Coming Unmoored

There seems to be a lot of confusion about the difference between what constitutes a houseboat versus a floating home. It certainly doesn’t help matters that journalists who write about housing options on the water and water-dwellers themselves tend to use the terms interchangeably. In fact, entire books have been written about “Houseboats” which I would argue are actually floating homes because they lack any independent means of propulsion.

To further muddy the picture, you will often find houseboats and floating homes in the same moorages.

Perhaps this is my anal-retentive Virgo side showing, but here is my attempt to define the line between these terms. You are welcome to disagree in the comments below.

Houseboat

The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines a houseboat as: “a boat fitted for use as a dwelling; especially : a pleasure craft with a broad beam, a usually shallow draft, and a large superstructure resembling a house”.

To me, the operative words here are “a boat”. A boat usually has some internal means of propulsion and steering.

A good example of a house boat would be The Brandy Bar.

Most people seem to be acquainted with the existence of houseboats at least to some degree.

Floating Home:

In contrast to houseboats, floating homes are residential structures built upon some sort of flotation system. They have no internal means of propulsion and require the assistance of a water craft to be moved.

Floating homes can come in a variety of shapes and sizes: rustic cabins, cottages, suburban-style dwellings, elaborate town homes, even pavilions. The one thing they have in common is that they are all, quite literally, houses that float.

While the population at large seems to be familiar with the idea of houseboats, most people seem to have never heard of homes that are simply built on the water.

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