Living on a Boat
This can actually make sense, if you already have an air conditioned vessel large enough to live on. Or, you can seek a used, well maintained inexpensive boat like an older vintage Sea Ray or Chris Craft. Here’s a 1991 Sea Ray 35 foot for sale for $30,000.
You’ll need at least a 30’ boat, where most minimum slip prices start. 40’ is more reasonable. If primarily for a place to stay, you may not even need a boat that runs well. Most marinas require a boat capable of powering itself into a slip, and once there it sits.
Here’s is a vintage 1947, 40’ Chris-Craft that you could live aboard for sale at $65,000. You’d spend a lot of time on maintenance, just refinishing and polishing teak!
The Financial Cost
As of 01/2025 Marina Jack was charging about $20/foot for a minimum of a 30 foot boat ($600) plus electricity for about $90/month. Leaving the boat there, you’ll have to pay for divers to clean the bottom from algae and mussels that grow in the warm water at around $200/month. You’ll have to repaint the bottom every two years for around $2500.
There is cleaning that needs to be done if you are absent and maintenance (e.g., new batteries, yearly engine overhauls) and routine costs like insurance, AC repair, etc. and sales tax for marina services, so figure around $1200/month for a 30’ boat or about $1500 for a 40’ boat which will need two 30 amp electric supplies, double the cost for a smaller boat. Also, there is a three-year wait for a slip and live-aboards are not allowed at Marina Jack, only for a couple weeks at a time although there are no “dock police” to enforce this rule.
A cheap option is to moor the boat, but on a dock you have septic disposal and electric available. I know nurses who are full-time in the live-aboard mooring field on the other side of Bayfront Park for a flat rate of $270/month for boats 30’ to 49.’ You dinghy into the marina park it and keep a car there. A pump-out boat can be called to take away septic waste for free, but tips are advised. There are nice bathrooms with showers in the marina and laundry facilities. Bring the boat in weekly to take on water and load heavier supplies on-board.
You’ll deal with oppressive humidity especially in the summer without an electrical hookup for AC, and folks tell me they have mold and a lot of laundry bills (there are machines in the marina). A local storage area for overflow stuff will add $160/mo at least. And, it gets hot, very hot, during the summer when hurricanes and named storms come through.
The Emotional Cost
The worry factor of keeping a yacht year-round in Sarasota became real for us. Hurricane Ian was heading for us in 2022 when it diverted and took out Fort Myers. In 2024 this writer watched from Massachusetts as five named storms headed up the Gulf of Mexico, any of which could have affected Sarasota. Two did, and caused great damage, Hurricanes Helene and Milton, with only a few weeks in-between.
This stimulated his search for a place to live on land, which allowed him to downsize his live-aboard boat to something that could be trailered out of harms way with a few hours notice. With global warming and the increase in severe weather, it is no longer a good option to keep a big boat in Florida year-round, but a slip rental still made sense for the winter season. Our boat now goes on its trailer back-and-forth to Cape Cod for about $3000 per trip each season.
In 2022 seasonal dockage for a three month minimum was $30/foot at Marina Jack. Transient and seasonal slips are far more available than yearly dockage. Of course there are other marinas in the area, but none downtown. There are live-aboard marinas in the Palmetto/Bradington area. But, the storm risk remains especially in the summer hurricane season.
So we moved from the boat into a condo. We’ll share our thinking on why and how to buy a downtown home in Sarasota without breaking the bank in the next section.
