bramley

I might be able to help on thursday. I am in leighton buzzard and can certainly help to marsworth depending on the time of day as long as I can store my bike on board for my return trip.

Good luck Marcus been following the updates

no idea on the posts to date but I managed to get some things for the damage a Wyvern shipping boat caused me in 2005. Not money I know but there boat gave me a good wack and he sorted me the materials which was better than nothing i guess

Im on the lookout for a highbridge 32 at the moment. Im actually not a huge fan on the center cockpit but am also considering one as the market of this size of boat is small

Washing up liquid contains will strip any protection your paint has on it. Thats how it gets rid of grime. Its not good for your paint, a wash and wax even very cheap would be a lot better. With waxing the boat, best to do it when the metal is cool, and not in direct sunlight add the wax to the boat depending on length and leave for no longer than say 5 mins. Then wax off as such just buff with a cloth until all the residue has gone. The protection layer is left. Any sort of wax would be good to be honest so I wouldn't feed obliged to buy a expensive "boat" wax probably a 5 quid liquid turtle wax would be fine. I have very expensive wax's for my car 50 or 60 quid a pot. Wasted on a boat. Also you don't need to add it really thick as long as it gets a small covering you will be fine. Doing it twice would add a bit more protection. IF you clean your boat soon after do not use an abrasive cleaner like washing up liquid as it will strip most of your protection off. A wax like turtle wax should keep you protected for a good 3 months as long as it doesn't get to grimy, maybe longer if you keep it clean and washed with a budget wash and wax Ross

To be fair a lot of tow paths are very overgrown where I am. Some trees and bushes are groen over the towpath and about a footaway from the cut, which is not a lot of space to get by safely

live in LB myself will keep a eye out. Not good though would have hoped it would have been ok, the town is good usually

Try plant dealers if you are stuck as they all use the same keys it will be a k800 or k250 etc they are actually coded. Jcb is a good shout

sadly this is a scam, its very popular across the machinery market which I am involved with. Edit ok maybe not this one? take a look at this thread i made on another forum if allowed to link. You will see what they get up to. I am regy53 for info http://ceforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=5758

Terrible news Condolences.

We had a small gas heater on our nauticus but it was rather loud and also consumed battery power. It was easy though to just turn a dial to get warm. But to keep a small boat warm with a stove is a lot easier Imo.

I remember visiting this marina when searching for my last boat. It was pulled from the water and on dry dock. that was august 12.

if you can fit a stove to a cabin cruiser it would be as good as a narrowboat as long as it was a reasonable length. Nauticus 27 for example. Often these boats were well thoughtout at fitout and storage etc is good. Yes its small but I could have lived on mine with a dog, its just keeping warm as they do seem to get cold.

Was in the Grove last night having a expensive beer. The river ouzel and is flowing into the canal the canal is bursting its banks in places the fields are washing into the road, the marina next to the globe the land that they built up to take the marina is draining in link lane to the grove and flooding the car park.

not sure what I am.. lol been here nearly 10 years in the next few months .. GULP

Wow this thread escalated rather quickly with so many bad experiences and some good. I can see due to the quanitty of boats going through a good experience is going to happen. The amount of bad and the level of service is appalling in my opinion. I asked whilton when I requested the deposit back to call me once they established the problem to see if the deal could be re-struck. I.e if it was something as simple as they made out. MY mother and father in Law have not purchased a boat yet and liked this once. However despite re listing it for sale they are yet to call about the boat to say they fixed the problem which I would imagine if our surveyor (on the list they supply) passed the boat / engine, my parents would of gone ahead. Either they did not do anything and are waiting for the next victim, or I don't know.

Hi. Yes I asked for deposit back and they sent it via cheque in two days. This was last week.

I am to forgiving i am afraid. I really had forgotten so much about the previous dealing, would of assumed buying a boat is much easier than selling. On another note I found out when you search for whilton marina in google one of the suggestions is Whilton marina greedy. This made me LOL

Wow this thread took of. Puting aside this poor experience with Whilton I am afraid I have another. This never stopped me from going back as Whilton do do something very well. Thats getting a lot of boats for people to view in one area. So its good for newbee's to start out and may even find a boat they like given the choice. I bought my first narrowboat with my now Ex girlfriend in 2004 from Whilton Marina. We were 18 and took loans out etc to fund, with bringing the boat up to standard and including the cost of the boat we spent around £33k. Sadly money problems, mooring problems and relationship problems (we were very young) kicked in in 2005 and we had to sell. I rented a room and she moved back to her parents. We had a debt of around 33k for this boat. We stuck her back to Whilton to sell for us who were charging 6% plus VAT for brokerage. We put the price at £31950 expecting offers of 29 - 30k. After a few weeks a offer was received that we accepted, 29k if I remember correctly. The guy was going to conclude the deal at the end of the month but paid a deposit (apparently) and Whilton took the boat down for sale. Due to the fact we were had loans and credit card were maxed out money was a real squeeze. We started to rely on this money coming in. Over the next few weeks I made contact with Whilton several times just asking for a update. Is it all sorted, when is the guy coming in etc they told me they had been speaking with him and everything was under control expect payment as discussed at the end of the month. Sadly this came and went, I manged to get hold of somebody in Whilton who must not of known the story who apparently looked through the notes to find that no contact had been made with the buyer and they could not get hold of him. We were devastated as we had zero money and needed this money asap. I asked Whilton how much to purchase outright they offered 21k if I remember rightly. Which we accepted as we felt we had no choice. (young and naive). They told me they were sending the cheque first class. Nope two days later not received so I had to drive up there to collect it. The boat never actually came down as under offer on the website and 3 days later it went. If I was not so young and lacking in lifes skills back then I would of made the biggest fuss in the world. I genuinely believe they bull******d me along knowing we were desperate for the money ( I had told them) and then bought them self a cheap boat. This left us in negative equity. Being the gentleman I paid all of the mrs's loans and credit cards off. and had about 8k to show for about 19k of investment. Not easy to deal with at a young age. Anyway that's my story. I actually forgot about this in some detail until writing it out again. Makes me fume. I know all the decisions were mine but being young, stupid and lacking life experience and rip of merchants but it was what it was. I wonder how many other people get this treatment.

Ah I just found it funny as all the things people say about Bridge hoppers. Was 4 years ago mind! We paid £200 for the lift out and £600 for the survey. My feelings are through the words of the sales people suggesting it was fixed and no big deal lead us into a false sense of security that the boat was now fine. If they had said yeah it overheated on the first survey and we never looked at it or found the fault there would have been no offer made on the boat. The fact they said it was all sorted and there guys gave it a tweek seemed plausible as we all know that some little silly things can cause problems, leaking hose for example. Shouldn't have trusted them but it is what it is. To much grief to follow up further just pleased to get the £1000 deposit back.

Cheers guys, I am just wanting to let people know incase they do a search on the boat name or something. We had negotiated the boat down initially subject to survey obviously I am sure the seller or us did not want to encounter engine problems. We have been elsewhere and found other boats so its all good, and while we are £800 out of pocket its better than £27k out of pocket and a boat that needs serious engine work.

Yes this is it. while disappointed It is what it is. we got back out deposit and are now down £800. I wish the marina did not give us false hope but this is what it is. My major worry and the reason for the thread is the fact Whilton Marina are offering this as a *NEW* Boat just in... so somebody else may waste another £800....

The problem is nobody would say it needed a engine, just that they had checked it over and was deemed ok. they moved it around the marina and never had a problem type of thing.

was a nice boat but nobody wanted to believe it needed what was being suggested. So there was no chance of dropping the price required. Then you just have a boat where you have huge risk I suppose and if you bought it and the engine went a few weeks later with no comeback is not worth the risk imo. My parents were devastated.

Hi All, Just wanted to say buyer beware for a boat for sale at Whilton Marina. My mother and step father fell in love with boat 50ft Pelangi. Upon discussing offers of this boat with Whilton, I asked if they had already received offers for the boat. They claimed they had received a offer but it actually fell apart at survey stage, it was suggested the engine overheated on the day and the surveyor stoped the survey and left. The salespeople at Whilton suggested there guys had looked at it and sorted it, apparently something simple. It seemed strange but I am a mechanical person myself and understand that sometimes s**t happens such as a water leak, or something simple causing a problem. The engine bay looked immaculate in my opinion anyway. We booked a survey with a recommended person on this forum, however sadly and frustratingly he also had problems with the engine, lots of blue smoke, overheating and a lack of power. Recommended further investigation but suggestion low on power and engine probably ruined. So being my parents first ever boat, I told them not to be put of which they were not although very disappointed. However after several discussions with Whilton it seemed this may drag on and on as the seller wanted to bring his own engineer, then there was discussions that it was a thermostat, or a water pump (basically guessing) We got our deposit back. I was really annoyed as they stated there engineers had looked at the boat and deemed it ok, if they had not said this we would not have spent £800 for a survey and crane out. However I notice today on Whiltons twitter. "New boat for sale: Pelangi. 1992, 49.6ft Cruiser Style #narrowboat. Price: £29950. Read more: http://bit.ly/13kPlxX " I just wanted to point out this is not a new boat, it has failed (if you can) two surveys and has been there since august with two purchasers pulling out. Shame on Whilton Marina for this! So just be carfull it probably requires a new engine two very well recommended and respected surveyors have suggested this. Cheers Ross