Houseboat OPERATING BASICS: How To Launch, Drive, And Dock A Houseboat

[@DeepHouseboatLife]

Houseboat captains...driving with thrusters or no thrusters? How do you prefer to pilot your houseboat? Let us know in the comments 👇.

[@chanceopp6848]

You forgot one thing.....Always have someone on the dock or shore to yell at you for no reason.

[@DeepHouseboatLife]

Bahahaha glad I wasn’t drinking a beer while reading this comment because I would have spit it out laughing 🤣. Luckily when we filmed this, the people on the dock were helpful in making sure we didn’t hit anything. Something about boat people though, we love to critique other boaters😆

[@aprilkitchens7576]

WOW...... always knew you were a safe driver but you just demonstrated what a fabulous boat captain you are! Your docking debut was flawless!!

[@DeepHouseboatLife]

Now we just gotta teach Jessie how to do all of this, too!

[@Bigrignohio]

Thank you for this. Very informative. As someone who has absolutely no powered boating experience, but considering the purchase of a houseboat, this answers a lot of questions.

[@DeepHouseboatLife]

We are so glad to hear this video was helpful! Let us know if you still have any unanswered questions. We are happy to help wherever we can. Have a great rest of the week!

[@corvetteguy1980]

What size engines? 454s and are they fuel injection?

[@DeepHouseboatLife]

Hello and thank you for watching. They are 5.0 liter and fuel injected. With this hull design, a larger engine will just consume more fuel and doesn’t make the boat go any faster.

[@kiko69]

What are the steps in obtaining a captain’s license?

[@DeepHouseboatLife]

Thank you for your question, Francisco! Since we’re just using our houseboat as a pleasure craft, we actually don’t need a captain’s license to operate our houseboat. Believe it or not. If we start taking people out on our houseboat as a business, then we would need a captains license. In order to get a captain’s license, we would need to demonstrate a certain number of hours operating our houseboat to the US Coast Guard, then we would also have to pass a test. That’s our loose understanding of the requirements. Hope this helps!

[@kiko69]

@@DeepHouseboatLife That’s great!Keep on sailing.

[@josephbattaglia3690]

Does the boat stay sifficiently warm in the winter time?

[@DeepHouseboatLife]

It sure does, at least where we are in Georgia. Never really gets too cold for too long in the winters here. Our houseboat has a regular HVAC like a "land home," so we just make sure the heater is running on our houseboat when we are there. We also have a small fireplace that's essentially a space heater to help heat the salon, if needed. We also use a bilge heater from Xtreme Heaters to keep the engine compartment warm.

[@josephbattaglia3690]

@@DeepHouseboatLife Pretty neat. Thank you

[@DeepHouseboatLife]

@@josephbattaglia3690 you are very welcome!

[@garygerard4290]

Those are Very Nice docks, with each boat having its own protected spot. I am in northern California and the houseboats are side by side, 'between 2 walkways. There is enough room for 'fenders' on each boat then maybe 2' between the fenders - o no! Your boat is Huge - Shasta boat size limit is 15 x 56. And if you've heard of the dry spell we're having out here - it's True. The lake is loosing 6" of water a day, which is normal, but no rain to refill means it's not replenishing. The water level is 170' below the dam - DAM! When full there is 365 miles of shorline - real nice lake but it's depressing to see so much 'beach' ha ha ha keep on boatin'

[@DeepHouseboatLife]

Hey Gary thank you for watching and taking the time to comment. We love our dock and we were lucky to get an open spot. We like having the extra slip length and width because it makes docking a bit easier, especially on a windy day. We have seen the news about the drought in Northern California and it look really bad. I hope that y'all get some rain, and an abundance of snow this winter. Happy boating and stay safe!

[@donacardenasHomes]

👏🏼 great job❣️. It’s always a little intimidating coming back in. Sometimes that wind picks up right when you are trying to dock, and dang that’s hard. So funny question, do you ask people not to talk while your docking so you can 🤓see? 😂

[@DeepHouseboatLife]

Thank you! Ha ha my wife usually tries to keep our daughter and dog quiet so I can concentrate on docking...probably so I can see better. Funny how that makes a difference. And the wind can really throw things off when docking. We try to dock in the mornings, like after we've spent the weekened houseboat camping away from the marina, because it seems to be less windy at that time. Though, the weather can change fast. Luckily we have thrusters to help with that!

[@sdarnell72]

Your on dock 9, I your neighbor on dock 8.

[@DeepHouseboatLife]

Hey neighbor!!! It’s so nice to meet you, Shana. Hopefully we will see you in person sometime, and thank you so much for watching our video!

[@mikefitzpatrick5209]

I thought you had thrusters on your boat. maybe this video was done before thrusters. an update with thrusters would be great. Great video overall, thank you for taking the time

[@DeepHouseboatLife]

Hey Mike! You are right that we do have thrusters on our houseboat. We actually did have them at the time of this video, but we ended up not using them because it wasn't a very windy day. That's a great idea to do an update video specifically for when we're using our thrusters. Thank you for the suggestion

[@Heartlandrodcustom]

What kind of draft does a big boat like that have? I'm thinning of buying one and my local lake has a lot of shallow areas.

[@DeepHouseboatLife]

Hey! Thank you for watching! Our houseboat probably pulls just a few feet of draft. It has a flat bottom barge style hull. The outdrives from the rear probably add another foot to that. So all together, about 3 feet of draft. That’s typical of houseboats like ours. Hope this helps!

[@tuner066]

This is very informative thank you. Me and my wife are thinking of buying a houseboat as our permanent home.

[@DeepHouseboatLife]

Hey Robert! Thanks for watching our video. Awesome that you and your wife are thinking of buying a houseboat. We love ours and feel so lucky to have it. Let us know if you have any questions as you are looking around for a houseboat.

[@tuner066]

Speaking of questions. Do you guys have any issues with freeloaders meaning mice or rats.

[@DeepHouseboatLife]

@@tuner066 we've never seen any mice or rats on our houseboat, luckily. We do have to watch out for roaches, though. That's pretty typical for where we are in Georgia. Overall, we don't have many unwanted bug and vermin guests on our houseboat

[@andrewwyman3675]

Great technique. Thanks for the tips!

[@DeepHouseboatLife]

So glad you liked it!

[@lebenergy247]

THanks so much

[@DeepHouseboatLife]

Glad you enjoyed the video!

[@coachjennbailey9364]

TY!

[@DeepHouseboatLife]

You are very welcome! Thank you for watching 😀. Hope it was helpful.

[@robertnelson980]

I’ve watched this and the episode about going for fuel. Neither of these mentioned using thrusters. It appeared you have them. As seen when you disconnected your water. I also noticed you maneuvering the boat side ways at the fuel dock. Do you have thrusters and we’re you using them? Just observing and learning. Thanks for the videos.

[@robertnelson980]

Now I go and read the comments I see this question has already been answered 🙄 Sorry for the repeat.

[@DeepHouseboatLife]

Hey Robert! No need a apologize these are all great questions. We do have thrusters and we use them when needed. However, if there is zero wind, we do like to maneuver without them as practice should they ever fail. Hope this answers your question and have a great week!