Liveaboard - another wannabe looking for advice

Hullo all, I'm a newbie on this forum and a liveaboard wannabe looking for some serious advice.

I am planning to retire in about 2 years, the ideal is to buy a liveaboard and cruise the Australian QLD coast and/or Indonesia/Thailand. Its just my wife and I and our golden Lab, we are looking to buy something in the line of a 49' Defever for around the 300K mark.

I have spent most of my life around the sea but unfortunately no time in boats anywhere near this size. Can any similar minded folk give us their thoughts and experiences with regard to monthly running costs (maintenance,insurance and whatever other expenses I havent thought about), courses in QLD to attain the appropriate boat handling proficiency and any other advise or info that could help us live the dream.

Cheers
Puma

Its sounds like coastal blue water boat that might require a more capable boat than a 49 ft Defever. Might want to look at full displacement rather than semi. Also required fuel and water require large tanks, which require a big heavy boat. A 50 ft boat is not much living area, so you might want to start reducing your processions, which takes time and harder than most think.

Many marines does not allow live a board's and if the do they usually charge a fee.

Welcome to the forum! Lots of threads in the archives covering annual operating expenses and live aboard costs. It's worth finding these threads through the search feature as you will get many different peoples perspectives as opposed to just a few responding to this thread.

Ted

We're on a 40 footer and while getting rid of a lot of our possessions was very difficult, we are very comfortable and i could see a well laid out 40 having the space and systems to do what you want. It would be challenging, but doable I'd guess

I have an 80 ton, 83' boat that carries 2000 gallons of fuel. And I'd like more room. About 2500 nautical miles between fuelings. I budget about $2000 US a month for everything and have money left over, but I don't stay at marinas. They want $80-100 a day on a daily rate or about $1000/month. Commercial fishing ports are about $600/month, but still $80/day.
If you're going to travel a lot, get a boat with reliable engines. Research it in your area. Try for mechanical/non-electronic engines or plan on carrying spare circuit boards and sensors. Whatever you get, learn to fix the common problems. Twin engines are more reliable than a single. The right engines are just as economic.
Lots of food storage is good, especially a freezer. I catch and freeze lots of tuna, salmon and bottom fish. Helps the budget. A washer on board is nice.
I'd suggest a bigger boat, even if it's older.

Puma, a lot of good advise already here. We are living aboard in a 46 foot two cabin boat here in Queensland and cruised her up from Sydney. We are hoping to cruise up the Queensland coast from here and have previously done it extensively.

You will have no problems cruising the Queensland coast in most good seaworthy boats from 40 foot and up. Yes you have to prioritise what you can have on board due to limited space but can still have all the comforts of home.

As far as costs go here Marina rental varies from around $80 per night up for casual berths. We are currently on the Gold Coast and paying $800 per month living aboard while we consolidate and fit out. Insurance on a $300k boat would run around $2000 per annum and I'd budget around $3000 per year for your haul out and anti foul. We cruise at around 7 knots and get very good economy but fuel costs here at the moment are around $1.40 per litre and will vary with where you are on the coast.
Other maintence cost will vary with engines and hours.
It is quite easy to get your boat licence and there are a number of schools around that will help at a cost.
Books to get as a guide are "Cruising The Coral Coast" and "Beacon to Beacon". I have found Cruising the Coral Coast invaluable over the years.

If I can be of any more help please let me know and you will find several others on this forum in the area,

Brett

P.S. All amounts quoted in Australian Dollars.

Puma 01 said:

Hullo all, I'm a newbie on this forum and a liveaboard wannabe looking for some serious advice.

I am planning to retire in about 2 years, the ideal is to buy a liveaboard and cruise the Australian QLD coast and/or Indonesia/Thailand. Its just my wife and I and our golden Lab, we are looking to buy something in the line of a 49' Defever for around the 300K mark.

I have spent most of my life around the sea but unfortunately no time in boats anywhere near this size. Can any similar minded folk give us their thoughts and experiences with regard to monthly running costs (maintenance,insurance and whatever other expenses I havent thought about), courses in QLD to attain the appropriate boat handling proficiency and any other advise or info that could help us live the dream.

Cheers
Puma

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Puma 1, Jetstream just about said it all. Any decently seaworthy and sea-fit, (not necessarily the same thing), of say 40ft up to 60ft would suffice, as he said.
Something like the one you mention would be a good start.

Volunteer Marine Rescue stations here, dotted all over Moreton Bay, all run boat licence and handling courses and examinations, so that certainly is not a problem either.

What is it you are doing there in Dubai, by the way..? Just interested because I spent a few days there in 2011, including a trip down to Abu Dhabi to spend a day at Ferrari World. Interesting place.

My boat is at Horizon Shores Marina, and I can tell you, it is a buyers market right now. I am trying to sell, so I know. Might not be a bad idea to line something up now, and not wait until you actually retire. Prices may well rise soon, and it might be possible to get some cruising in here while on vacation from your job over there..? I am about to retire, but we have had our Clipper 34 for 14 years, and don't regret a single one of those years. No-one knows the future.

Cheers,

First you must decide what portion of your retirement you want to spend repairing "stuff".

The more complex the vessel, the more time & bucks spent on mandatory work instead of doing what you wish.

Water is an example.

If you can learn to be frugal , you can have a fine lifestyle with tanks..

If you need a washing machine , dish washer and looong hot showers , you may need a water maker , and noisemaker to operate it.

The decisions are called Outfitting , and how the boat is done will vary with the owners desires. Changing a dock queen to a cruiser is Very time consuming and e$pensive.

It might not be a bad idea (as a previous post said) to buy a boat now. Depending on how comfortable your are with running a large boat (49' is large to me) you might want to purchase something smaller first to get the feel of things. But either way the sooner the better if you can.

Happy cruising Don

i'm very much in the same boat (no pun intended) however, planning my early retirement in the philippines islands. now, i lived for 2 decades in an 80 sqft studio in NYC (no typo. 80 sqft) never needed more space than food storage and a change of clothes. a 30 something foot trawler on the open water would be a relatively huge spread for me, so i'd say the question of boat space is relative, if not subjective

now, my inquiry is in learning more about the trawler design, as it suites my tastes. i like ample fuel storage, even if i'd rarely venture more than a 100 mile radius. i like a semi or full displacement. i'm 51 and have no place to get to fast, so it is sea worthiness over performance. i love the sedan styled enclosed upper deck. it is probably the biggest selling point of the trawler. having to choose between being cooped up below deck or exposed to the elements above deck, when there is the perfect 3rd option always available on a trawler. it's a no contest in going with a trawler.

is there anything i'm overlooking on trawlers? as i said, i'm a newbie like the original post, and looking for the same guidance, prior to my purchase. given all the coral reefs in the area i'm settling, are there other advantages to a shallow bottom vessel? should i investigate power catamarans as potential liveaboards? would i still need a dingy to reach most shorelines on a 30+ foot vessel, regardless?

nuccifilms said:

now, i lived for 2 decades in an 80 sqft studio in NYC (no typo 80 sqft) never needed more space than food storage and a change of clothes.

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8 ft x 10 ft?

BandB said:

8 ft x 10 ft?

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yes, correct 8'x10' with a wash sink, 3/4 fridge and cook top. although i ate out 2-3 times daily with whatever GF i had at any given week. these apt units had one shared bathroom with shower per floor. (if you stayed in a college dorm, you know the place) back in the 90s it was amongst the cheapest apts in NYC at $600/month USD. with inflation, figure double that now. i've heard tokyo has even smaller and more costly spaces they call "apts". now i live in a 2,500 sqft house with rooms i've no desire to ever enter, and i wouldn't trade those cramped/broke days in my 30s in NYC for any other period of my life.