Froggy

Well, we're one step nearer our first boat - or are we?? Yesterday we had the survey done. We haven't had the formal report yet, but the surveyor was very happy to chat to us at various points in the day. The hull seems ok, with no overplating and only small areas of 2mm or less pitting on parts of the hull, with a sound bottom plate - although i think he just used an electronic depth gauge with no ultrasonic analysis that i was aware of. Internally, though, there were a few concerns: 1. He couldn't get the Eberspacher working. The display showed a reading briefly and then faded. This might, as he pointed out, be just a dead battery (the boat has been lying unused in a marina for weeks, possibly months, although was sailed a short distance to the boatyard for the inspection). 2. He also commented that although the engine seemed sound, with just some light smoke, on both times he started it he heard two different noises which he suggested might be from an alternator or timing belt. Furthermore, the engine didn't stop when he turned off the ignition and he had to resort to the emergency button. 3. One of the rings on the gas hob was low despite the others being ok. He pointed out that this was a potential safety certificate failure. 4. There is a crack in the collar between the top plate of the Morso stove and the flue. Of the above, the latter two are probably no great issue, but we are concerned with the first two. Obviously if the eberspacher issue is just a battery issue this would be quite a cheap fix, but we're concerned that this and unknown issues with the engine could result in costly repairs. His overall opinion of the boat is that, mechanically at least, it hadn't been very well serviced, with one of the alternators showing considerable signs of rust. We're also aware that the engine isn't the original and therefore when installed in the boat it might not have been new; things aren't helped here by the fact that the hours counter isn't working. It would be interesting to read peoples' observations regarding these issues. We already bargained the seller down by 2k before survey and he doesn't seem prepared to offer any more. Therefore, it's a case of do we take a gamble or walk away, and at the moment this is on a knife edge, so any thoughts on the above issues would be useful in helping us to reach a decision.

You won't regret it. Just find a good pub at the end of it all. The Star Inn at Talybot is recommended - and right beside a canal as an added bonus.

Thanks for the input. It's a good idea, but unfortunately time is now against us due to lock closures so the boat will probably be brought down by a haulier.

Thanks Steve, they are very close to us, i'll check them out. Kinver seem to have a great reputation. However, our boat (still subject to survey) will be based near Devizes for the next few months and i'm not sure they'll travel that far. I guess there's nothing lost in giving them a ring though.

I did, but all they could offer me was a flimsy black and scarlet number, with stitching that looked as though it would fall apart before you got it fully erected. Thanks for this Bill, i'll investigate further.

Most of the cratch cover suppliers appear to be in the midlands or north and are unlikely to travel down to the south west without us incurring additional cost. Can anybody recommend a company in the south west, preferably Somerset/Gloucestershire/Wiltshire area, who can be relied on to do a decent job at a reasonable cost? Thanks in advance.

We're currently in the process of purchasing our first narrowboat, and the one we have our eyes on at the moment would require a cratch frame and cover. Most of the suppliers appear to be in the midlands or north and are unlikely to travel down to the south west without us incurring additional cost. Can anybody recommend a company in the south west, preferably Somerset/Gloucestershire/Wiltshire area, who can be relied on to do a decent job at a reasonable cost? Thanks in advance.

I follow your logic but i'm not sure this is practical for various reasons that i'll embellish on at a later date.

UPDATE: I've had a very prompt reply from Brendan. Unfortunately he is no longer a practicing surveyor. What a shame, he comes across as a really decent guy. Ah well, the search goes on.....

Yeah, i guess that figures. We are new to boating and weren't aware that such a high proportion of the marinas were around there.

Thanks, great idea, i'll take a look.

Ah, yes, i knew there was someone else in that list. Yes, i've contacted him also, and i think it was just a bit too far out of his area, either that or that he was tied up with work locally. Why does there seem to be a surfeit of good surveyors in the Northants area at the expense of elsewhere? Or maybe there are just more members on these forums from that area. Either way, i've read thread after thread now, and most of the names that crop up are based around Northants.

Thanks, i tried that but so far no reply. He doesn't seem to have been active on these forums for some time. I didn't realise that until after i'd p'med him, in fact i thought he had made a post on my own thread directly offering to survey our boat, but when i looked again it was on a thread from 2012 that i'd been reading. D'oh!!

Thanks, I'll drop him a line. EDIT: I've sent the guy an email. Burril Marine must be a pretty small concern and/or no longer operating though, because they don't appear to have a website, and the last post on the FB page was about a year ago. EDIT 2: Are you sure this is the correct email address though? I've found a thread here which suggests his name is Brendan, who, judging from the FB page, is the guy that runs Burril Marine. http://the-norfolk-broads.co.uk/printthread.cfm?Forum=30&Topic=30350 EDIT 3: Ok, forget Edit 2!! I clicked the hyperlink for Buriill Marine Services in the url above and it comes up with dan@burrillmarine.co.uk. D'oh!!!

No, not yet, and for a couple of reasons. Firstly, i'd be happier if several people recommended the same person. But, additionally, i think he did a BSC for you so am not sure he is a fully qualified surveyor. Please advise if you can. Thanks, i will consider those. Would prefer a name that several people are recommending though, ideally.

As some of you will know from other threads i've started, i'm desperately looking for a reliable and knowledgeable surveyor to survey a boat in the London area. The surveyors that are highly recommended in these forums all have their books full for the next few weeks. I've come across quite a few knowledgeable posts by Teadaemon whilst researching the forums, and having looked at his profile it's obvious that they are a surveyor themselves. However, they don't seem to have been active for a year or more. If anybody knows the true identity of this person i'd be interested because i would like to contact them with a view to surveying the boat we're planning to purchase.

Tuckeys and Ray Bowern are the two we're most likely to consider based on these recommendations. But this is all academic until we've had the boat surveyed, and here we are at an impasse. All the surveyors highly recommended in these forums - Steve Hand, Trevor Whitling, Tony Tucker - are booked up for weeks. Any suggestions would be welcome.

Ok, you have a point, and it's great to be wiser with the benefit of hindsight, but we are novices to narrowboating and it's certainly proving a steep learning curve. (Lesson 1: try and avoid buying a narrowboat around October in future; we've also learned many other things). We were, to be fair to the seller, quite happy to put a deposit down. It's refundable if we walk away from the deal, we had travelled a long way to see it, it's the best boat by some margin we've seen, and anybody could, and probably would, come in and beat us to the deal without giving the dealer some sort of security. Being objective, if i was a dealer i would want some sort of commitment myself under similar circumstances. As an aside, Tony is actually on that list, as is Trevor Whitling, but both of these also seem highly recommended by users of these forums.

The trouble is we've put a deposit down and i don't suppose the seller, a dealer based in a marina, would be too happy to have the boat kept there for weeks with the possibility that we will walk away from the deal at the end of it. Thanks, it's possible that the list provided by the mariina might be out of date.

Well this narrowboat-buying lark is becoming extremely frustrating. All the surveyors that have been highly recommended on various threads in this forum are tied up for weeks. We have a list of surveyors supplied by Lee Valley Marina, Herts, but would have preferred to use someone further afield who is more likely to be completely impartial, unless any of those names were particularly recommended by people here. As it is, of the only names that fit that bill, Trevor Whitling is based in Northants and is tied up locally in the near future, and Tony Tucker is also tied up for the next few weeks. So, we're left with the following names supplied to us by Lee Valley Marina. Can anybody recommend, or warn us off, any of the following names?: Ralph Kitts, Hugh Elacott, Pete Crispin, R.K. Marine, William Flannery, Colin Mallard South, Balliol Fowden, Eliot Berry Marine, Celtec Marine Associatio, Richard Ayers Ltd., Broomfield Marine Services, London Marine Surveys, BW Marine Services, David Stewart. If you wish to give anybody negative reputation please feel free to PM me if you prefer. Thanks in advance for any advice.

Errrm, yeah..... well obviously i meant RYA course..... at the moment i know far more about hiking than boating, and it shows. D'oh!!!

Thanks Tim.

Thanks for the suggestion Neil, and i'll add it to the other names to discuss with my partner tomorrow.

Thanks Neil, but as per another thread i started a couple of days ago, the logistics are heavily against bringing the boat through the network due to impending lock closures etc. Thanks to everyone for all the input to this topic. I'll be making a few phone calls tomorrow, although the boat needs to come through the survey before we make any further decisions.

Thanks hounddog. I'm going to phone around a few hauliers tomorrow including this one and will post the name of the one we decide to use.