Not always a matter of choice

I THINK it's a shame that Steve Matthews in 'Liveaboards by an ex live aboard' chose to expand the scope of his response to my email 'Glad for the holiday season to end', to a characterisation of liveaboards as free-loading benefit-collecting 'drop-outs', writes Suzanne Macleod.

My article had called for boat hire companies to emphasise to hirers two safety points, as well as one item of 'considerate boating' contained in the excellent considerateboater.com

Few choices

While I've only been living on the waterways for a year, I've formed the impression that quite a number of people end up living on boats not so much as a matter of choice, but because life circumstances (loss of job, divorce settlements, mental illness, inability to obtain social housing, and other factors) leave them few choices about where and how to live.

Sometimes there are complicating factors such as drug—or alcohol—abuse. In some cases, boats are neglected because of a downward spiral of self-neglect, depression, and poverty. Eventually they fall into disrepair, the engine won't start or the occupant can't afford to repair or fuel it. This degree of poverty certainly explains why some boaters don't cruise around very much: they can't afford to!

A modest living

There are plenty more people living on boats and eking out a modest living plying various trades from gardening to plumbing. Some of them discover almost unexpectedly, I think, that the life can bring joys such as a sense of freedom and closeness to nature—joys often obtainable by the salaried bricked-and-mortared only for a couple of weeks vacation a year. As a further spin-off, the continuous cruiser is spared Council Tax. Whoopee. I also enjoy this spin-off benefit, though I wasn't even aware of it when I decided to live on a boat. On the other hand, I don't appear now on any electoral register, so I am disenfranchised.

I think it would be pretty hard-hearted of anyone to accuse those down on their luck and maybe two or three steps away from homelessness (and—yes—receiving benefits because our society through culture and the electoral process has for decades deemed it proper and desirable to support certain people from public funds) of wilfully exploiting the financial input of the holiday boater and boating industry.

One of the drop-outs

Yes, I'm one of the drop-outs and happy enough to admit it. Just for the record, however, I collect no state benefits or pensions at all. I manage okay, and don't consider in any real sense that I am exploiting the fruits of anyone else's labour or contribution.

I think that characterising liveaboards as free-loaders is about as unfair as characterising holiday boaters as inconsiderate and unsafe. In each case, some are, and some aren't. It's just that instances of the latter are easier to address (by better briefing from hire companies) than instances of the former.