap like Virginia does.
Anacortes and La Conner are two of my favorite towns to visit and such great access to beautiful cruising grounds. Unfortunately Washington is chasing many boaters out of their state with taxes and regulations.
One option for you is to go just a tad further west to BC, Canada, like Port of Sidney. Canada lets you visit for a year at a time. I once met a guy there that had been doing this for over ten years, and at least once a year he'd go visit Alaska or Wash state, then return back to Sidney.

There are several privately owned marinas in the Puget Sound area. These may range from a couple of slips to dock condos. There is no marina manager per se or even a central phone number. The only way to find out out about slip availability is to be there in person and ask.... In the case of our condo marina there is a bulletin board where owners will post their slip is available.. Our last boat was too large to fit in to a condo slip, we found moorage in a little four slip private dock by asking around... If you really want to find a slip you probably need to walk the docks....

sledge said:

Seattleboatguy; looks like you're from Virginia...? if so, you could also run into some significant Wash state tax; they don't have a cap like Virginia does.
Anacortes and La Conner are two of my favorite towns to visit and such great access to beautiful cruising grounds. Unfortunately Washington is chasing many boaters out of their state with taxes and regulations.
One option for you is to go just a tad further west to BC, Canada, like Port of Sidney. Canada lets you visit for a year at a time. I once met a guy there that had been doing this for over ten years, and at least once a year he'd go visit Alaska or Wash state, then return back to Sidney.

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Sledge : You are correct about the taxes. I brought a sailboat to Washington years ago and got a big tax bill from Washington State. I will go through the same painful drill with this trawler next year. I moved to Virginia from Seattle many years ago for a job. I'm now retired, and doing the East Coast "great loop" trip in my trawler.

Your idea to hang out in Canada for a while was certainly interesting. I had not even considered it. When the transport ship takes by trawler from Florida to the West Coast in the spring, it will unload my boat in Victoria. I will keep your idea in mind, depending on how my hunt for a liveaboard slip develops. Thanks for the idea.

Ka_sea_ta said:

... If you really want to find a slip you probably need to walk the docks....

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Ka_sea_ta : I am in total agreement with you. There is nothing like "boots on the ground" and talking to people in person. But, I'll do as much homework as I can before I head to Puger Sound in the spring.

seattleboatguy said:

When the transport ship takes by trawler from Florida to the West Coast in the spring, it will unload my boat in Victoria. I will keep your idea in mind, depending on how my hunt for a liveaboard slip develops. Thanks for the idea.

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Hey since you mentioned it; if it works in your schedule when you get dropped in Victoria i'd recommend you take advantage and stay for a while to enjoy that lovely city. we spent about a week there one time at Causeway marina right in front of the Empress Hotel and had a wonderful time. much to see and do there and most within walking distance...

sledge said:

Hey since you mentioned it; if it works in your schedule when you get dropped in Victoria i'd recommend you take advantage and stay for a while to enjoy that lovely city. we spent about a week there one time at Causeway marina right in front of the Empress Hotel and had a wonderful time. much to see and do there and most within walking distance...

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Hi Sledge. Yea, Victoria is a pretty cool place. I was there years ago, and this might be a good opportunity for a revisit. I see you are in Brunswick. I spent last winter at Brunswick Landing Marina.