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It has always been a dream of mine to live on a boat for a while. I am thinking about Washington DC and was wondering if anyone has any light to shed on this subject. If not specifically in the Washington DC or possibly the Baltimore, MD area, then any insight you can provide would be greatly appreciated. Costs, pros, cons.
I honestly know next to nothing about living on a boat, but in DC I think the only place to do it is Gangplank Marina. Below are some links with some information. The neighborhood around there is predominantly residential until you get to the highway, then it's all office buildings (mostly government). In general it's fairly quiet, and has a good community feel to it. It's also a great location in that it's convenient to other parts of the city and suburbs (both by public transit and car). There's a lot of development going on, especially by the Metro station and the waterfront itself, so there is a little uncertainty about what's going to happen to the marina while there's construction.
However, Gangplank has a waiting list so you won't be living aboard there anytime soon. I know that a marina in Georgetown also has live-aboard spaces, and I'd assume that there would be others downriver (Alexandria, surely).
If you're interested in living aboard, there are very few options in the DC area. Gangplank has liveaboards as does one of the Marinas in Fort Washington. Some other marinas and yacht clubs may have informal liveaboards (often called "sneakaboards." If you want to know about the waiting list, check with the Marina itself. You may be able to move to the front of the line by buying a boat from a current liveaboard. Be aware that Gangplank limits the number of liveaboards. Having a boat in a slip doesn't mean you can live on it.
The Gangplank liveaboard community is a great group of people, although I gather there's some question as to the future of liveaboards after the renovation of the Southwest waterfront.
Be aware that even if living on a boat has been a "dream" for you, that dream could turn into a nightmare pretty quickly if you don't really love boats. In my opinion, living on anything smaller than about a 40 foot powerboat is a lot like camping out. Living on most boats above 40 feet short of a very high end yacht is a lot like living in a trailer. If you choose a sailboat, you probably need to be at least ten feet longer than a powerboat to get interior volume in the same league. Big boats are fairly expensive to buy, expensive to dock, and expensive to heat and cool. They are maintenance intensive, and if you can't do the maintenance yourself, it will cost a lot to have someone else do it. Boat mortgages and insurance can be problems for liveaboards, especially on older boats. Most boats aren't well insulated and can get cold during a DC winter.
All that said, I lived on a 46' powerboat a few years ago at Gangplank and loved every minute of it. I grew up around boats and it was a dream for me, too. It was not cheap, though. For what it cost me to buy, dock, and maintain the boat I could have rented a one-bedroom apartment in a great neighborhood.
However, Gangplank has a waiting list so you won't be living aboard there anytime soon. I know that a marina in Georgetown also has live-aboard spaces, and I'd assume that there would be others downriver (Alexandria, surely).
I didn't know Georgetown had those. Neat! I don't know don't really see a lot of docks in Alexandria. There are some but not that many, so not sure about Alexandra.
Thanks so much for the info. The links were especially helpful. At this stage in my life, I just want to do new and different things. I made the move back to NYC to experience the city for 2 years and I am looking for my next quest. The size doesn't bother me as much as the noise from the airport which I hadn't really thought about. So now I know I probably need to scratch Southwest off of my list.
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