Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2024/04/27/house-drifts-across-san-francisco-bay.html
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If you had to turn your boathouse into a floating version and relocate it, would it be be a boathouseboat or a houseboathouse?
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More of a house barge than a houseboat.
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The correct term is floating home, not houseboat. We have lived in a two story floating home on the Columbia River for the last nine years. A houseboat is analogous to a motorhome. A floating home is analogous to a mobile home, although floating homes have to be more solidly built than a mobile home as water moves. Houseboats have motors and are designed to move under their own power. A floating home needs to be towed to move it. Our home is chained to a floating concrete dock and is connected to a sewer, city water and 240 volt electricity.
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Welcome to BB.
Your introduction of accuracy is most welcome (to this pedant, especially!)
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And what would you christen it? Boaty McHouseboatface, or Housey McBoathouseface?
(Google suggested that I type Boaty McHorseface. No, Google, you don’t understand this at all.)
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I had a sinking feeling someone might mention boaty mcboatface, in the wake of my floating such a concept.
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Sittin’ in the mornin’ sun
I’ll be sittin’ when the evenin’ come
Watching the house drift in
And I watch it drift away again, yeah
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McMansionBoat?
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“I Left My House in San Francisco”; or at least I thought I did, it was just over here, now where could it have drifted off to…
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This was a common sight in Newfoundland during resettlement, when many isolated communities moved to larger centres, with the difference being that the houses were never intended to go to sea. It still happens occasionally.
Of course back in the day things were done by pure muscle power, with no machinery to be had.
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Welcome. Part of me envies your home. Some serious questions for you:
Does your home rock much? I don’t mean 
but side to side and up down from waves or wakes.
If so does it cause any problems? Like getting accurate levels on your measuring cups? Wine collection sloshing back and forth? Piano staying in tune? Cooking liquids? Hanging pictures?
Does your home list? If you had guests over does the list change? Do you have weight limits? Do you have to compensate with ballast tanks? Is snow accumulation a danger?
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It is still common along the BC coast. Also, what looks like whole apartment buildings are tugged along when fishing lodges seasonally move to and from the shelter of the Fraser River berthage.
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I hope that it isn’t a listed building
Regarding the headline; what is towing this floating house? I can’t see any sign of a tow.
This mobile trend needs to be nipped in the bud, before it gets out of hand.
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That is informative and interesting. Out of curiosity, how do the water and sewage work? Flexible pipes with pumps and continuous flow? Or more like boats where there are tanks that are periodically pumped? If the former, what happens in bad weather or heavy changes in water levels?
Article with some back-story on how the floating homes culture developed in the Bay -
https://www.sfgate.com/living/article/What-it-s-like-living-on-a-Sausalito-houseboat-10326629.php
… and another on how wild things got there in the 60’s/70’s. IIRC Shel Silverstein was among those boat dwellers in that era, must have been quite an interesting scene.
https://www.sfgate.com/local/article/The-pirates-of-Sausalito-17160156.php
(huh - Onebox and sfgate’s server don’t seem to get along)
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Water is through flexible pipes from the city water on the shore. They run under water attached to a floating concrete dock. They’re under water to prevent freezing. Sewage from the house goes to a tank with a pump and a float switch. When the level rises, the pump pumps it to a main tank near the shore which has a float switch and pumps it to the city sewer. As the dock is floating, it rises and falls with the house. There is a flexible hose between the dock and the shore to handle different water levels. The setup handles 25 foot water level changes.
Rick Samuels
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