We sold up, kept the boat, and spent a full season living aboard and cruising France from April to October. Two adults, one 12-metre sloop, no shore base. People kept asking the same question over a beer on the pontoon: what does it actually cost?
So I tracked it. Every berth, every shop, every litre of diesel, every annoying admin fee. Here is the real spend for six months afloat, and the levers that moved it most.
The shape of a liveaboard season
A cruising holiday and a liveaboard season are different animals. On holiday you tolerate marina prices because it is only a fortnight. Living aboard for six months, those nightly rates become a salary-sized line, so the whole game shifts towards anchoring, town quays and the occasional monthly deal.
Our season broke roughly into three months of active cruising and three months of slower pottering with longer stops. We anchored far more than a holidaymaker would, because at 35 to 50 euros a marina night, every night ashore is a meal out we did not have.
Berths over six months
This is the line that separates a comfortable season from a frightening one. The headline daily rates on the Atlantic and Channel sit around 25 to 52 euros for a 12-metre boat, with La Rochelle near 42 to 52 in high season. Pay that every night for six months and you are looking at 7,000 euros or more just to sleep.
We did not. Our split across roughly 180 nights:
- 70 nights at anchor or on free town moorings: near zero
- 80 nights in marinas at an average of 35 euros: 2,800 euros
- 30 nights covered by two monthly deals at quieter ports: about 900 euros
Total berthing for the season: around 3,700 euros. Monthly contracts are the trick most holidaymakers never see. A month in a modest Atlantic marina can run 600 to 1,000 euros for our length, which works out far cheaper than nightly rates if you are happy to sit still for a few weeks. The economics of long stops are laid out in annual running costs of a boat in France.
Diesel for a season that sails
We sail a sailing boat, so diesel stays small. Across six months and a fair amount of coastal hopping we burned roughly 350 litres. With French diesel around 2.12 euros a litre in spring 2026 and the fuel berth a little dearer, that is about 770 euros for the season.
A liveaboard motorboat covering the same ground would spend that in a few weeks, which is why fuel planning matters so much more for power. If that is your boat, the numbers in fuel costs for motorboat cruising in France will sober you up fast.
Food: living, not holidaying
Six months means you eat like residents, not tourists. A weekly supermarket shop for a couple in France runs 75 to 110 euros, so call it 90 euros a week average. Over 26 weeks that is around 2,340 euros for groceries.
We ate ashore far less than on a holiday: maybe twice a month, because at 15 euros for a plat du jour and 16 to 28 euros for a menu du jour, dinners for two add up. Twelve restaurant evenings across the season, say 50 euros each, added 600 euros. Total food: about 2,940 euros, or roughly 113 euros a week for two people eating well off French markets.
The galley is the easiest place to overspend without noticing, and the easiest to rein in. We shopped the morning markets for fish and veg, bought wine by the box from the cave cooperative, and treated restaurants as occasions.
The admin and infrastructure layer
Living aboard for a full season triggers costs a fortnight never reaches:
- Insurance for the cruising area: budget 600 to 1,200 euros a year depending on the boat and limits
- Annual antifoul and a haul-out either side of the season, often 800 to 1,500 euros all in
- Gas, water, laundry, pump-outs across six months: maybe 250 euros
- Connectivity (a French data SIM or similar): around 20 euros a month, so 120 euros
- Tourist tax on marina nights: a few tens of euros, more on the Med
We also paid for a winter lay-up at the end, but that sits outside the cruising season proper. The paperwork side of staying long in France as a foreigner is its own headache, covered in keeping a non-EU boat in France beyond 18 months.
The season total
Adding it up for two people, April to October, on a 12-metre sailing boat cruising the Atlantic and Channel coasts:
- Berths: 3,700 euros
- Diesel: 770 euros
- Food: 2,940 euros
- Insurance (apportioned to the season): 700 euros
- Antifoul and haul-outs: 1,000 euros
- Gas, laundry, water, tax, comms: 500 euros
- Contingency and repairs: 800 euros
That lands near 10,400 euros for six months, or about 1,730 euros a month for two adults living and cruising. Per person, per day, that is roughly 29 euros. For a life spent waking up in a different bay most weeks, I have paid far more to sit in a flat and stare at the rain.
The water and power game
Living aboard turns water and power from afterthoughts into daily logistics. At anchor you make your own electricity, from solar, a wind generator, or the engine, and you ration water from the tank. In a marina you plug in and fill up, which is part of what the berth buys. Over a season the difference is real money: a boat that anchors a lot needs enough solar and battery to stay off the engine, which is a capital cost up front but near-zero running cost after.
We fitted enough solar to cover a summer's daily draw, which meant our 70 anchor nights cost nothing in fuel for charging. A boat without that capacity runs the engine an hour or two a day at anchor just to keep the fridge cold, quietly burning diesel and the saving you thought you were making. It is worth doing the sums before the season, not during it.
A typical liveaboard week
To make the season figure concrete, here is how a normal week broke down for us once we found our rhythm:
- 3 anchor nights, 3 marina or town-quay nights, 1 night on a free mooring
- One supermarket shop of around 90 euros, topped up at a market or two
- One meal ashore, roughly 50 euros for two
- A tank of water, a gas check, perhaps a load of laundry
- Diesel only if we had motored a longer passage that week
A week like that ran us somewhere around 350 to 400 euros all in, which over 26 weeks is the season total give or take the big annual costs. Some weeks we sat still on a monthly deal and spent almost nothing; others, moving fast along a new stretch of coast, cost more. The average is what matters, and it held remarkably steady once the habits set.
What moves the number most
If you want this cheaper, the order is clear. Anchor more. The marina line is the single biggest variable and the easiest to halve. Cook aboard and treat restaurants as occasions. Pick the cheaper coast: an identical season on the Riviera, where a 10-metre boat can pay over 171 euros a night in Saint-Tropez, would easily double the berthing line. The contrast is brutal in the cost of a Cote d'Azur cruising summer.
The couples I have met who run out of money mid-season nearly always made the same mistake: they budgeted for a holiday and then lived a life. Plan for the life and the season pays for itself in everything it is not, which is rent.
