If suddenly this idea comes to mind, it is clearly not by itself, somewhere I saw and heard that people live on yachts, travel and enjoy life. Ok, it happens ... Then you start trying on yourself, but what if it's true, instead of buying a house or apartment in Thailand, Cyprus, etc. buy a yacht?
Pros:
- as in none of the countries South-East Asia it is practically impossible to get permanent residence, then why buy something here? It is not clear what will happen there and what to do with this house? And in general, according to the docks, your only house, and the land on which it is rented, also does not warm the soul very much.

Many people are happy to buy something, but they cannot decide on a country, a city, or a region. Well, really, how do I know where I want to live in 5 years and I don’t really want to be attached “forever” to some place.

Sometimes I want to travel, but with a bunch of children it is not only expensive, but also quite difficult and tiring. There is an opinion that if a family has children, then everything, life has stopped. You are tied to school, kindergarten, housing ... We don’t want to put up with this :)))

yacht: all yours! I wanted to live in Thailand, I wanted to live in Cambodia, I wanted to live in the Philippines, etc. your home is always with you, and impressions around you can change. You can just as well live in Hua Hin or Koh Samui, Phuket, do business or the same thing we do, but at the same time live on a yacht and when you want to travel around the islands. It is akin to a Turtle that always carries its home with it.

a few more benefits olegradul

"In the sea, it's like you find yourself in a parallel universe that lives according to different laws. I'm still in awe of the world in which I found myself when I started sailing.

At sea, there is no such crowd as in most other beautiful places on the planet, accessible by land. You can go to the most beautiful corners of any popular resorts and be surprised to find that you are here alone.

Even the central embankments, always full of tourists, are always open and free from the sea. You can come here and stand, in fact, in the very center of the city, while remaining at home. Tourists will walk along the promenade and take pictures of your yacht, and you can sit inside and drink tea. Or go for a walk with them."

A yacht is a kind of transport to a parallel reality. Even going ashore, you still remain in a slightly different world than those who move on land.

Having lived on a yacht, you understand in what rigid framework we all live on land, being under constant control by the state. For example, in the sea there is something like traffic rules (called COLREGs). These rules are needed to ensure that ships do not collide with each other. But no one catches violators, hiding in the bushes. No cameras, no posts, no radar. Or here, the permissible number of ppm in the blood of the helmsman. Zero three? Zero eight? Yes, as much as you like! If the captain decided to put someone on watch, then he has every right to do so. All norms and rules in force on land are replaced at sea with just one concept - the responsibility of the captain. On each boat, the captain himself sets his own rules, but he will also have to answer, in which case. Such a simple law. Freedom and responsibility.

Here you arrive, say, in another country. Or you are coming. One way or another, you go to the window, hold out your passport, the stern uncle looks at your photo, then at you, then he finds a visa, studies it and stamps it. Only after that you can enter the territory of the country. Things are quite different at sea. I happened to pass the borders on a yacht five times. In all cases, questions passport control on the ship is completely trusted by the captain. That is, no customs checks how many people you have on board, who all these people are. The captain himself goes to the port and provides data immediately for the entire team. Either passports are stamped, or more often just a list of people on a piece of paper (crew list), even without passports. At first, of course, the brain takes out: how so? You sail to the territory of another state, no one checks you. You go to the beach, no one cares. You run around the city, looking for the services you need (port duty officer, customs), while neither you nor your team, no one has yet looked at a single document! So, for example, when I came to Italy, I ran for half a day, trying to put stamps on entry into Schengen. And I went to the police, and to the coast guard, and even looked into the tourist office. The whole city went around in circles. As a result, one policeman told me “wait”, got into the car, drove somewhere for a seal, brought and stamped all the passports that I had with me. And all this, again, in absentia - neither people had to be presented, nor a yacht.

A week later, I got into a conversation with an old acquaintance and it turned out that he, the cunning one, did not get formalized in Italy at all! He just comes on a yacht from Montenegro and hangs out in Schengen as much as he wants, and then back, as if nothing had happened. This, of course, is already beyond good and evil, but nevertheless it illustrates very well the degree of control at sea.

________________________________________ __

OK, everything is cool, we decided to live on a yacht, but we do not dream of going around the world at a frantic pace, we are a family with four children who just want to live on a yacht, like in an ordinary house and sometimes explore the coast of the Asian region and maybe change countries.
We began to study the yacht market and found that there are simply no yachts that meet our requirements!
These are either yachts for athletes, lonely sea wolves, little space, a lot of speed, almost no living conditions, a washing machine is a dream! Or charter yachts for week trips. A little more comfort, but for the price this is already a yacht for Abramovich.
And our requirements are simple - a yacht-house, bright, moderately spacious, with the surrounding space thought out for long-term living, with shelves, cabinets, etc.
you have to build it yourself! :)

power >>> wind

Personal experience: How to move to live on a yacht and not screw up

Anna Balagurova, former editor-in-chief of The Village Petersburg online newspaper, gave up her career and office work a little less than a year ago to travel across the Atlantic with her husband. On the website of Snob magazine, she maintains a detailed blog about her adventures, and she told us about how she got used to life on a ship while crossing the ocean.

I was on a sailing boat for the first time a year and a half ago. By some absurd accident, in Helsinki, during the Flow festival. My friend somewhere picked up guys from St. Petersburg who came there to race. We were, of course, invited to join, but only as detractors - we were not good for anything else. It seems that a friend was then instructed to "mine a spinnaker in a kitty." It was funny to me, but she was practically buried under sail.

Then, by another chance, I met my future husband - a yacht instructor. We drank a lot, talked about how we want to live and travel. In general, we were extremely romantic and agreed that a sailboat is an ideal option for both of us. This is at the same time a transport that moves by the forces of nature (that is, free of charge), a house anywhere in the world (also inexpensive), and even an opportunity to earn money by teaching or simply driving people. It sounded like a good plan, and we decided not to give it up.

It remained to choose and buy a boat. There were several requirements - a reliable yacht for the oceans (the so-called blue water cruiser), in the Mediterranean Sea (so that you can reach the Canaries without entering the evil Biscay and the English Channel), costing up to 60,000 euros (to leave a little for an upgrade) and, of course in good condition. Through the Internet, we found several almost perfect options in Sweden for half the price of what we planned. But all these northern seas... in general, we became too lazy, because it was June, and already in November we were going to start in the transatlantic. We bought our 1985 Westerly in Greece. A solid English shipyard, pedantic owners, a beer opener on the step, again. I immediately felt sympathy for this neat and solid boat, for its funny chubby owners, who unashamedly declared that they did not like strong winds, and also that they would take away the grill, because without a grill their summer would be ruined.

A little paperwork with registration of the boat and insurance - and already in July we began to slowly move towards Gibraltar with stops in pleasant coastal cities, from mossy Sicilian resorts to magnificent Syracuse and Palma de Mallorca. Thus began my life on the boat.

The first thing you had to get used to was roll and roll. How to live when your world is tilted 30 degrees? How to sleep when you are thrown from side to side? Well, let's say you're not in the transition, but at the anchorage, but damn it, you're still rocking, it's water! You go out to the ground - you sway out of habit. After crossing the ocean, I almost stopped paying attention to it. Firstly, I caught zen from the realization that I would have to hang out in open water for at least three weeks. Secondly, I wanted pancakes and fried potatoes even in a five-meter wave, so I had to get out. Remember - sometimes at anchorages it shakes almost like in the middle of the Atlantic. So if you want to live on a yacht, train your vestibular apparatus. At least on the carousels.

Learn to conserve water. If you are not overly rich and cannot afford an extra 400-500 euros per month for comfortable marinas, get used to spending 10 liters of water on a major wash (in the ocean, 2-3 was enough for my body and hair, but this is too spartan ). Washing dishes or washing with fresh water is out of the question - everyone living on a yacht has sea water taps (although we do laundry in laundries and increasingly use paper plates). There is one controversial point here - all waste products are thrown out of the yacht straight into the sea. The so-called gray water (from dishes and showers) can be drained almost anywhere in the world. Black water (from the toilet) in many countries is required to be stored in collector tanks on the boat and pumped out in specially designated places. Taken together, this all sounds terribly crazy. Shit diluted in water is much more harmless than fairies or alkaline shampoos. On a yacht, I try to use eco-friendly household chemicals and cosmetics, but rather for complacency. Because on the scale of the oceans, this is simply ridiculous.

In addition to water, you will have to save electricity. We travel in sunny regions, so for our needs (refrigerator, recharging phones and laptops, light, autopilot), two solar panels are almost always enough. Many people install windmills and water turbines on boats - versatile, but prohibitively expensive. We also have a water maker installed - incredible useful thing giving full autonomy from the shore. True, distilled water should not be drunk for too long due to the complete absence of useful substances contained in ordinary water. We fill full tanks every time we have the opportunity. 350 liters of water is enough for the two of us for more than 2 weeks.

Those who live on the water need to periodically get out to the shore - not everything is to sit at home. For this purpose, they usually use a small inflatable boat with a motor or oars (although in the Canaries I saw two girls who ignored the oars and rowed with fins). It is almost impossible to leave this enterprise with a dry bottom. So, let's imagine: early Saturday morning, you fall out of the bar. What's next? That's right, you get into a taxi to go home to sleep. And I wander along the beach or the promenade in search of my seedy boat, which turned into an inflatable pool overnight, enter into an unequal battle with a wave, jellyfish, an engine even more sluggish than me. In general, one wrong move and the boat is on your head. We recently forgot to take our oars with us, for the first time in our lives. Of course, on the way back, our engine died, also for the first time in our lives. We were stuck on our inflatable hernia in the middle of the bay in the very center of Bridgetown, where at that time we were celebrating the 50th anniversary of the independence of Barbados. Under the hooting of the crowd from the embankment, they buried their hands and after 40 minutes they were on the yacht (the way under the motor was about three minutes). The ridiculous situations in which you find yourself while living at anchor are beyond count.

School of captains

Everyone can become a captain of a sailing ship - all you need is a desire and a good instructor. The Power of the Wind will teach you everything you need to know and be able to, and after passing the exam, you will be issued an international class driver's license. We conduct theoretical courses in the center of Moscow, and practice in the Mediterranean and the Canary Islands. Come to class!

Otherwise, everything is like at home or rather in the country. A bedroom with a large bed, a living room with a large table, internet (we have an aerial booster to steal wifi from coastal cafes), even an oven (to store frying pans). There is a TV in the cabin - exclusively for watching movies and TV shows. There are speakers in the cockpit so you can dance on deck or just have a feast. As for the feasts - yachtsmen are not fools at all to drink. One of the terms that came into my everyday life after moving to the boat - sundowner - means "a glass of alcohol drunk at sunset." Another term was coined by my husband - "Polish Yachting". This is when you rent a boat for a week and never leave the marina because you drink all day. From the name it is clear that the Poles do this mainly, not us.

Any racer will spit in my face when they see what my boat turns into at anchorages. A hammock dangles on the spinnaker boom, a bucket is tied to the fur sheet of the staysail (well, so as not to drop it), shorts are dried on the rails. Books and clothes are scattered everywhere, the kitchen is overgrown with a bunch of little things - this happens to everyone who hangs in one place for more than a few days. After a couple of weeks in the parking lot, it's hard to force yourself to go out to sea. Too lazy to collect everything, fix it, lay it out in lockers. Reluctance to mess with the anchor, then with the sails. Well, if you need to go for a short time and with good wind. Transitions for more than a day in our case turn into seizure yachting. Long hours of procrastination on deck, and then - a sudden change in the wind, a gust, a torn sheet, running around under the heart-rending cries of the captain. At first, I was stunned by the fact that the captain is actually my husband. I still don't understand why he's yelling like that! They say that almost all skippers behave in a similar way, no matter how nice people they are in ordinary life. In the USA there is a yachting school for women, with women owners and teachers. So, their slogan is “No shout”. I think it's very cool and right.

I read in many yachting blogs that after living on a yacht it is difficult to return to the cities, because the boat gives a feeling of freedom and all that, and the city subjugates itself, leaving only the illusion of choice. It seems to me that in many respects this is slyness. To balance between the inexpensive gypsy life on a yacht and maintaining the boat in a condition suitable for serious transitions, you need money, at the current rate, quite a lot. This means that it is still impossible to exclude oneself from the circle of capitalist relations. To some extent, you become a slave to your own boat. If you want to radically change the situation, you need money not only for yourself, but also for the parking of the yacht. The apartment can be locked up and forgotten, and only a rather careless owner can leave the yacht hanging at anchor and just dump. The most painless, in my opinion, scenario is as follows: for six months, while the weather is good in Europe, travel, stopping at anchor, and put the boat in an inexpensive marina for the winter (if you look, you can meet 600-700 euros for 6 months) and leave home to work. With more exotic places, this will not work - flying away is expensive, leaving the boat is even more expensive. If everything is tired, you are in a hopeless situation.

A big bonus of owning a yacht in Europe is the opportunity to stay abroad almost indefinitely without worrying about a visa. If without unnecessary details - put a stamp on exit in any of the EU countries. This is done either at the local police station or at the passenger port. Both there and there there are more important things than you with your visa, so they put the seals without looking. Upon arrival in the next country, the entry stamp can be “accidentally forgotten” until it is necessary to fly home. Such an unexpected loophole still does not fit in my head, because we are all used to serious control at airports and land borders. The Caribbean, on the other hand, turned out to be quite a bureaucratic place. Practically on every Antilles where we spend this winter, we need to draw up documents for entry and exit. In Barbados, among other things, we were sent to the medical office, where we had to fill out a questionnaire with questions like “have you died on board” and “does the crew have diarrhea”. But except on paper, there is no control. For more than half a year, our yacht has never been checked, although we have already crossed half the world. Even bring slaves, even enriched uranium. In that sense, having your own boat does give you a certain amount of freedom. This is probably why same-sex couples and all those who, for ideological or any other reasons, have ceased to be satisfied with life in modern cities quite often travel on yachts.

An interesting discussion ensued about life on a 40+ yacht. User Alloy Boy wondered what it was like to move from an apartment to a small boat:

“All day long I see yachts from the window of my office, and it seems to me that life on them flows so serenely. he writes. - Is it really there nowhere to turn around, it seems to me (if you live alone)? How quickly do they depreciate? A quick search reveals that a 40-footer is comparable in price to an apartment or a small house, but what are the advantages of living on a yacht (other than mobility)?

Here are the responses he received:

Imaka

"It's a very relaxed life and quite comfortable, but it all depends on your needs and desires. By the way, in most places you will pay much less for a 40-foot yacht than for an apartment.

Life on a boat is not for everyone. It can be pleasant and relaxing, but to make it so, you have to work hard. If it is possible to live on a yacht without buying it, then you should do it.

You must take care of fresh water and emptying the waste tank. For water, you will have to run ashore - sometimes to the marina. In some places there is water delivery to the boat, but experience tells me that this is rather an exception. Personally, I haven't been so lucky. When my husband and I stood in one place for a long time, we had to grab 20 liters of water every time we went ashore.

Need electricity? If so, consider wind turbines or solar panels, depending on where you live. Fridge? The most energy-hungry device on a yacht. There are less voracious, but they will cost you a pretty penny. Would you like to have a hot shower on the boat? Consider whether your area is warm enough to make do with a daily "summer shower" or if you should buy a water heater.

What about the concoction? If you have a gas stove, especially the Force 10, two burners and an oven, that's great, some people complement it with a barbecue grill in the cockpit. With a stove, you should have a gas detector in the cabin in case there is a leak, the gas can accumulate on the bottom of the boat, causing an explosion.

If you are at anchor, then you will have to get to the shore on a dinghy every day. Make sure it doesn't get stolen. Is there transport on the beach? So much the better, you don’t have to carry laundry, food, etc. on your hump. Do you work every day? Keep in mind that there will be days when it will not be easy to get to the shore by dinghy.

Do you want TV and internet on board? We usually used Mobile Internet. Sometimes it was lucky to catch an unpassworded wi-fi. A sufficiently high-mounted antenna will provide reception of free TV channels. Naturally, the picture quality will "limp" when the boat is moving.

Again, depending on the region, clothing can suffer from moisture and mold. To avoid this, we hid everything in airtight bags.

There are those who prefer to rent places in marinas, they live on board and get most of the comforts of a normal home. But not all marinas allow it.

I would repeat my experience if given the opportunity and if the right person is around."

driver2

"Thinking about it myself. I've been swimming for years, I'm approaching retirement, and the prospect of having a second home is appealing. If you're working, you probably don't want such a drastic change.

If life in a kennel does not scare you, then go ahead. On a yacht in a marina, you get the following: long walks to and from the car with purchases, daily trips to the showers in the marina (a drain bank will save the situation, but you can’t empty it in the marina, and it’s expensive to pay for it weekly) or you can go out to sea every week to empty it there.

Highly recommend a light (or white) interior. Dark wood is depressing during the winter months. In addition, in winter you can suffer from claustrophobia. That is why for those who are planning to live on a boat, I advise you not to skimp on space. The more space, the better your mental health.

It's a lot like living in a camper...with the chance of drowning."

DoH

No washer/dryer. "Interruptions" with water. Everything is modest with cabinets and cooking. The beds leave a lot to be desired. Shower with boxes. Everything is damp all year round. The smell of gasoline if you have a motorboat. Knock on the pier, even if the boat is tied. Many yachts don't have heaters, none of the ones I've been on have air conditioning. At best, you will just be cramped. Entertainment is tight. Getting a pet is almost impossible. Straighten up to your full height? Forget it.

Everything, of course, is true, but I myself would like to live on a boat - but only on a long journey, and not huddle in a marina and dangle back and forth to work. Maybe live in the Caribbean in the winter and move to Maine for the summer? I would also like to North America reach Europe. A completely different life!

Think of it this way: having a boat as your home is like having a motorcycle for all occasions. Sounds romantic, but how convenient is it in practice?

william g

You don't have to stay where you don't want to, you are literally and figuratively the "Captain of your ship" and no one will argue with that.

Despite the incomprehensible legal status, a new format of residential real estate is becoming popular in Russia - houseboats.

Photo: Depositphotos/S_Razvodovskij

Floating houses have always been very popular in Europe. In Russia, this is a relatively new phenomenon, but the demand for such houses outstrips supply by several times.

In Europe, there are much more houses on the water than in Russia: in countries such as Germany or the Netherlands, river plots are much cheaper than land, so many people prefer to settle on the water. A similar format of residential real estate is also popular in France, where for permanent residence on the water it is necessary to buy a special permit from the city hall, which gives the right to equip and lay communications to boat houses.

(Photo: Robert Harding/Globallookpress)

(Photo: Lisa S. Engelbrecht / Globallookpress)

“In our country, the supply market for housing on water is rather narrow,” says Mikhail Bykov, commercial director of the Dom na Voda company. “Few Russians imagine what a “floating house” is due to the lack of a competent advertising policy. do not know where and how this type of housing is presented.

However, there is a demand for "water" housing in Russia, says Oksana Diveeva, director of the urban real estate sales department at Blackwood. According to her, demand exceeds supply several times.

What is floating housing

The cheapest option is house on pontoons. The pontoons are combined with each other into a single floating platform. This platform also holds the building located on the site on the water. Despite the rather impressive weight, the design has good stability and has the properties of a vessel that keeps well afloat. In addition, the pontoon is not subject to corrosion and its service life is several hundred years. According to experts, this type of housing has a huge potential: pontoons provide for the possibility of building a house according to an individual project.

barges, equipped for housing, are much less common. An old barge can be converted into housing. But it's easier to order a barge at the shipyard. Such houses are distributed mainly in Europe and the USA. In Russia, the prospects for the use of barges remain vague.

houseboat combines the functions of a yacht and a country house. It is intended for movement on inland waters. This is a whole two-story "house on the water", completely ready for living. The houseboat can be equipped with one or two engines, petrol or diesel, outboard or stationary. This houseboat travels at a maximum speed of 20 km/h.

landing stage- quite an expensive type of real estate. This technology provides for the construction on concrete structures. The main advantage of such houses on the water is that they provide freedom for the implementation of any architectural ideas. There are practically no limits for the imagination of designers and architects. On a solid concrete landing stage, it is possible to build quite large houses several floors high.

Landing stages can either work autonomously, having their own generator, their own water supply, ventilation and sewerage system. However, they can also be connected to local networks, to the central communications of the city, if necessary, they can swim autonomously (for example, when moving to another parking place). However, it is quite difficult to repair such a floating object. “The landing stage needs to be periodically raised to the slipway and the skin should be examined for leaks. This is quite expensive if it is not possible to carry out these works using slipways, but diving to identify and eliminate leaks does not give a complete picture of the quality of the repair work being performed,” says Mikhail Bykov.

"Any of these types of floating houses can be equipped with the necessary infrastructure to live in it. all year round. For example, you can put a toilet marine type with manual descent or put a tank of 100 liters. But for this, the owner needs to think over the scheme for approaching the sewer to the house or adjust the watercraft to the place of pumping out, "advises Dmitry Sobinyakov, commercial director of the Mikizha company (creates houses on the water).

How much do houses on the water cost

"The safety of a landing stage depends on the materials and technologies used in its construction, engineering infrastructure systems, but most importantly - on a properly built foundation. You need to buy landing stages after a technical audit," warns Oksana Diveeva.

The cost of such a project depends on the size, quality of construction and engineering equipment. "The estimated cost of building a houseboat starts from 2 million rubles, and in some cases the price goes up to 3 million dollars," says an expert from the Blackwood company.

It is impossible to register in a "floating house", but it can be registered with the State Inspectorate for Small Vessels as a floating craft. This requires lights and life-saving equipment on board. Registration problems may arise if the size of the house exceeds 20 m in length. With such a size, it is already necessary to apply to the River Register.

Vera Kozubova