I have been in a wheelchair for 16 years and I plan to sale my house and live on a houseboat within the next few years. Is anyone else doing this from a wheelchair and what are your experiences good or bad?

I may be way off base here, but I think maybe the reason your not getting any replies to your question is because it is very hard for us to imagine the difficulties you will be facing. I have no idea of all the problems involved with traveling on a houseboat (especially in rough weather) while in a wheel chair.

You must already have some experience with wheel chair boating??

Pray tell, please explain to me how you handle that.
clarence

I suspect how well you would adapt to houseboating would depend in large part exactly what you plan to do with it, and with whom.

Would you live aboard a floating home that stays in one place, a single-level water-house adapted for your special needs- like wider passageways and lower counters? In that case, I should think it would be quite do-able, especially if you were on a lake where the water level didn't vary much, and getting onto and off the dock wouldn't be a daily headache. I'm thinking of the floating homes on Lake Washington near Seattle, for example.

Would you actually plan to go places? What challenges do you suppose you'd have to be able to handle? You may have been a boater before your wheelchair days, so you may have some pretty good ideas of the problems and their solutions. Have you been aboard a houseboat since then, gone for a ride in one to see what navigating in a wheelchair on a pitching deck would be like? Would you have to order a custom houseboat with wheelchair-accessible everything on a single level? The necessary renovations on an older boat would seem a daunting prospect.

In my very limited experience, active boat-handling can be a challenge even for people who have full use of their sea legs. I assume, then, you would have a good competent crew to help with dock lines, who'd be able to take charge of things like setting and retrieving anchors, who could handle emergencies like man-overboard. Your crew would tmanage wrestling with fueling hoses and self-serve credit-card machines, fending off from other boats and piers in fluky winds, dealing with sewage pump-outs, swapping out empty propane bottles for full ones. How about the maintenance? Could you get yourself down into the engine compartment to figure out why the thing won't stay running? Unfoul a propeller? Or would you always have people aboard who could take instruction from you on how to accomplish these things without hands-on supervision?

I so look forward to hearing what you have in mind, Cap'n! It could be a very inspirational and amazing story.

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Amelia
Edenton, NC

Well in 16 years I haven't let many things slow me down. I went back to work within 3 months after my accident and kept working for 13 years as a machinist. I ride 4wheelers, hunt, fish have a 22' pontoon. I had a rock crawler jeep for a while too so yes I've had to do plenty of motor work. I do plan to travel some start off with short trips but plan to travel to mobile at least once. I will most likely be docking on Watts Bar lake. No challenge no fun right?

We had a gentleman at our lake who used a wheelchair sometimes and an electric chair the rest of the time. He kept his boat in the slip, and had a ramp to get on and off his boat. He lived on the boat for a over a year.