Anyone know info or a good link? Curious what the requirements are and if it works for us northerners as well...

bed head galley....thats it... write off the interest as a second home

I agree. Even if you did make the boat a principal residence all you could deduct is the interest. Better to keep the house as a principal residence - you can deduct the interest and property taxes, maybe a home office. Might even be able to qualify for some energy saving credits and anything else that might come up in the futre.

Wait a minute - are you trying to claim the boat as a personal residence so that you can be exempt from income on the sale of your boat? That would be the only good reason - but to justify the trouble you would have to make atleast a $10-20K profit, which is pretty hard to do on a boat.

Make sure that your boat insurance has "LIVE ABOARD" coverage if you do this.

-Sleeping Bag
-Bucket
-Lighter...

Yup.

Straight out of IRS publication 936:

If you mean REALLY living aboard, try Passagemaker Magazine's website That's where you'll find out the hardcore stuff about actually surviving onboard.

There is a marina across the water from Boston. It has million $$ views of the city and obviously is right on the water. Electricity and water are included and there are no real estate taxes. You could spend short money on a large old boat and live for cheap. I woudn,t do that , but there are alot of people that do.

I lived on a boat in Scotland for about 6 months solid. One thing I would recommend is not only make sure you have the right boat, make sure you have the right marina.

The one I was in had a great friendly community, plenty of services and close to all shops and the essential bars and restaurants etc.

If I could afford it I would be living on a boat today!!

(Plus its quicker and easier to clean than a house!!)

Greig.

what ya got in mind Neil? i know some people that have done it up here but winters kinda suck. Hell in the summer i spend about 3 nights a week on my boat. and yes, whatever you do get the biggest boat you can. i am thinking about picking up a Gran Sport i found at the right price just to park next to my Scarab an pretty much use as a summer home although my Scarab has plenty of room to keep me happy.