Retirement Houseboat or Floating Home

Just Goggle all marina's on the Tennessee river. The closer to the Mississippi river the lower the cost. P.S. you have to go into the Ohio river first to get to the big M.

 

Didn't get through the whole thread, but posts in the 30s;

Eric, great looking houseboat! The one with curved wals is outstanding, did you use steel studs in it?

I'd have only one suggestion, the bathroom doors, I don't get it, when you could step in the hall and use the same door instead of having two doors in a corner. Having a bathroom door in a conventional home is a draw back for privacy, not seeing through a door but odors to the living space...but otherwise a very nice layout!

There is a 32 foot houseboat with a steel hull I found in Kentucky that is a haul off price, but floating, old wooded house, thought about tearing it all off and starting over, Eric, your layout with a 14' beam would be something to consider!

BTW, who has to cut the grass at that morring....LOL

I need to attend that Cheeseburger thing, looks like fun.

I'd sure go this route if I could use a small outboard and still be good in the gulf and ICW with shallow draft, plenty of room to but a bike on and have a small boat for fun!

One last questions as someone said there were no taxes...how would you avoid personal property taxes with a houseboat registered for public waters?

 

Wavewacker,

Thanks for your comments. If you wanted one of these houseboats with only one head door, we could certainly make that for you, not a problem. The two doors are what the owner/marina operator specified. I'm just the naval architect; I draw what he wants.

As for taxes, if you keep your houseboat in a marina, then the marina is assessed property taxes, most likely, and the marina passes that cost onto the berth renters as part of their monthly fee. If you do not keep your houseboat at a marina, and it is a bona fide boat, then it has to be registered in the state as a bona fide boat. Check with your state--you may have to pay property taxes on your registered boat. Finally, if you continue to move your boat from place to place and have no registered address, then maybe you can escape property taxes--maybe. You may not be able to vote either in state or national elections. Something to consider.

Eric

 

That explains it, a marina rental. I thought it was a spec build.

PP taxes can be tricky. Each state will provide a time period, 30/60/90days for people residing in a state to register, cruisers passing through satying there seem to be overlooked and if they are paying PP taxes in another state/county/parish/commenwealth...they are usually exempted.

Some states however, and counties, want the PP taxes for any property in that jurisdiction after that initial period. If you have property in your care, custody and control in my county for example, they want the tax even if you do not own it! Even if you are from another state and are not paying the PP tax in your home state.

Imention this because there are states that don't have personal property tax and I'm sure they would be a popular place to register a boat and cruise, but then you bump into a county in some states like mines.

You certainly pay the tax through rents, but that is probably not a personal property tax since the marina owner does not own the boat.

Probably the best thing to do is to keep it under wraps, especially since mosts states and municipalities are looking for every dime they can get.

I'm sure most local taxing authorities assume that if a boat has a state registration that the owner is paying taxes on it in that state and they don't bother....

So, Shhhhh!

Again though, do they use metal studs in houseboats...I know some campers use them?

And more on topic, what hulls do you all think are suitable for some off shpore and ICW cruising fora houseboat? Boatell (sp?) I thnk has a baracuda, a tri hull that has a decent looking bow and the River Queen has a higher bow as well....

Any suggestion for such a Tilt'n Hilton?

 

Aqua Lodge

Just reviewing this subject today and noticed that link to AquaLodge no longer worked. Originally that went to one of their dealers in Annapolis who had spent some time decorating a couple of these up real nice....shame that link is no longer good,..but here is another one:
http://catamarancruiser.com/id16.html

 

Wavewacker,

Sorry I forgot to answer your question about studs. Yes, the Flagler houseboats have stainless steel threaded rods installed from the roof joist headers (or second floor joist headers) down into the barge, which, therefore, fastens the first story walls to the barge. There are lots of other fasteners, too, at the wall footers, so the house is pretty well attached to the barge.

As for the legal problems in Flagler Beach, even I don't know all the details because my client does not fill me in on everything, and the legal arguments seem to be a moving target. It is inappropriate for me to speak of it since I am not a party in the disputes and don't have free access to both sides of the issues.

As for appropriate hulls for offshore or ICW, first, I would not take any houseboat offshore, so we'll just throw that thought out the window. The ICW, for the most part, is like any lake or river. However, going across inlets from the ocean can get pretty rough, so if one is going to traverse an inlet, it is well to time the passage during calm weather.

I was approached by a well-known houseboat company a few years ago to help them with improvements in their hull construction to upgrade their houseboats to be suitable for the ICW and minimum outside maneuvering. Discussions did not go very far for reasons of the then current business climate. From the photographs that I saw on their hull construction, it seemed the hulls did not have a whole lot of internal framing structure, which concerned me, and I anticipated that my participation would revolve around a fairly expensive, for them, redesign of the hulls. But we never got the opportunity to go that far, however.

From that experience, I would advise any customer to make sure they get an absolutely clear understanding of where their houseboats may be taken.

Since we are on the subject, at the IBEX conference last October (2011), I presented a design concept at the Pecha Kucha design event entitled: Modular Catamaran Houseboat. I have posted the Powerpoint presentation I gave on my website at: http://sponbergyachtdesign.com/ModCatHouseboatNews.htm, which you can download for free. Go to the bottom of the page and click on the link there to open the presentation.

If you would like to see a video of the actual event, you can go to the Professional Boatbuilder link, and see it there. I am the first speaker on Part 1. Link: http://www.proboat.com/professional-boatbuilders-design-x-pechakucha-at-ibex-2011.html.

Enjoy,

Eric

 

Lovely Lake in Thailand for a floating house?

Check out these photos

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/142352-mae-taeng-dam-all-house-boats-are-not-created-equal/page__view__findpost__p__5033468




I got it to work??....but lets try this
http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/142352-mae-taeng-dam-all-house-boats-are-not-created-equal/page__p__5033468#entry5033468

 

Link doesn't work for me Brian...

 

Try this (you may have to scroll down the page as I'm unsure as to getting the exact individual posting)
http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/142352-mae-taeng-dam-all-house-boats-are-not-created-equal/page__p__5033468#entry5033468

 

One Pillar Pagoda

While I am still looking for my Thai styled floating accomodations, I thought I might first build a seaside office....or it might be lakeside or pond side.

Actually the photos here are of a re-creation of a famous Vietnamese one-pillar pagoda that sits in Hanoi. This replica sits on a big lake here in Khon Kaen Thailand. I really like this structure's looks, and I might like it even more if it were a bit more Thai in its architecture.

...the original one...
"Its unique design is of a three square meter wooden structure resembling a “lotus blossom”, the Buddhist symbol of Enlightenment. It sits on a concrete support (pillar) that replaces the original wooden one.

The original structure is thought to date from about 1049 during the Ly dynasty but the factual history is not clear. The pagoda has been damaged and restored many times. The last major demolition came at the hands of the French in 1954"

Can you imagine having a design office at waterside, something like this...WOW

 

Hull speed?

The shape of the hull is exquisite. My untrained eye says she will make 8.5 knots at least. May I presume this is a shallow water craft?

Ryland

 

Ryland,

Well, speed is not really important, and I doubt most people would use that hull to actually travel much with it. Mostly, it is meant to sit still, but be able to move when necessary.

Yes, the one overriding characteristic of most houseboats is, indeed, shallow draft. Most of my designs so far have a draft of 1' to 1.5'. In the case of the Modular Catamaran Houseboat (see my post #51 above for the links), she necessarily has a nominal draft of 2', deeper because of the catamaran configuration, but still shallow nonetheless.

Eric

 

Hi Ryland,
I saw this posting by you over on a 'landing crafts' subject thread and thought to myself what you are most likely interested in is some sort of floating home or cottage rather than a craft equipped to carry other vehicles.

And I noticed your new hulls. They reminded me a lot of two vessels I looked at in FL this past year, and one I recently looked at in Thailand.

So first I will post the pic of your hulls here, and then a few pics of a couple of those FL floating homes.
Your new hulls:


They really remind of these two vessels that were built by a Canadian utilities contractor with a second home down in lower FL. The first one utilized alum tubes for the floation, and the second one utilized some 33' dia SS tubes he had fabricated up special.

Here's a few shots of the smaller vessel (about 42 ft I believe it was):

 

50 foot version

Okay now here's the 50' version with the SS tubes. This thing had an all-cedar lined cottage on it. I actually made an offer on it thinking of using it as a live-aboard cottage for southern FL.









Now check out these SS hull tubes....and the built-in steps to the outboard engines














....and a few shots of the interior











Okay so there you have some ideas for your hulls. Now I also have some photos of the framing system that was utilized along with some particular spots of problems. But I won't post those here, I will send them to anyone interested by private email.
Brian runningtideyachts@gmail.com

 

well I can certainly see what Eric is talking about when he said you just have to pick a direction to design in.

The oriental style ones seem to lean in the pagoda on a boat direction and the Florida style ones are just plane fugly

I still gotta give Erics bull nosed design a two thumbs up. I bet the underside of that barrel ceiling looks great. Also looks cheap to build, particularly because of the exterior treatment being so compatible with the rounded form. Looks like stucco, and since I'm a cheap bastad, well I like that kinda thing. I've done tons of stucco and its cake except its also probably the heaviest part of the house.

Keep em coming peeps, very interesting thread

floating solar home, except it looks kinda like a Winnebago