Views, romance, repair bills. What it’s like living aboard a boat

More than 400 boats of varying sizes and shapes float in Tacoma’s Thea Foss Waterway, waiting to be pushed out into the open sea. For a community of about 120 living in the Foss Harbor Marina, the largest live-aboard neighborhood in South Puget Sound, boat life is synonymous with freedom and a unique connection to the outdoors.

It’s a lifestyle that’s gaining popularity. Marina employees say they’ve seen more people apply to live there in recent years as traditional housing options become less affordable.

Beth Stone and her husband Richard, both 74, sold their home and 17-foot canoe four years ago to buy a motor yacht to travel and live in full-time at the Foss Harbor Marina. Forty years ago, Stone said she read the book, “Dove,” about an adventurous teenager who sailed the world solo, and the dream of doing something similar never went away. After retiring from the corporate world a couple years ago, Stone said the couple brainstormed how they wanted to spend their golden years, debating if they wanted to travel internationally, buy a boat or live in an RV.

“He was excited about boating life, so before he could change his mind, I dragged him to all the boat shows and he got hooked,” Stone said with a laugh.

Aboard the “Barnacle Betsy” on Monday, a nickname Stone accepts because she gets “more barnacley the older I get,” the couple gave a tour of their 50-foot-long living space. Those who live aboard learn to make small spaces work: Their sectional sofa cushions come off to reveal storage closets hidden in the walls, and a washer-dryer is tucked below the dining area’s bench.

“When we’re not cruising, we tell people we sit in our condo on the water,” Stone said.

An alternative lifestyle

Foss Harbor Marina, along 821 Dock St., rents 416 slips, essentially parking spots for boats, and about 120 people live on their boats there full-time, said Foss Marina general manager Ian Wilkinson.

Boaters who live aboard have to meet environmental standards and other criteria related to waste disposal. They also have access to potable water, electrical service, internet and cable at Foss Harbor Marina, in addition to bathrooms, hot showers and laundry facilities ashore. A convenience store sells tools, snacks and sandwiches, and the marina hosts regular events and parties for residents. Boaters pay between a couple hundred to a couple thousand a month to live there, depending on boat size and use, Wilkinson said.

The rising cost of housing and rent has driven more people to alternative housing and lifestyles, Wilkinson said. In the last five years, demand for moorage at Foss Harbor Marina has been so high that between 100 and 160 people are on the waiting list, which can take between six months and five years depending on slip availability, he said.

Before he bought a boat to live on two years ago, 39-year-old marina employee Eric Phillips said he was paying $900 a month to rent a room in a house he shared with four roommates in Proctor. Phillips said living on a sailboat now is ideal as it’s more private, minimalist and manageable. He gets a discount for working in the marina but estimates someone would pay between $500-$700 a month to rent a slip there.

“It’s the cheapest property on the water, that’s for sure,” said Chandler Cutshall, 26, who has been living on a small motor yacht at Foss Harbor Marina for about a year and a half. Cutshall said he enjoys living downtown, within walking distance of coffee shops, the shore and everything in between. After looking into van life, Cutshall said he realized he was more drawn to ocean-living and exploring the Puget Sound.

When he was renting a two-bedroom apartment in Fife, Cutshall said, rent ate up half his paycheck. Living at the marina? “It’s so much cheaper. I don’t have to worry about every six months my rent going up.”

In all, Cutshall said he pays about $800 a month, about $1,200 cheaper than he was paying in Fife.

“I definitely enjoy the rocking and being rocked to sleep. I think it’s being able to see all of these incredible views. Everybody pays tons of money to be on the water, on the Sound, on the ocean, in condos and whatever and have that overlook. But when you’re on the water, you get to see the opposite,” he said. “When you’re in the open space of the water and looking up, you have these unrestricted views of … Mount Rainier, for instance, that goes all the way from the waterline to the top of the mountain. And from that lower perspective you can see the industrial zone, higher up on the slope you can see all the residential [houses] and then you see into the wilderness.”

A view with a cost

Although boaters gush about the views and freedom of boat life, living aboard doesn’t come without its challenges. Residents live in confined spaces and battle storms and cold in the winter months. Boats are also prone to break and expensive to maintain, as the Stones have learned.

Beth Stone jokes that she didn’t actually retire but took on another full-time job: boat maintenance.

Although their 1991 Jefferson Rivanna is reliable with two good engines, “all the little things that break down can add up,” Stone said. The type and frequency of repairs can depend on how old the boat is, how much the owner is willing to invest in it and how skilled the boat owner is in making repairs, she said. Before they lived on the boat, the Stones spent six months learning about seamanship, navigation, charting, diesel-engine maintenance and marine electronics.

Like any home renovation, the Stones invested in some cosmetic upgrades to their boat, including new kitchen and bathroom counters. Barnacle scrapings every couple months cost a few hundred dollars, and there’s been other costs they didn’t expect, like a couple thousand dollars to repair dinged propellers and another couple thousand to replace the boat’s hydraulic steering. Stone said boat owners should know that boat values generally depreciate over time despite investments, unlike houses.

“Boat does stand for Bring On Another Thousand. … I will never complain about another auto bill again,” Stone said. “I would recommend for people to have some kind of money saved up.”

Because maintenance and repair work is expensive, and it’s hard to find qualified people who have time to work on your boat, many boat owners have to become handy and do work themselves, Phillips said. That makes it harder for new people to get into the live-aboard lifestyle, he said.

“Barrier to entry is pretty high with finding a slip and finding a good boat,” Phillips said. “Being able to just make that happen is pretty difficult for a lot of people.”

Samantha McLenachen lives with her husband Andrew, three young children and three cats on a sailboat at Foss Harbor Marina. The two met as single parents at a Foss Harbor Marina potluck in 2019 and recently bought 5.5 acres of land on Harstine Island, where they spend most of their weekends.

Andrew operates their local maritime repair business, Independent Marine Service, which Samantha said has seen so much business he’s had to limit his repair radius to the Foss Waterway.

“There has been such a decline in the marine trades, and there’s too much work and not enough professionals to go around,” she said. “As soon as he opened his business, he was quickly overwhelmed by the need.”

As for advice for anyone interested in the live-aboard lifestyle? Get on as many boats as possible, McLenachen said.

“Go to the boat shows, walk around boats, make friends with people who have boats. If they’re interested in sailing and they have no idea where to start, offer themselves up as crew, or just [get involved with] the Wednesday night races through the Yacht Club,” she said. “Get as much experience on boats as you possibly can before you commit to the lifestyle. And that’ll give people a good idea, too, of what they like and don’t like as they shop.”