I grew up on the river, and so I think differently than most folks about living off grid. For a long time (15+ years) I’ve been figuring out different ways of going off grid and here’s one of my best and most fun and creative ideas (I think) yet. (yeah, I know. It’s crazy and a lot tongue-in-cheek) But roll with it. Humor me for a second. I can see you smiling right now. 😉
I actually considered doing this about 12+ years ago back when I saw some folks living off grid on a boat, and I was like, well, if that works on a trawler or a sailboat or a power-cat, it would absolutely work on a barge! LOL 😉 (I tend to go all-out and to the extreme with things like this)
I seriously considered this one. And yeah. It would absolutely work. I spent WAY TOO MUCH TIME on this one figuring out the costs and numbers to make it work and to see if it would work. And yes, it would. But…it’s not cheap. That’s the only thing that stopped me from doing it. I’m crazy enough that I’d do it just for fun and to prove it can be done if I had the money to do it.
This is for those who have money About $500k to $1M to be exact and that’s on the very low end. You can buy a used barge for anywhere from $250k to about $1.5M for a good one big enough to do this.
Think about it. A Barge is a solid baseline foundation for an off grid farm.
Barges can be up to an acre or more in surface area. They are literally designed to carry tens of thousands of tons of cargo.
There is plenty of storage space under the deck for machinery and batteries and large electric motors.
You could power it with solar and wind power with a massive battery pack (think 1000kwh or more) No diesel or gasoline needed.
You could literally put down a foot or more of topsoil, and raised bed for root crops.
You could grow wheat year-round, just enough for a little flour for bread and other things.
And livestock! Yes, you could have a few pics, chickens a couple few goats too.
You could build your cabin on deck, a greenhouse a barn and shed. You could even cut out sections of deck and weld in large planters for trees!
Yes it’s crazy! Yes it will work. There is zero reason why it won’t work.
Best of all. NO ZONING OR BUILDING CODES! Boats/vessels are governed by different laws. Maritime law. Nautical.
Now for the drawbacks. You’re completely on your own. It’s a boat, so you’re not going to get Doordash delivery and you can’t run to the store real quick. You’ll also need to plan your trips inland carefully. It’s a whole different lifestyle, and people who live on boats know what I’m talking about.
You won’t need a boat slip to dock, in fact you can’t have a slip because the barge is too big.
There are also regulations that don’t permit them in some waters like environmentally protected zones, wildlife refuges, come cities prohibit mooring/anchoring close to the city for multiple reasons.
Some inland waterways are completely off limits due to the barge’s draft (how deep it sits in the water) and displacement (how much water it displaces).
It’s an ordeal to move a barge (no you don’t need a tub boat, think outside the box; install 4 large electric motors (you could probably get the motors from wreck Tesla electric cars and convert them to marine motors, put them in the hold below deck. Run a drive shaft the “kicker” outside to your “screws” (propellers). 360 degree rotation allows you to dock this bad boy barge anywhere.
But you don’t need to dock it. Know why? You have an anchor and (not pictured) there are these things called SPUDS on some barges. No not potatoes. Not those kinds of spuds.
Barge Spuds are giant steel vertical pilings/poles that are raised and lowered to act like vertical anchors that hold the barge in place. Maneuver in-place with the electric motors, drop your spuds, and you’re anchored semi-permanently. When you want to move locations, raise the spuds and move.
You never have to refuel if it’s powered by electric motors, solar and wind will be enough to charge your batteries. Once you anchor, you could be there in once place for a month or the summer. You could put put around the coastlines and up and down rivers, anchor in large bays and sounds. It’s absolutely doable. And if you get a barge large enough, a seagoing barge, then you can go anywhere in the world!
And it’s all covered by Maritime law. (I don’t know if insurance companies will insure you though. That is a big deal. And you may need a captains license or hire a captain to move it due to its size.
Other drawbacks are you’d either need to hire a tug boat operator to move the barge (if it’s not self propelled) or you’re need to hire a licensed Captain to pilot the barge if you install electric motors to move to to a new location. Unless you got your own Captain’s license, and even then, there’s so much red tape and cost and time involved it might not be worth it. And that’s IF you get approved for the conversion and the upgrades and installation of the motors to make it self propelled. There’s a lot of US Coast Guard regulations and Maritime laws that you will need to comply with. All this cost time and money and it’s a lot of work, time, money, energy, and did I mention money? Hiring a tug boat to move you around is tens of thousands of dollars and that’s for short hops when you’re not moving far. But if you want to go round the world, that’s going to likely be impossible without either having a Captain’s license yourself or hiring a captain. Again, many many thousands of dollars.
So, as wild and crazy cool as this idea is, and as much as this would technically work. It’s not economically or legally or practically feasible.
It’s still a cool ass idea! And yeah…if I had the money to burn I’d do it anyway just for the hell of it.
If the zombie apocalypse ever happens this is probably a good option.
Until then, this idea is just that. A crazy idea for some crazy millionaire off gridder to build.
You’re welcome! 😉
***
P.S. Disclaimer: Don’t try this at home, kids!
