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Live Aboard Marinas in Florida

119K views 76 replies 50 participants last post by  miatapaul 
#1 ·
My husband and I would like to retire and fullfill a life long dream of buying a sailboat and living aboard. We are unsure where to begin with locating a marina in Florida that allows live aboards. Any suggestions?
 
#58 ·
Living on a yacht?

I live in South Florida on the West side and I am considering the live aboard idea. I have joined this site in hopes of questions I have concerning living aboard. First I am not a sailor but I love achts 50-60 footers. I know this is a forum set up for sailing but is there any information anybody has concerning pros and cons to living on a yacht of that caliber.
Or can someone point me in the right direction for living on a yacht in South Florida. Thanks for your time. K... :D
 
#59 ·
Hey drop. You might want to take a look at Living Aboard Forums • Index page

There's quite a few trawler owners that liveaboard and post on that site. They may have some insight and tips.

I think in general though, you tend to see people liveaboarding in the 30-50ft boat range. As the size of the boat goes up, costs increase dramatically and they get harder to handle. And boats in the 40-50 range usually already have plenty of space to meet most people's needs and still be able to be managed by 1 or 2 people.
 
#65 ·
Tou can still anchor out anywhere you need to in florida for as long as you need to per florida state statue 327. a few areas are attempting to circumvent that state law w/ local ordinances and such, but little success. Recently the FWc has begun a pilot mooring field program and a few of the areas impacted boats anchoring (St.Aug. , miami, ets.) have attempted to use the placement of mooring fields to eliminate anchoring. Recently St. Augustine installed mooring fields north and south of the bridge of lyons as well as in all or most of salt run in an attempt to eliminate anchoring. THey attempted to regulate the length of time at anchor and the area to anchor. Fortunately these attempts have met w/ opposition and currently the anchoring will be allowed for 30 days w/ a 24 hour break then another 30 days. (this seems workable,although annoying)

In Daytona there is anchoring available alot of places and easy public boat ramp access to dinghy ashore as well as public transportation and provisioning as well as west marines ,a sail loft,as well as a used boat chandlery nearby.
Although , the municipal marina offers no dinghy dockage or shore facilities for those at anchor they do offer free pumpout and fresh water.
I'm suprised Daytona doesn't advertise to cuisers more.
in 2009 I had to "tune up" the local PD as to anchoring statutes when they attempted to regulate me anchoring between seabreeze bridge and Main Street bridge. I basically informed the officer in charge of the marine patrol that the local ordinance did not apply to non-liveaboards vessels at anchor and supplied him w/ copies of the state statutes, statetements from the local FWC commander , the states attorney,and the contact information of a maritime attoney .
He then said he wasn;t interested in being the parking police for the halifax and I had no more issues w/ Daytona.
what suprises me more is he local sailing association (HSA) is very anti-liveaboard and has enacted a rule excluding liveaboards as members as well as being very unwelcoming to liveaboards and achored vessels. I think they are missing an opportunity to further the interests of Sailing and cruising as well as a financial opportunity to charge fees for access to the upland facilities at their club and a wider awareness of there existence.
They could/should take a less from places like Castleton boat club , on the hudson whom offer dockage and a DIY crane for mast stepping to transients. they make out well w/ the funds generated and its a great place to stop.
 
#67 ·
Fort Pierce City Marina allows liveaboards. I'm not sure what the fees are now. It was a clean, well kept marina with restaurants, shops, bars, Farmer's market, library all within walking distance. There are bathrooms, showers and laundry on site. The fees were about $500. a month for everything, including cable and internet. At the time we had a 34' Moody. We loved living there...friendly people and lots to do!
 
#71 ·
the wife and I are close to purchasing a (43') boat in the Northeast. We are West Coasties and are hoping to pick it up in late September and sail a bit around New England before heading south to the Carolinas. We would like to slip/moor it for a month or so then come back early December and spend 2 weeks continuing south. Suggestions on Marina's? We have cruised SoCal so this is a big 'leap' so any help is greatly appreciated.
 
#72 ·
That's a lot of coast and a lot of marinas. I'd suggest picking up one of the CIW guides or using those web sites. In paper you could be looking at a couple of thousand pages describing what to see and where to stay. Active Captain will also give you lots of online reviews and information.

And of course, if your boat is going to stay in a Carolina for 90+ days you may need to register it there or pays sales tax there. Check into time periods and tax laws to avoid a surprise.
 
#73 ·
hello all new here i am in Indiana now coming to Florida in 8/2015
and have no place to go to I'm going to homestead try my luck
i am looking for a houseboat at least 35ft in any condition must be FREE
can anyone help ? >markg47150@yahoo.com< thank you all for looking me over :nerd
 
#74 ·
Homestead is inland, home of an AF base and neighbor to a nuclear plant, not a place were you'll find boats or dockage. The nearest waterfront would be pricey Miami and Biscayne Bay, I doubt you'll find "free" anything there.

Try checking out the local "southeast florida" Craigslist online, but expect that "free" translate into "a derelict you'll have to tow away" and be aware that Florida has a special passion against liveaboards of any kind, as well as derelict vessels.

Finding out that your boat has to be towed, removed, or has been seized and fees assessed on you, can be an expensive surprise. You might do better in other parts of Florida, I doubt you could do worse in them.
 
#77 ·
Well if you are saying the boat "must be free" does that mean you don't have $10,000 to re-power it? Hydrolic steering will cost you several grand to get working again. Keep in mind this "FREE" boat has likely had someone who was broke, living in it like it was an abandoned trailer in the woods, one step away from homeless. So likely no maintenance has been done to it. If it is steel or aluminum hull it will have pretty good scrap value so you won't get one of those for free. I had a houseboat a long time ago, and in fresh water and it was a nightmare, well for me it was not too bad because I only owned it for a few months, and sold it for what I paid for it, and ran off to get married. It was a big mistake, well not the part about selling the boat! :wink

On top of that while house boats can give you lots of living space per foot of boat length they are lousy boats to take anyplace. They mostly have flat bottoms so in a good cross wind they will go sideways as well as straight. The one I had was 40 foot and had twin motors and mechanically was good just needed interior fixed up a bit. Lots of room for a recent college grad to have parties in! It was far from free and in the entire time I owned it I took it out twice because they are awful out there in anything but a calm lake with no wind or current. I can't imagine being on one in a storm when not in a protected harbor.

Not to mention you dredged up an unrelated 3 year old thread to discuss this is a sailing forum?

Good luck, but it does not sound like you have much of this thought out. People don't "give away" much that has value. For a few thousand you might get something that could possibly be sea worthy for what you are talking about after putting in ten grand or so.
 
#76 ·
First off, if you want to get down to the Keys why do you think you need to "start" in Homestead? Yes, you will probably go through Homestead on the way to the Keys, but then you might as well say that you have to "start" in Georgia, or Miami, or anywhere else that you are going to pass through on the way. Is there something special in Homestead that makes you say you have to "start" there?

Secondly, let me repeat what hellosailor said, since it does not seem to have registered with you. Any boat that you can get for free is going to be a derelict piece of junk, not suitable for living aboard (at least, not without a lot of work), and will probably end up costing you a lot of money to either fix up, or dispose of. People simply do not give away boats that still have any real value. In fact, the most expensive boat you will ever get is probably the one you THINK you are getting for "free." There ain't no such thing as a free lunch--most especially where boats are concerned.

If your plan really is dependent on finding a "free" boat that you can live on, then my best advice to you is to start working on Plan B, because Plan A is a recipe for failure!

Good luck to you, whatever you do.
 
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