Hi Everyone,
Thanks for your all your feedback on my last posting re the Springer 23 Waterbug. It was snapped up before I got to view it!
Looking at something totally different now, a Freeman 23. Very popular on the Lancaster & quite a few for sale. Most seem to be the Ford Watermota engine (Escort / Cortina equivalent) 35hp or I have seen one with a Perkins 4108 diesel (needs some work doing though!) The diesel looks huge & fills the engine area, so not a lot of room to work on it. The petrol does look better for that & good access.
A few different reports reckon approx 2.5 litres per hour cruising from the petrol engine & 1 litre per hour from the diesel at a steady cruising speed? What does everyone think please?
Another thing of course, these boats go back to late 60's, early 70's, is there anything else I need to watch out for? With the age, I will need a survey for insurance of course. A couple for sale have the hot water heater fitted but no heating, maybe a 12v heater would do the trick or maybe better with a small generator (CRT mooring, no power).
Good ones for sale look to be in the region of £8500/£9000, others slightly less but need a lot of work. What is a slight concern is the age! You're paying quite a bit of money for a 45 ish year old boat!!
OK folks look forward to hearing from you all!! Tony.