Ben's Boat

somewhere near Freeport, Maine, USA

From $800 Boat

After a bit of a set-back in which his car died, my brother now has a new truck to go with his fix-'er-upper boat. The truck probably cost him several times what the boat did, but the truck is immediately roadworthy, and the boat.... Well, what do you get for an $800, 29-foot sailboat?

On one hand, you get a mess. The hatches are dry-rotted splinters, the port berth (above) is completely unusable, there are holes in the hull.... He hopes to live on this boat in the spring, but it needs a new electrical system, a toilet, a stove and ... well, everything! On the other hand, he also has an opportunity to redesign the living space, like inserting a chart table into that port berth. Follow his progress on his blog, $800 Liveaboard, because despite the mountain of work ahead of him, this is one happy man!