It’s not all plain sailing
Sometimes she wonders why she does it, on days where it’s hard work to leave the boat and head all the way up to the marina office for a shower, rushing between boats as wind gusts threaten to blow her off the pier.
But Braddock knows if a dangerously severe storm was threatening the marina, she could take the boat out into the harbour and drop anchor.
“There is still a chance that it could go wrong. You still need to have that mindset, I guess, that you are making this choice, you are putting yourself in this situation, therefore it’s up to you to get yourself out of this situation.”
She recommended anyone thinking about living on a boat to go boating with friends first or charter a boat for as long as they could afford so they could experience living on it.
Braddock also wanted to dispute the idea that living on a boat was unsafe for children.
“Often people will say ‘Oh, it’s such a dangerous environment’. Sailing kids or boating kids we’ve found grow up to be really responsible, really mature, independent kids with a great perspective on what is safe and what is not. They all tend to be pretty adventurous but they have absolute respect for their limits.”
Claire Barlow
Former mayor of the Mackenzie District Claire Barlow said she and her partner decided they wanted something other than the rural lifestyle, “as you do in the middle ages of your life”.
“We made a very conscious decision when we moved to Wellington that we wanted to live right in the heart of the city,” she said. The pair didn’t want a car — they wanted to be able to walk or use public transport to get to most places.
They already spending weekends on their yacht and decided to make the shift to living aboard at Chaffers Marina, which is just minutes from the central city. “I have always sort of appreciated being close to nature,” Barlow said.
Listening to the water lapping against the boat, the gulls shrieking, and “even the wind howling through the masts” was an enticing environment.
But the confined space in the yacht forced them to become “very minimalist”.
“We had to condense our life down to a few plastic boxes of stuff . . . it was really hard for me getting rid of were all my clothes or shoes, but there was a part of that I found very rewarding.”
The couple moved on to the yacht in March 2017 but moved back to terra firma after about eight months aboard.
They had been staying at a friend’s flat while their yacht was being hauled out, and the “luxury of space” and quietness of their surroundings reminded Barlow “there were some key things that were missing” from the boat.
“I having native birds. You get to hear some gulls but that’s it. I missed being able to host and entertain people.”
Despite these things, living on a boat was “a great opportunity”.
“It’s an unusual life . . . I felt very resilient. When you have to get up and walk up a pier like that in the howling rain and wind and all that sort of weather just to have a shower in the morning? There was a part of me that felt quite adventurous.” missed
Mark Waters
Mark Waters looks like he was made to live on a boat, right down to the big gold hoop earring he wears.
He’s only been a liveaboard for a few months though — before that he was living in a four-bedroom house, but now rents the house out. The profits from that effectively pay for his life on the boat.
Waters has got used to the rocking of the boat and now struggles to sleep if he spends a night or two on land.
He loves his surroundings at Chaffers Marina. “The mornings and evenings in here can be absolutely, just incredibly beautiful. You get to hear all the sounds of the city but you’re actually not in the city.”
It was surprisingly easy for Waters to cut down on material things for his move to the yacht.
“Years ago I had some stuff in storage and it got burnt down. I decided after that that if you have to store it you never needed it . . . we decided that everything’s replaceable.” He and his partner have a clear plan: stay in the marina for five years and then go cruising around New Zealand and possibly visit the islands.
“This boat is very capable of it, it’s a substantial vessel . . . there’s a lot of space in this boat. It’s a little bit like a Tardis.”
He cautioned others against the lifestyle if they knew nothing about boats. “Some people just shouldn’t go to sea.”