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Students famously try to save cash by living on supermarket value brands or baked beans.

But when Joe Pearce decided to take control of his finances he opted to buy a run-down yacht to live on and saved himself £5,600.

The physical geography student bought the bought the 42-year-old yacht, Golden Cloud, online for £800 — then the equivalent of two months’ rent and a snip at four times less than the asking price.

He lived onboard the 23-foot Falmouth Gypsy class boat in a boatyard for 14 months while he studied at Aberystwyth University, saving himself the thousands in rent.

The move followed a split with his girlfriend, with whom he had shared rent. Solo, he faced a daunting £400-a-month rent bill.

“When we broke up it meant paying twice the rent – at least £100 per week,” said Joe.

“Student accommodation in Aberystwyth is always scarce and I knew I’d struggle to find somewhere affordable, and quickly.

“Having been brought up in Cowes on the Isle of Wight, where I’d been to sailing club, I had always fancied having my own boat. The plan was that in a gap year my friends and I would sail around Europe, rather than buying a camper van.”

Being an opportunist, Joe had put in a “ridiculously low” offers on a couple of boats and to his surprise one was accepted.

He bought the boat from the owner in Porthmadog, Gwynedd, then sited it at the Ynyslas boatyard, eight miles from Aberystwyth, cycling to and from university to save money.

He said: “These were boats priced at more than £3,000 but I had nothing to lose and just offered £800. The market is so difficult at the moment that those selling are struggling. I had basically secured it for what would have been two months rent.

“My friends were expecting a glamorous yacht – but they were shocked when they saw it. It was a little worse for wear but I just thought of it as luxury camping.”

The boat had a 1970 engine and the tallest part of the its accommodation was 5ft so Joe found it difficult to move around as he’s almost 6ft.

“It wasn’t he sort of place you’d have a party, but it was cosy and comfortable and I just felt like it was part of a big adventure,” he said.

He said everyone at the boatyard, where he paid just £1 per week to keep the boat, was really helpful, pitching in to fix its parts.

After completing his masters degree and graduating last December, Joe, 23, decided he would sail his student digs the 450 miles from Aberystwyth to the Isle of Wight, calling at eight ports along the way.

Joe, whose carpenter father, Nigel, is registered blind, displayed boards and flags, collecting donations for the RNLI and a charity for the blind at each port he stopped at.

The boat which has a glass fibre hull with a plywood coach roof showed its age when his engine broke down.

“I was going to make for the nearest port under sail, but Milford Haven Coastguard persuaded me that, because of the sea conditions, to take a tow from the RNLI inshore lifeboat at Newquay,” said Joe

Although he had an advanced level powerboat qualification, his previous experience of sailing boats was confined to Optimist dinghies.

“I was initially accompanied on my voyage with someone who had experience with a jib,” he said. “But for most of the 120 hours of sailing I was on my own.”

Joe, whose family lives on the Isle of Wight has now secured a mooring on the local River Medina.

During his university career he went on an Arctic expedition as part of a team led by Aberystwyth glaciologist Alun Hubbard investigating the Greenland Ice Sheet.

“We spent time living on a boat during the expedition so I felt I was fully prepared for that thanks to my own accommodation,” said Joe.

* Joe’s video diary can be found on his blog 24ftescape.blogspot.com where people can also donate.