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margot

@neauoire i think there are a lot of potential young sailors out there who find it financially daunting, with the growing disparity in the wealth gap and hollowing out of the middle class. it'll be interesting to see if the culture can or is even willing to figure out a way to pivot to fix those issues

10 comments
Devine Lu Linvega

@emaytch I got priced of living on land, living on the water is the only way we could continue to exist here. It's way more affordable than the insane rent prices in Canada. Maybe this is different in other countries, where it's more of a luxury thing

margot

@neauoire yeah, i can really only speak for my situation and what i've seen but currently i'm trapped in a vicious cycle where covid screwed up my finances enough that now it's difficult for me to save up for the initial cost of a boat after my (egregious) rent + living expenses, even after cutting most things down to the bone

Devine Lu Linvega

@emaytch that's tough, I'm so sorry to hear. I feel like we slipped out right at the last minute, timing wise we got incredibly lucky. It wasn't so much a tactical choice, we just panicked. I hope you find a way too

AN/CRM-114

@neauoire @emaytch Speaking only for myself, but te the difference between having a boat/RV/cottage as a home vs. as a Thing

A single engine plane or a horse is a Thing. It takes a significant investment of time and money, so all my free time is spent in the Thing and the rest of the Thing is stored away in a location I pay rent on. I may not have time to maintain the Thing so I have to pay someone to do that for me. Thats why I can only have one Thing.

And for people who don’t have any free time, their house or apartment becomes their Thing too

For me to make a boat my home, I have to be able to keep it moving and fix it myself, and get rid of everything else. To have that confidence, I’d have to have grown up on the water, made a career of it on some else’s boat, or spent years having it be my Thing

Did you take any of those paths?

@neauoire @emaytch Speaking only for myself, but te the difference between having a boat/RV/cottage as a home vs. as a Thing

A single engine plane or a horse is a Thing. It takes a significant investment of time and money, so all my free time is spent in the Thing and the rest of the Thing is stored away in a location I pay rent on. I may not have time to maintain the Thing so I have to pay someone to do that for me. Thats why I can only have one Thing.

Devine Lu Linvega

@flyingsaceur @emaytch No, we just sort of winged it and got lucky winging it, we started at the same time as others who weren't as lucky and either sunk, or half scared themselves to death. I don't think everyone should be living on the water, but it was our last resort, if we weren't living so far away from friends and family who could help us, our situation might have played out differently too, and a life on the water would have been way down the list of what is sensible.

AN/CRM-114

@neauoire @emaytch It used to be that the marina could be a middle class thing when there was a difference between a boat and a a yacht in the US. Like a lot of other nice things, it became a lot harder for most people to have them without strong unions

spooky blip 👻

@neauoire @emaytch It *can* be more affordable than living on land, but I don't find it to be broadly true. Boats are bloody expensive to deal with.

But regardless, at least here on the Washington side of the border, the current barrier to entry for recreational sailing anything bigger than a dinghy (or maybe a trailer-sailer monohull on the smaller end of things) is moorage. Nearly every marina in western washington has waitlists months to years long, even for NOT living aboard. Just moorage.

Devine Lu Linvega

@klardotsh @emaytch In Canada, I can feel we're at the tail end of that era that still makes it possible for us.

Avi Bryant

@neauoire @klardotsh @emaytch liveaboard moorage does feel pretty hard to find even in B.C. in my limited experience. But winter non-liveaboard is very available and not too expensive. (Year round… better buy a house with a dock).

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