Hi all,
My wife and I have enough saved to take on a project boat... £10000, plus allowance for mooring fees and CRT license. The question is whether what I consider a project is really out there. We have ample income to cover eventualities, the sum we have right now that available without taking a loan. At present I'm working only during university terms, so I have the usual school holidays available to work on any boat we might get- that's likely to be the situation for about 8 years, so there's no time like the present to get started! That and that it will allow dog friendly holidays with our daughter for a few years.
We're lucky enough to have some very useful skills in the family, electrician, joinery, plumbing, all of whom will work for holidays, plus our own experience. So what we need to find is a sound shell and usable engine, something that could get a BSSC. Naturally, anything involving gas will get other professionals hired in! We even have spare appliances and good timber which can go towards kitting out...
A consideration is that we'd be gearing a boat at holiday use, and would like four berths- from what I can work out, that means we'd want a 40 footer at least. If we could get large enough to go up to six berths it would be marvellous, though obviously that comes with increased license and mooring fees.
I've come across pathetically transparent scams so far in my search, listing boats around the £5k mark with pictures and text stolen from other sites and using a ridiculous story to try and get me to use an ebay "buy it now" without having seen the boat, and some boats that are immediately usable around the £15k mark- I figure that there must be some middle ground...