SteveLevis

Out of all the Youtubes and TV canal boat programmes Robbie is our favourite by a country mile!! ..long may he continue..... ..did used to like Country House Gent as well, but he seems to have "gone of the boil" of late....

https://www.facebook.com/reel/954684403261093

After hiring for a few years we decided to get ourselves a share in a self managedd boat, and in the early years we really enjoyed it as all the syndicate members were keen and looked after the boat. However during the later years most of the original members sold their shares and we ended up with people who really just treated it like a hire boat and never got involved in actually doing anything and "dumping" all the problems on the willing few. So after about 6 years we sold up. (The boat was getting older and was needing more an more work). I would certainly recomend it s a cost effective way of getting a boat, and there are some really cheap shares available on fairly good boats. If we were doing it again I would pay the extra and go self managed. The main restrictions are you are limited to the same marina for a few years, (we changed marina every 3 years or so), and although you think you are getting 4 weeks, in reality we probably only got 2 or 3, as the 3rd / 4th weeks can be at those times of the year (weather wise) when you may not enjoy boating! And of course you are restricted by the rota as to which weeks you can have. (We prefered the "non" school holiday weeks). In the end we decided that for the one / two weeks a year we want to go boating we preferred the flexibility of hiring a boat so we could go where and when we wanted to go, without the actual worry of having to maintain the boat, but each to their own.... ,

I would get them welded up. We had 2 roof lights on our last boat and they leaked....

By the time you have factored in all the hastle of buying and selling, the costs of travelling to view boats, license, insurance, broker fees, survey, maintenance costs, (possible moorings), it does not make financial sense (to me). Particularly if you then find you can't sell it for what you paid for it...

..not a good time to be going to Brecon by boat!!!

..yes, hydraulic drive not gearbox...my bad. In general the hydraulic drive itself was reliable, but the one time we did have a problem the unit had to go to Peachments for repair and from memory this took a few weeks, so no cruising, (syndicate boat). There probably are advantages to having a hydraulic drive, (eg no stern gland to grease), but I prefer the simplicity of a drive shaft...

Our last boat was a Hexagon built (Polish), boat which had a Nanni engine with hydraulic drive. In general the engine was excellent, however initially we did have some problems with the hydraulic drive, (a leak), that took a while to get sorted. The hydraulic drive did seem to be quieter than a convention shaft, but they are not as fuel efficient as a shaft drive, (probably about 75%??), so you will use more fuel. Also I think "AR Peachement" are the only company that deal with the hydraulic gearboxes..(I could be wrong). If it has bow / stern thrusters that are hydraulic the recommendation is that you change the hydraulic pipes at around 10 years, (not cheap, but would be a right mess if the pipes "burst"). If I was getting another boat I personally would not get one with a hydraulic drive...