By using this site, you agree to the Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.
Accept
What's The JamWhat's The Jam
  • Home
  • Latest News
    • UK News
    • World News
  • Super ViralHot
  • Lifestyle
    • Health and Fitness
    • Photography
    • Property
  • Humor
  • Celebrity
  • Weird
  • Videos
  • All Topics
    • Babies and Kids
    • Celebrity
    • Comedy and Humor
    • Documentary and Reportage
    • Fails
    • Health and Fitness
    • Holidays and Travel
    • Influencers and Models
    • Latest Videos
    • Life Hacks
    • Lifestyle
    • Nature and Wildlife
    • Pets and Animals
    • Photography
    • Property
    • Real Life
    • Sport
    • Strange and Bizarre
    • Super Viral
    • UK News
    • World News
Search
  • Health and Fitness
  • Holidays and Travel
  • Nature and Wildlife
  • Pets and Animals
  • Photography
  • Babies and Kids
  • Comedy and Humor
  • Fails
  • Real Life
  • Strange and Bizarre
  • Submit News
  • Customize Interests
  • Bookmarks
  • Newsletter
  • Who Are We
  • Privacy
  • Terms
  • Write For Us
  • Advertise
  • Contact
© 2023 What's The Jam. All Rights Reserved.
Reading: Couple leave dry land to live on £62,000 boat with ZERO sailing experience
Share
Notification Show More
Aa
What's The JamWhat's The Jam
Aa
  • News
  • World
  • Viral
  • Funny
  • Weird
  • Celebrity
  • DIY
  • Lifestyle
  • Sport
  • Videos
Search
  • Home
    • News
    • World
    • Super Viral
    • Videos
  • All Topics
    • Babies and Kids
    • Celebrity
    • Comedy and Humor
    • Documentary and Reportage
    • Fails
    • Health and Fitness
    • Holidays and Travel
    • Influencers and Models
    • Life Hacks
    • Lifestyle
    • Nature and Wildlife
    • Pets and Animals
    • Photography
    • Property
    • Real Life
    • Sport
    • Strange and Bizarre
  • Quick Links
    • Customize Interests
    • Bookmarks
    • Privacy Policy
    • Terms of use
    • Write For Us
    • Advertise
    • Contact
Have an existing account? Sign In
Follow US
  • Privacy
  • Terms
  • Write For Us
  • Advertise
  • Contact
© 2023 What's The Jam. All Rights Reserved.
A couple spent £62,000 to live full-time on a sailboat, despite no sailing experience. Their adventure has brought them closer, as they learn to navigate life at sea.
Lifestyle

Couple leave dry land to live on £62,000 boat with ZERO sailing experience

Katie Dollard
Last updated: 2024/08/23 at 6:24 AM
Katie Dollard
Share
6 Min Read
Dianne Swain and James Toutounj on their boat recent. (Picture: Jam Press)
SHARE

A couple have spent £62,000 to live out at sea full time – without any sailing experience.

Dianne Swain, 27, and James Toutounji, 35, met while working for a cruise line company.

They started dating after catching up in a bar one evening and within a year had moved in together.

READ MORE: ‘I dropped out of college to become a YouTube star – at 21, I partied with celebs, bought myself a supercar and earned £1m a year’

- Advertisement -

It wasn’t long before they figured a house wasn’t for them and they started thinking about life on a boat.

“Living in tropical North Queensland with the Great Barrier Reef at our doorstep, we bonded over our love for the ocean,” Dianne, a marketing assistant, and James, a seafarer, both from the Sydney area of Australia, told What’s The Jam.

A couple spent £62,000 to live full-time on a sailboat, despite no sailing experience. Their adventure has brought them closer, as they learn to navigate life at sea.
Dianne Swain and James Toutounj on their boat recent. (Picture: Jam Press)

“However, working full time meant only being able to get out to the reef on weekends if the weather was good.

“We had been feeling a bit ‘meh’ after the dampening effects from covid, burnout from work and the passing of a loved one.

“And it made us yearn for a big change, an adventure to re-ignite our mojo.”

- Advertisement -

The couple, who met in 2021, felt it was time for them to “jump into something headfirst” before settling down and thinking about having kids.

Dianne said: “The idea to live on a sailboat was undoubtedly inspired by other young cruisers online.

“We did think of other possibilities for the ‘big change’ but kept circling back to living on a boat.

- Advertisement -

“James has a lot of experience in boating, but zero experience with sailing.

“We did consider purchasing a motorboat to live on, but with fuel prices being so expensive, sailing was the more economic option.

“Also it seemed a great opportunity to learn a new skill together.”

So the couple went ahead and, in 2023, found a second-hand sailboat for £46,560 (AU$90,000).

A couple spent £62,000 to live full-time on a sailboat, despite no sailing experience. Their adventure has brought them closer, as they learn to navigate life at sea.
Dianne Swain and James Toutounj boat. (Picture: Jam Press)

They put around £15,520 (AU$30,000) of work into it, spending a total £62,080 (AU$120,000) all together.

They said: “We removed four skip bins worth of the old owners stuff, he lived on the boat for 17 years and left with only a back pack.

“There’s lots of work we would still like to do and heaps of gadgets, toys and things we want to buy for the boat!

“We need a new sail bag making at some stage and we would really like auto-pilot and wind instruments, bigger, newer solar panels, a new turquoise paint job and a stove top cappuccino maker!”

“But everything is quite expensive and money is tight, so we have to be selective about our upgrades.

The couple set sail in May this year from North Queensland.

Dianne said: “We really did dive in headfirst with no major plan or preparation.

“In hindsight, I wish we had taken some lessons to get a head start on learning beforehand, we just didn’t have time while working so much.

“We did join the local clubs to learn from the community around us and made some friends in Cairns by doing small trips out to the reef to get the hang of it.

“Then we finally took the plunge in a good weather window to leave the mainland for good!

“I wouldn’t say we prepared for what we are going to experience, but we had a solid foundation and an eagerness to continually learn.”

The duo’s biggest challenge has been actually learning to sail.

Dianne said: “The concept of sailing and all the sailing lingo is so foreign!

“We are slowly learning all the names of things, like the ropes that pull the sails up are actually called ‘sheets’.

“When our rigger told us we needed to replace all the sheets it was very confusing!

“Not having a handover from the boat’s previous owner was also a challenge.

“Each boat is unique and if we had that it would have saved us a lot of trial and error work.”

However, the couple love their new life and say it has brought them closer together.

She said: “It’s an exciting time in our lives, being a newly engaged couple on an adventure of a lifetime.”

The couple are recording their journey as they go.

Dianne added: “We are learning so much about ourselves and each other on this journey.

“It’s also important to find time to do our own thing each day, otherwise we can get a bit agitated!

“But we’re learning how to work as a team and get into routines for how we sail together.”

READ MORE: ‘I live a double life as an NHS doctor and DJ – I play at the world’s biggest events but still make it home for my A&E shift’

Share this:

  • Facebook
  • X

Have a story to tell? Hello@whatsthejam.com
TAGGED: couple, home, Lifestyle, saving money, Video

Sign Up For Daily Newsletter

Be keep up! Get the latest breaking news delivered straight to your inbox.
[mc4wp_form]
By signing up, you agree to our Terms of Use and acknowledge the data practices in our Privacy Policy. You may unsubscribe at any time.
Share This Article
Facebook Twitter Copy Link Print
Share
What do you think?
Love0
Sad0
Happy0
Sleepy0
Angry0
Dead0
Wink0
Previous Article Explore a unique London property: three garages in Southfields listed for £250,000. With ultrafast broadband and prime location, is this investment worth it? London garages for sale at one-bed flat price – with ‘fast broadband’ as a perk
Next Article Fairgoers stranded 200 feet high on Six Flags ride in Mexico City after bad weather halts attraction mid-air. Thrill-seekers safely rescued after a terrifying ordeal. Fairgoers left dangling over 200ft drop after ride shuts down in bad weather
Leave a comment Leave a comment

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Stay Connected

235.3k Followers Like
69.1k Followers Follow
11.6k Followers Pin
56.4k Followers Follow
136k Subscribers Subscribe
4.4k Followers Follow
- Advertisement -
Ad imageAd image

Latest News

A woman’s forgotten jewellery collection hidden in a cupboard for 18 years stuns at auction, selling for £8,255 after being valued at just £1,000 by a second opinion.
Jewellery inherited from aunt and left in cupboard for decades sells for over £8,000
UK News 20 June 2025
Kanye West and wife Bianca Censori were spotted shopping in a Magaluf tourist store, surprising locals as they browsed crisps and cheeky gifts during a six-week island stay.
Kanye West spotted in Magaluf tourist shop by shocked Brit expat
Celebrity 20 June 2025
A rare Anglo-Saxon gold coin dating back to AD640-660 has been unearthed in Norfolk, blending Christian and pagan symbols in what experts call a major archaeological find.
Rare gold coin of ‘dancing man’ found buried in British field could be earliest of its kind
UK News 20 June 2025
A woman shocked TikTok by squeezing leaking filler from her lips, then getting a top-up despite warnings. She defends her look as part of reclaiming her true identity.
‘I’ve had so much lip filler it’s LEAKING but I’m not done yet’
Health and Fitness 20 June 2025

You Might also Like

Kanye West and wife Bianca Censori were spotted shopping in a Magaluf tourist store, surprising locals as they browsed crisps and cheeky gifts during a six-week island stay.
Celebrity

Kanye West spotted in Magaluf tourist shop by shocked Brit expat

20 June 2025
A woman shocked TikTok by squeezing leaking filler from her lips, then getting a top-up despite warnings. She defends her look as part of reclaiming her true identity.
Health and Fitness

‘I’ve had so much lip filler it’s LEAKING but I’m not done yet’

20 June 2025
A custom 1987 AM General Humvee with 750hp, air suspension, and just 1,700 miles is turning heads at auction, blending rat rod style with extreme off-road performance.
World News

Hot rod 1987 Humvee with hardly any miles on clock goes on sale for £40,000

20 June 2025
A man was hilariously "baptised" by a hammerhead shark after freeing it from a hook, getting knocked into the sea by its thrashing tail near Marco Island, Florida.
World News

Man ‘baptised’ by hammerhead shark after thrashing predator knocks him into water

20 June 2025
A moose caused chaos in the Norwegian town of Røros, sprinting down the high street as people fled for safety. It was later safely guided back to the forest.
World News

Huge elk gallops down high street as locals forced to scarper

20 June 2025
A Brit living in New York was stunned to share a subway ride with parrots and a 15ft snake, sparking viral reactions and concern for the animals' welfare online.
Strange and Bizarre

Baffled Brit shares subway ride with PARROTS and 15ft serpent

20 June 2025
A mum transformed her Cardiff home for just £269 using only Shein items, stunning friends with her chic, budget-friendly décor and proving style doesn't have to cost a fortune.
Property

‘I furnished my entire house using SHEIN – my friend screamed when I told her it cost just £269’

19 June 2025
A rare Strawberry Moon lit up Stonehenge for the first time in 18 years, captured in a stunning image by Abby Moule after two years of planning for the lunar standstill.
UK News

Rare Strawberry Moon appears over Stonehenge for first time in 18 years

19 June 2025
//

What’s The Jam is your one stop website for the latest viral and weird news from around the world.

 
Have a story to tell? Hello@whatsthejam.com

Quick Link

  • Customize Interests
  • Bookmarks
  • Write for Us
  • Newsletter
  • About Us

Top Categories

  • UK News
  • World News
  • Latest Videos
  • Lifestyle
  • Super Viral

Sign Up for Our Newsletter

Subscribe to our newsletter to get our newest articles instantly!

[mc4wp_form]

What's The JamWhat's The Jam
Follow US
© 2023 What's The Jam. All Rights Reserved.
Go to mobile version
adbanner
AdBlock Detected
Our site is an advertising supported site. Please whitelist to support our site.
Okay, I'll Whitelist
Welcome Back!

Sign in to your account

Lost your password?