I've always associated even small boats with great expense. Does living in them reduce the cost since you're not just storing it somewhere, paying for it to float empty in a harbor?
I did once ask my accountant if I could get away with using a boat as my office and claiming back against tax. He, cough somewhat poo-pooed the idea.
Apparently the taxman would require proof that I was only using the boat strictly as an office and should in no way enjoy the experience. Spoil sports.
It's kinda unfair as you can write off part of your rent, but not part of your liveaboard, even if it's your abode.
That said if you live as vagabond and don't have primary residence, wonder if you can get away from paying taxes at all. After all you are not using any countries resources.
I'm interested in boating, but haven't gotten into it. I have read a lot, for what that's worth. My impression is that people have the wrong mental model for boat economics and get screwed over because of it.
The core problem is that the total cost of ownership for a boat is a small fraction of its purchase price. Also, the incremental cost of owning one even when not using it is relatively high.
Think of cars. Let's say you get a little extra cash and you feel like having something fun to drive. You've got some extra space on your driveway. You get, I don't know, a used sports car or a camper van or something. Once you've gotten it, most of the expenditure is done. The insurance is cheap since it's not a daily drive. You've got space for it already.
In other words, if you can afford to buy a car, you can probably afford to own a car.
Any boat larger than a fishing boat that you can trailer yourself and store in your yard is the polar opposite of that.
Boats are actually pretty cheap to buy. There is a huge used market for boats driving prices down. There are many many people looking to not own a boat (which should probably be causing alarm bells to ring in your head). You can often find sailboats for free.
The reason is that the cost to own them is quite high. If you keep the boat in the water, you're paying rent at a marina slip. That's expensive in desireable areas. Populated coastal areas are obviously almost always desirable areas. Also, the water and its contents are constantly doing a number on the boat. Barnacles grow on it. The salt corrodes any exposed metal. Sunlight and UV light break down anything plastic. Every day of the boat's life is burning money regardless of whether or not you use the boat.
You can store it out of the water, and that helps. But that makes it even harder to take the boat out, so maybe you're not burning as much money every month, but you're also using it even less.
This does not mean that boating sucks or is unaffordable. It just means you need to have the right mindset for it. Don't think of a boat as a toy. And object that you can buy and put away when not in use. Think of it more like a pet, like a horse.
If you're rich, you can be a horse owner if you want and treat it like a toy. Throw many at it, pay stablehands to take care of the horse when you aren't around, and don't care about the money you're burning even when you aren't riding.
If you're not rich, you can also be a happy horse owner. But it has to be your thing. It will be a major part of your life, and occupy a very large slice of your free time. You'll move to the country to make it more affordable. You'll spend time every day taking care of your horse and enjoy the satisfaction of doing the work yourself. You may not have much time for other pursuits, but it will be your horse through and through.
I look at boats the same way. You be happy using it a few times a year if you're rich and don't mind throwing money at it. Or you can make it your thing and use it so frequently that the monthly expenses are amortized across a large volume of joyful use. But what you can't do is be a happy casual boat user if you aren't wealthy.
Yeah it can be very expensive if you don't know how to DIY many things that boat maintenance needs - wood, fiberglass, metal, textiles, electrics, hydraulics.
Simpler boats are definitely cheaper to maintain. Also try avoiding any sort of "projects" as they are always 10x longer and more expensive to do.
The economics tend to be different for most hobbyist pilots since they rent instead of owning a plane. But if you own a plane, my impression from talking to a few amateurs is that it's closer to an RV than to a boat. You need to get the plane inspected and serviced fairly frequently, but sitting in a hangar doesn't place a toll on a plane quite like sitting in water does for a boat. And planes, by virtue of being able to fly, can be stored in cheap hangers in the middle of nowhere. People love living on the coast, so marinas tend to sit on expensive real estate.
Unless you're moving your boat every couple of weeks you're likely to be paying mooring fees, though, and many places in London mooring fees for a boat with ~20m^2 living space costs more than I pay for a mortgage (in London) for five times that.
(though many of the available moorings will be in expensive areas where mortgages certainly would be much higher than mine)
I lived on a houseboat in Sydney for a few years. It was by far the cheapest lifestyle I have ever lived in this city, but it is not really lawful as I was on a swing mooring.
My fees for the mooring was only a few hundred dollars a year,
Live aboard tenants are generally only permitted in serviced marinas, and these get very expensive.
I was able to live on my vessel as I was in a small bay off The Georges river which flows into Botany Bay, and not Sydney harbour, where the rules are strictly enforced by authorities.
The water police on the river did not care about live aboards, and the local councils are only responsible for land until the high tide mark, so they didn't care either.
I once got a letter from some sort of port authority stating that living aboard vessels is not permitted, but it was not an actual enforcement notice.
The fact that you are (of course) permitted to visit or use your vessel at any time makes it either difficult, or costly, to prosecute I guess.
