Kopp is president of the slipholders association at Gangplank Marina on the Washington Channel in Southwest, which is welcoming the public on Saturday for its first-ever houseboat tours. The charity event is sold out. What is it like to live on a houseboat?
Right now there’s a little more than 100 live-aboard members in the Southwest waterfront community that live in their boats full time.
There are also people that we call work-aboards or commute-aboards because they live there during the week and have another house in
Maryland or Virginia — it’s sort of their apartment in the city. All of us feel like we are part of a tight-knit community. We have lots of
events, from Sunday Captain’s Coffees — a potluck brunch — and on Thursdays we have happy hour on our events barge, which is like a
potluck grill-out. We also have movie nights.
Are all the houseboats stationed at the dock or are they like regular boats?
There are actual house structures that don’t go anywhere and then there are also power boats, yachts and sailboats. A majority of the boats can move — they have engines — but there is a fair amount of house boats or barges.
Why live on a houseboat?
We really love the community. When you are walking out to your dock you will run into your neighbors hanging out on their
boats, and people feel like they know each other pretty well. [And] you are in the middle of D.C. and you are still close to
everything but you feel like you are in a quieter area that is more connected to nature.
Why did you decide to open your homes for a public tour?
We’re really hoping that development takes place here and that people take a lot more interest in the area. When people identify with an area they tend to take ownership of it, and though the waterfront is our backyard, we want people to think it is also their backyard.
— Hayley Peterson
