Couple transform rotting 78ft yacht they found hidden under a tarp into dream family home

Blaine and Janis Carmena gambled on an early retirement: they cashed in their savings and bought a rotting 70-foot yacht that they found under a tarp along the remote Alaskan coast.

The ship, the Tangaroa, has since cost more than half a million dollars and many hours of repairs.

But the cheerful couple told DailyMail.com they wouldn’t change a thing.

Now it’s a home for the duo, their daughter Izzy, 17, and Mexican rescue dog Maggie in the waters off Victoria, British Columbia, Canada.

This summer they say goodbye to Vancouver Island for an epic 10-year journey to Siberia, Japan, Australia, New Zealand and then back up through the Arctic to Northern Europe.

For their fans on social media, the Carmenas show how an ordinary Canadian-American couple can make it big and, with hard work and dedication, enjoy a dream retirement at sea.

‘Life is too short. You can’t just sit on the couch and watch TV,” said Janis, a 53-year-old from Ontario.

‘You have to go out, see the world and meet people. You’d be surprised how much kindness there actually is in the world.’

Janis met Blaine, 48, from Louisiana, when they were sailing the South Pacific as yacht crew members in their early 20s.

They married in 2002 and moved to the dry lands in British Columbia to start a family.

Janis worked as a police officer and Blaine as a mechanic while raising Josh, now 21, and Izzy.

When their children were grown, the Carmenas made plans to hit the waves again.

They found a 70-foot 1969 powered yacht for sale in Wrangell, Alaska, that looked good and sold for a reasonable $350,000.

But when they visited the ship on the damp, windswept coast in late 2019, it was under a tarpaulin, rotting, moldy and covered in barnacles – hardly like the online images.

Still, they saw an opportunity and reduced the seller’s price to $140,000, sailing back to Canada early the following year.

After restoring the heating and plumbing, they moved to the ship in August 2020.

Since then, they have spent weekends and many other hours restoring it to its former glory.

The YouTube channel ‘On board Tangaroa: the endless trial run‘ shows how they strip the aluminum hull, pull up the teak deck and install a diesel heater, lithium batteries and a generator.

“In terms of pure labor, removing the paint was pretty brutal,” Blaine said.

They have already spent more than $200,000 on repairs and materials, and that amount could easily double once the work is completed.

Before they drop anchor this summer, they want to repair the engines, charge the batteries and replace cracked windows.

After sailing there is still a lot of work to be done: renovating the interior.

Still, according to Janis, the total cost is less than the value of the ship, about $1.8 million.

Buying a newly built yacht and sailing it to Victoria would be even more expensive.

The Tangaroa is also a better deal than the typical $1.2 million price for a three-bedroom house in Victoria, she adds.

Blaine says they reduced their costs tremendously by doing the work themselves.

Anyone interested in following in their wake could try something less ambitious, he says.

A smaller ship that is suitable for calmer waters and can more easily navigate the Caribbean Sea would be cheaper and easier, he adds.

“It’s a wonderful lifestyle and I wouldn’t tell people to shy away from it,” he told DailyMail.com.

“You just have to do your research and make sure you get a boat that suits your skills and that you can maintain.”

The Carmenas are part of a growing trend of young people, professionals and retirees choosing to leave their homes behind and live on the water.

For some, the lifestyle is too unusual and the quarters below deck too claustrophobic.

Others worry about its connotations with passers-by evading society and living on poor, battered ships.

Data is difficult to come by, but estimates suggest the population of American live-aboard ships has increased in recent years. Some estimate it at around 100,000 people.

Many of them, like the Carmenas, also want to travel at home.

The couple has little interest in popping champagne corks in the balmy Caribbean or Mediterranean Sea.

They seek choppier, cooler waters that will test their aluminum hulls.

On July 7, they’ll head up the coastline to Alaska to visit the native Haida Gwaii archipelago and World War II sites in the Aleutian Islands.

After passing through Russia and bypassing Japan, Janis plans to visit Yap, a Micronesian island surrounded by reefs where the natives use huge ornate limestone disks as money.

At sea, she says the boat is big enough that everyone on board can get some space from each other.

They also have their own specific role in case of disagreements.

“We bicker sometimes,” says Janis.

‘If it has something to do with the interior, then I win. If it has to do with the mechanics, the navigation or steering the boat, he wins.”

They post about their adventures – from kayaking remote creeks to navigating rapids and setting crab traps – on their other channel ‘Exploring the world aboard the Tangaroa.’

The advertising revenue won’t make them millionaires, but it will cover the cost of diesel, Janis says.

The ship influencers try to “motivate and educate” people to “follow their dreams,” she says.

Some subscribers are too sick or poor to travel and “live vicariously” through the toils and triumphs of the Carmenas, she adds.

“It’s also our legacy that our children can watch it when we’re gone,” she says.