A couple from Victoria, B.C., is making waves by chronicling their exploits onboard Luja, a former BC Ferries lifeboat that has been repurposed into a tiny home.
According to their website, Dani Tate-Stratton and Toryn Sundstrom have spent the last year transforming the 28-foot semi-enclosed lifeboat into a “fully bespoke” living environment.
On YouTube and Instagram, the duo is keeping followers updated on their progress.
“We’ve been lucky to discover a community online who are interested in her and what we’re doing with her,” Tate-Stratton said, sitting on Luja’s hull in Sidney, B.C.
Tate-Stratton and Sundstrom met in 2010 while doing equestrian vaulting — acrobatic tricks on horseback. As a couple, they’ve questioned the need to live what many people would consider a conventional lifestyle.
“I feel like people tend to get stuck in the regular, ‘I need to buy a house and I need to do this and this is just how my life needs to be,’ and I feel you don’t really need to be that type of person,” said Sundstrom.
Luja isn’t quite seaworthy yet, but the couple’s goal is to complete renovations by 2022 and start checking boxes on their travel bucket list. Right now that includes Southeast Alaska, the St. Lawrence Seaway, and the canals of Europe, according to their website.
In the meantime, their fanbase is growing at home and abroad.
“We have a lot of friends with sailboats and they want to know about this funny boat that’s electric and all the different things about that,” said Tate-Stratton.
“We also wanted to show people that having an electric powerboat is possible. There’s quite a few electric sailboats now and there’s almost no electric powerboats.”
She said that Luja has 200 square feet of living area, which is comparable to some current micro-condos.
When faced with the choice of buying a property or paying exorbitant rental rates, the lifeboat provided a unique solution.
“We figured if we were going to have a little condo, we might as well make it our own,” she said. “We adore Victoria, but we didn’t want to be tethered to it, and this was a far more cost-effective way to claim those 200 square feet.”
Source_ The Canadian Press
