Boat or Houseboat on Water

Do SL charge you for having a house or a boat on water?

If it is truly a houseboat that you want to set up and live on then you will need to purchase or rent land with water on it to do that. However, if you just want to go boating there are places where you can do that without owning the land, but you won't be able to leave your boat rezzed.

It depends what you mean by water. There is Linden owned water where you may rezz a boat to go sailing and so on. Otherwise all 'water' is owned by residents exactly like land. If you are even able place a boat on this water you will likely find it is returned to you pretty promptly.
If you want to buy a lot that is all system water, rather than a dry land plot where you would need to create prim water, you will have to buy it, or rent it. If you buy mainland, and if you have a premium account, you can buy 512 sqm without incurring any tier (land use fees).

Okay but if I were to get a pirate ship, can I just leave it anchored in the middle of the water and leave it? Or it wont work?

Short answer? No, you can't. If you rezz your pirate ship on linden owned water it will probably be returned to your inventory fairly soon. If you rezz it on water owned by another resident they will likely return it when they log in as you would be trespassing and eating up their prim allowance. Of course, they might decide to ban you from the land and keep the boat to play on for a while! If you are unable to cam into the plot to retrieve your boat, that could be an expensive game!

OK, there are a couple of things you have to understand about water and boats in SL.

First of all, water can be land, too, in the sense that you own the seafloor. And you need to own a parcel of land (whether it's dry or wet) in order to rez ANYTHING and leave it in world permanently.

You can put anything on (or over) land that you own or rent...a house, a boat, an underwater cave, or a skybox floating a mile in the air.

Second, you can terraform the land to raise it up out of the water, or sink it beneath the waves (provided what you want to do is within the terraforming limits set for that piece of land. Mainland is generally plus or minus 4 meters from its starting point.) So you can dredge out a harbor for your boat, if you're near the coast.

Third, not all water is navigable. On the map, you can exist in any grid square that has a name. Those that are water can be sailed by boats. But those blue areas of the map with NO names, that say "Invalid Location" when you click on them, are not really water at all. They are nonexistent void. Even though you can stand on your beach and look out over the ocean that seems to be in the sim next door, it's an illusion. You can't go there.

Boats are of two types: static and driveable. Most of the ones large enough to live aboard are static. They don't go anywhere. They are really a boat-shaped house. You rez them at your dock and move in. Most driveable boats are too small to live on, with a few exceptions.

Depending on your boat, I may be able to offer you a marina slip for rent. Let me know if you are interested.

Dunno about messing around in boats but I love your name - Boygasm. I could almost eat that name.

Slightly more palatable than "Shaft Woodman", I grant you. But I detest all names like that, that seek to shock or offend. Get an alt.

It will either be returned or possibly ARed for squatting.

Now why am I reminded of the noob who announced he was going to be my neighbor and wanted to know who would stop him if he built his house next to me?

Lol Kara, I haven't had that, but I did get a surprise the other week when I was checking prim counts in my mall. There were only about 50 available, which was way low. So I noticed that 2 avatars had rezzed over 150 prims. I went over to look what it all was, and the avis in question were there too. In house. Their house. Which they had built in a corner of the mall. So I walked up and said hello, as you do. I was about to explain their error, when the female avi asked me to please leave their living room because they were busy moving in! Seriously, my keyboard was awash with coffee. I called my husband over to see, and I think his exact words were 'Oh, this is gonna be good'! Now I know the mall doesn't look like a mall, because I rebuilt it to look like a Cornish village, and I realise it's hard to find a home in these difficult times, but wtf?! So, I stepped outside, and explained that they were on my land. They said they weren't, they were in their house. I said that their house was on my land, and they said they didn't think so. I asked if they had paid anyone for the land, and they said they had not, they just thought this looked a nice spot to settle in, and would I like to leave them to unpack! So I said again that they REALLY were on my land, and couldn't stay, and they said they would report me for harrassment. I offered to return their stuff one item at a time, and they said no thanks, we like it here, we're gonna stay, and that I couldn't stop them. So I returned their stuff in one go, by this time I was laughing a lot! I also had to eject and ban them, and I am still wondering if it was a prank or if they truly thought they could just find a pleasant place and start building. Who knows?

I would vote for "prank"...it just seems implausible that they would know to threaten you with an AR, yet would NOT know facts of parcel ownership (and Return powers!) that are so basic to SL.

(I hope you took a Snapshot! ...)

The Linden Lab (or the rules set up by LL, anyway)!

(I love your sig, by the way---hadn't seen it before. ^_^)