h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Last Saturday I was winding up my visit / fishing trip with relatives when one of them mentioned a free Wooden Boat show in the bay I spent most of my youth in (but mostly on the beach!). Took some snaps:

http://public.fotki.com/clzoomer/maple-bay-wooden-bo/

And I once again began thinking about retiring in a *liveaboard* in that self same bay. I even asked about internet hookups!



Then of course I got home and started looking at prices.... maybe in four years? LOL

nice boats!
I've always had a soft spot for barge and narrow boat living in England. But again, it is a lot more expensive than people at first think.

It can depend though... Our neighbour got a job in London, and they didn't want to selel their house where they already lived (they've plans to retire there at some point I think, and have spent a fortune* doing the place up...), anyhow, they looked at renting and buying in London, and in the end, as they were to be there for quite some time with the work... well over ten years now and counting I think; They bought a narrowboat/houseboat, which they have moared somewhere in the higher stretches of the Thames...
I've kinda always hankered after it too really, probably from spending most of my youth fishing, walking by or 'messing about on' the river... and by the sea too now I think of it

2legs, I would be concerned with you weaving your way down the dock! But then you could just stay home more often.

Vancouver has it's share of houseboats right downtown:

http://www.seegranvilleisland.com/float/float.htm

As you can imagine they're trendy and thus expensive. I was looking at one just down the road from me, CDN$20,000 but the moorage and insurance is about what I pay now.

Most of those boats still follow the old formula for cost, around CDN$1,000 per foot until you get past around 30 feet. The location I shot the pics at is much, much cheaper to moor at- about a quarter the cost. Quieter, too.

I must say I don't really get house boats.
If you wanna live in a house, live in a house.
If you wanna live on a boat, live on a boat.

Floating houses (or, I guess, land bound boats!) just seem to me a case of the wrong thing in the wrong place and thus liable to problems.

I may, of course, just be ill-informed and biased