11 Biggest Mistakes New Liveaboard Sailors Make
If you’ve just moved onto a sailboat full time then you will be rapidly finding out that there are many mistakes new liveaboard sailors make! No doubt you’ve already made a few yourselves!
Hopefully though, if you’re reading this article, there will now be 10 more mistakes that you’ll never make as you’ll be able to craftily avoid these common liveaboard mishaps!
We’ve put together our top 10 ‘must avoid at all costs!’ liveaboard mistakes, and yes, we have made the majority of these mistakes ourselves.
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#1 Buying A Boat With No Experience
Potentially the best way to throw away thousands of pounds! If you have no idea what sailing a boat is actually like then you’ll have no idea if you want to spend a day on one, let alone live on one. Many people move onto a boat thinking it will be like living in a small house when the reality is very different.
You need to be prepared for the constant motion, the fact your belongings need to be carefully packed away all the time, the limited resources, etc. If you think you want to live aboard then one of the best things you can do is get onto a boat and spend some time on it!
#2 Moving Aboard With No Financial Plans
It’s easy to read the success stories of others and think that making ends meet will be easy when living on a boat. One of the biggest mistakes new liveaboards make is rushing into a life at sea without any real plan of how they will make money to survive!
We’ve seen lots of cruisers run out of savings before the real adventure has started and retreat home to start again.
If this is your plan then it’s a great one – sailing for the summer and working the winter is a brilliant way to do things if you have a skill you can pick up and put down.
The key thing here is to have a plan before you set out. Decide how you’re going to make money BEFORE you set off. And the great news is that there are loads of different ways to make money on a sailboat, so it shouldn’t be too hard to do!
Don’t rely on making money from becoming a YouTube sailing channel, or making it big on Instagram. Very few people manage this, and even when they do it isn’t a reliable form of income. Think more long term and you’ll be sorted for as long as you need this adventure to last.
#3 Not Setting Up The Boat Properly Before Setting Sail
It is true that you can go sailing with very little, but being properly prepared with a few home comforts will make a huge difference to how long you can enjoy this lifestyle for.
You might find it romantic to throw out all your devices and watch the sunset instead of Netflix, but you’re not going to find things quite so attractive when you get stuck in a storm because you didn’t have the power to check the forecast. Or when you drag anchor because you neglected to buy the right size anchor for anchoring out in rough weather.
Think carefully about essentials before you head off into the unknown. These are some essential upgrades to consider.
A decent battery setup and solar
Make sure you have a decent battery bank to cover your needs and solar panels and/or a wind generator to keep you topped up while you’re away from shore power.
🏆 Lithium batteries are the way of the future, and we can thoroughly recommend Battle Born batteries, which you can just drop in. They have literally changed our lives on board! 🏆
An anchor setup to cover your needs
If you plan on spending the majority of your time in marinas or on town quays then your mooring setup will be more important (think a tonne of fenders and heafty lines), but if you want to anchor out then make sure you have a decent anchor, chain and snubber.
We have an oversized Delta (always oversize when it comes to anchors!), 80m of 10mm chain and a Lofrans windlass. We have held happily through 50+ knts and I have a lot of trust in our massive anchor.
Look into the best anchors for sand if you’re cruising the Med or Caribbean. And consider having a second anchor on board for the times you’re anchoring in mud or rock.
Invest in a watermaker
You might not want to splash out on a watermaker straight off, but we really wish we had! So here’s your reminder to consider it if you’ve got the money.
Having a watermaker and a decent power setup means you can live off the grid for as long as your tins of food run out. That’s a long time without needing to go to shore, and it makes a big difference to life on board.
It also means you can have regular showers and hand wash your clothes without having to be frugal with water usage or come in to a marina.
Check out the best sailboat watermakers.
#4 Thinking A Sailing Course Will Teach You All You Need To Know
We were very lucky here, but I wouldn’t suggest throwing caution to the wind as we did! It could have ended very differently.
Although we had spent time living on a boat and done some basic sailing, we had no formal qualifications before we moved on board. Unless you plan on getting the correct training before leaving safe harbour then we wouldn’t recommend this approach!
We were very fortunate as we met a solo sailing instructor needing crew for a long passage. We got to live aboard his sailboat for two weeks and he taught us not only the ICC syllabus but also all we needed to know about liveaboard life.
Things like how to anchor often aren’t taught in sailing courses, but as a liveaboard you’ll probably be spending a large amount of your time on the hook. Things like water conservation and provisioning for long trips won’t be covered and yet are essential to know about before you liveaboard full time.
With this in mind, be aware of the fact you’ll need to keep learning when you move aboard. Ask the sailing community questions, watch other people and read up on the things you’re lacking knowledge in. The worst thing you can do is approach this lifestyle thinking you know it all.
#5 Believing You Will Have Total Freedom
You won’t. Sailing gives you freedom in many ways but equally takes away freedom in others. You may think you have the freedom to go where you choose, but in reality, the predominant wind patterns in certain areas will have a big say over where and when you go places.
You will find there are more times than you’d probably like when you can’t get off the boat, for various reasons.
Currently, we are anchored next to a beautiful-looking town, and we would love to go and explore, but the wind is howling and it’s not safe to leave the boat. We’ve been ‘trapped’ aboard for two days now and we’re not going anywhere any time soon!
You will also have to make tricky decisions over leaving the boat or not.
For example, you might want to fly home over the summer for a family occasion, which would mean leaving the boat in an incredibly expensive marina overnight. Or you may need to take a flight which will mean sailing somewhere with an airport in unfavourable winds.
New liveaboards are often unprepared for this lack of freedom and for their lives to be dictated not by the bus timetable but by mother nature!
#6 Not Being Prepared To Fix Things Yourself
If you want to live on board a sailboat then there is no getting away from the fact that you’ll need to be handy (or at least prepared to try!) If you have the money to throw at experts then great, you might have to do less boat work, but you’ll quickly find out that things don’t choose convenient places to break!
If you’re a new liveaboard then we thoroughly recommend picking up a few basic maintenance books in areas you aren’t confident in. The university of YouTube is great, but again, it’s very likely your engine will develop a problem when you don’t have access to the internet!
Here are a few books that have helped us out in a pinch! And make sure you keep copies of any manuals that come with the systems on board your boat too.
- Boat owners mechanical and electrical handbook
- Marine diesel engines
- Boat owners electrical handbook
- Inspecting the aging sailboat
#7 Declaring An Ambitious Sailing Plan
One of the mistakes new liveaboards make is to announce extremely ambitious sailing plans before even moving onto a boat. I think it’s great to have plans of what you want to do on your sailboat – how else can you buy a boat appropriate to your needs? But it’s worth keeping your plans low-key when telling family and friends.
Many people move onto a boat and find sailing just isn’t for them, and there’s nothing wrong with that. But if you’ve announced you’re sailing around the world in 50 days you will feel an incredible amount of pressure to make those plans a reality.
Take the pressure off liveaboard life by starting out small. How’s a month in a marina? Do you like doing overnight trips? Do you enjoy sailing overnight in areas you’re familiar with?
Take baby steps and you’ll feel so much more confident when tackling longer and unfamiliar passages.
#8 Thinking Moving Aboard Will Change Your Life
Of course, aspects of your life will change when you move aboard, but ultimately you will still be the same person, with the same brilliantly complex thoughts and feelings.
Just because you’re now living your dream, or because you’ve moved halfway across the world, sailing isn’t going to change your life in the way you possibly hoped.
Remember, you aren’t changing your life, you’re simply moving it onto a different home. Don’t feel disheartened when sailboat life becomes boring and mundane, or when you have to spend the day doing admin, or when you simply feel grumpy and don’t know why. You’ll still get the highs, but sailing life won’t erase the lows.
Go into new liveaboard life expecting sunshine and cocktails 24/7 and you’ll be sorely disappointed. But go in remembering this is all part of your life’s rich tapestry and you’ll have an expectation much closer to reality – with all the incredible, the terrible, and the long boring stretches in between!
#9 Not Understanding Local Weather Patterns
Weather forecasts and charts are great – to a point. When we first started sailing I put all my trust in the wind forecasts and was frustrated time and time again when we ended up sailing in completely different conditions than what was predicted.
As new liveaboards get used to learning weather patterns that are specific to the countries and even areas that you’re sailing. Local fishermen are great sources of information, and you can get a good idea that something nasty is brewing when you see marinas and safe anchorages filling up with fishing boats!
Areas often have predominant wind patterns. Mountains cause all sorts of crazy winds to occur by either blocking them completely or creating catabatics.
You can eat your lunch in a millpond and motor round to the neighbouring anchorage to find 30knts. Shallow waters create different wave patterns and certain stretches of sea experience huge tidal currents.
When you’re starting out as a liveaboard (and beyond!) do proper research before sailing in new territories. Speak to as many people as you can, study charts and almanacs, and ask questions on sailing forums. You should also make sure you download all the best apps for sailing.
You can never know too much!
#10 Buying A Boat That’s Not Suitable For Your Needs
One of the biggest mistakes new liveaboard sailors make is to buy a boat that isn’t suitable for their needs. Often this means buying a boat that is too big and therefore much harder to sail and much more expensive to maintain.
Adam and I thought very carefully about what we really needed from a sailboat before we bought Hot Chocolate (one of the only liveaboard mistakes on this list we didn’t make!) We had a great piece of advice before buying – get the smallest you can cope with living on.
We have, however, seen cruisers go the other way and buy a boat that is far too small for their needs as liveaboards. Buy a boat that you can imagine spending big chunks of time stuck on!
It should be big enough to house you comfortably (though obviously a little cramped, this isn’t a country mansion!), but small enough for you and your crew to handle and maintain.
You should also make sure you buy a boat that’s suitable for whatever sailing you have planned. Don’t buy a quick, light GRP boat for breaking ice up north! If you want to cross an ocean then make sure you buy a boat you will feel safe in.
#11 Being Scared To Follow Your Instincts
The sailing community LOVE to share their extremely polarised opinions with new liveaboard sailors. While this can be incredibly helpful and is almost always imparted with the very best of intentions, it can get overwhelmingly confusing.
We will often go to research a topic only to find there are two completely different views, both of which seem to have very valid arguments.
The only solution here is to follow your instincts. Chances are both solutions will work great, but choose which one feels right for you, your crew, and your boat. Don’t be swayed by the loudest voice in the crowd.
The other thing that we still do from time to time is ignore our instincts in difficult situations. Don’t be afraid of looking ‘stupid’.
If you enter a marina that’s a little too crowded for your liking then leave and anchor out. If you set off on a passage and don’t like the look of the conditions (even if the forecast predicts a great day of sailing!) then don’t be afraid to turn back.
The times when we say ‘this doesn’t look right’ but do it anyway because we feel pressured or the information we have says all should be ok are often the times when disasters happen.
We are learning to trust our instincts more and make our decisions based on what feels right. You can save a lot of time and grief by doing the same from the start!
Conclusion: The Biggest Mistakes New Liveaboard Sailors Make
I’m pretty sure that even armed with all of this information, you’ll still make at least one mistake from this list. And that’s a huge part of the adventure and why this lifestyle is so addictive!
If you’re planning to move aboard and join the sailing community then make sure you pick up a copy of our guidebook. It is the ultimate resource for anyone wanting to run away to sea, and we’ve got so much information in those 200+ pages that we can’t wait to share!
⛵ Pick up your copy and get started on the adventure of a lifetime
For real-time updates on all our future mistakes (of which I’m sure there’ll be many!) you can follow us on Instagram, YouTube, or Facebook below 🙂
I can totally relate as I also did most of these mistakes!
But in all, it’s a pretty awesome lifestyle, right? 😀
You are pointing out some really important points here that I really agree with, especially the part about being realistic about what to expect when you throw yourself in to the liveaboard lifestyle.
Great quality post 👍
Thanks for reading! Glad you can relate!
no worries you’ll make it…