The Martlet

Living on a boat might not be everyone’s dream — it’s cold, it’s small and it requires maintenance — but for one UVic student, calling a 34-foot boat home is worth the hassle.

“In 2006, I needed a place to live and I thought a boat would be fun,” said Tony Trepanier, an international student from Spokane, Wash.

Having taken 18-foot boats out on weekends when he was younger, Trepanier knew what he was looking for — something larger. He found a motor cruiser moored on the Olympic Peninsula on Craigslist and bought it for US$12,000. Originally nameless, it is now called Eerie Escape after the dinghy (a small boat) Trepanier later acquired.

Mooring in the Inner Harbour seemed the best bet for a student.

“The city marinas are just the best way to go,” he said. “They are the cheapest and there are waiting lists at the other marinas.”

Living downtown is a big plus for Trepanier, but the Inner Harbour is a very public place to call home. In the summer, the boat owners mingle and chat to one another on the dock, but some tourists can be intrusive.

“You definitely have to keep your curtains shut … as soon as it get dark,” said Trepanier. “People are always trying to peer in.… And the big guy that does the juggling show is right off my bow. You hear the laughter going off every 20 seconds or so. It’s like being in a sitcom.”

Still, it is quieter than living in residence, he said.

In winter, when it’s too chilly to stand around on the dock, the five or six permanent residents in the Inner Harbour rarely see one another. It’s bleak inside as well. Despite the efforts of a small blow heater, Eerie Escape, with no insulation, can be bitterly cold. Trepanier often escapes to the public library to study.

He initially thought that living aboard would be cheaper than living ashore. His moorage fees — $213 per month in the winter and $400 per month in the summer — include electricity, water and 24-hour use of the showers and toilets inside the Tourism Information Centre on the causeway. But he estimates the overall cost to be the same as living in residence.

“It’s the maintenance you have to do on the boat,” he said. “Things break down. The engine, the water pump and the batteries stopped working.”

The batteries turned out to be the least expensive — all they needed was more water.

“I’d only experienced maintenance-free batteries before,” he said. “When I tell people my age about it they say, ‘You have to put water in batteries?’”

But living downtown and the ability to take the boat out on the water makes up for the inconveniences, said Trepanier. With twin Chevrolet 305 engines (named because they are 305 cubic inches) adapted for marine use, the boat can cruise at 20 knots (roughly 37 kilometres per hour).

He would like to take it out more than the five or six times per summer he has averaged so far, but the powerful engines have a drawback: “They drink a lot,” he said.

Trepanier makes boat life sound tame, but there are moments of excitement. One night he was awakened by a loud ringing. Stumbling half-asleep in pitch dark onto the deck, he found that the noise came from a bell he had seen on his boat before but thought was not attached to anything. It turned out he had inadvertently flipped off the switch to the bilge pump, and the bell was signalling that the water under the floorboards had risen too high.

This fall, Trepanier will graduate with a degree in economics. He is undecided as to what he will do with Eeerie Escape.

“I’m leaning toward selling her in the summer after classes,” he said. “It would be nice to have some money after graduation, and I wouldn’t have to pay for moorage.”

Before then, he may get some last trips on the water.