Free Boats

I've been surfing craigslist.org for the last few years looking for cheap/free boats to start my adventure on.  The issue is, free boats are REALLY REALLY expensive, unless of course you know someone really wealthy that has taken immaculate care of their boat, and just decided that you deserved to have it.  Let's be honest, that doesn't happen for us mere mortals. 

If you're wondering why I said free boats are expensive, here is why:  Its not the boat itself that is your major expense, but rather all of the equipment needed to make it liveable.  A small sailboat can have many of the amenities of a house, like an oven, microwave, flushing toilet (head), stereo system, and electric lights.  Some of these items are significantly more expensive for the marine versions vs. their land based counterparts.  Lets take the oven for example.  An oven with stove top for a home can be bought for approximately $300 for something that is not the bottom tier.  If you want a 2 burner stove top with oven for a boat, expect to spend something close to $1000 before running the tubing for a propane bottle, as well as the appropriate regulators and warning systems for leaks.  If you want all the amenities of home, you'd better be prepared to shell out the major money to make it happen. 


The boat I am looking into is a Columbia 26.  It was built from 1963-69.  Its old.  In okay shape, but its still old.  That means things need to be fixed, replaced, or retrofitted.  These all cost money.  The boat currently does not have a head (marine term for a toilet).  To bring it up to standards (aka- not pumping raw sewage over the side), a holding tank has to be put in, a head needs to be acquired, the pump out fittings have to be installed, and the hoses all run. Or, another option is to go with a composting head (expect more posts on this topic!!).  Yes, they are available!  It also makes taking care of the waste more manageable, especially since there is no sewage line or leeching field to hook up to.  Both will run into the high hundreds of dollars, maybe more, and both have their pros and cons.  At $800, this boat is pretty much free, and as you see, expensive.  If I took some time and saved some more money, I could buy a boat for $3000-5000 that would be basically finished and need nothing or very little.  To me, that means putting this whole adventure off for another year or two, and that's no fun!  There's no adventure to buying something that is already finished. 

Hopefully, I am going to go take one last look at the boat to do a final check to make sure I did not miss something catastrophic, like a mast with a hole in it.  More updates to come!!!