Boaty Jo

At the end of the day you know what you want from your boat. It doesn't matter if your boat costs 100k or 5k but one thing is for sure; the best bits about boating cost nowt - people, scenery, lifestyle, wildlife etc. etc. People get to enjoy these freebies via a miriad of different routes.

Probably the most crucial bit is how much can you do yourself as opposed to how much do you think you can do yourself. Materials starting from bare shell, with everything new and at least reasonably high spec / quality, will cost anything from 20 - 25K. You can knock say 3/4k off that if it's spray foamed, battened, lined and wired with first fix and has a water tank. Eight months full time to fit. If you take an average wage at 20K you 'pay' yourself @£14k. Professional hourly rate subtantially higher. Therefore your costs are roughly shell 20k, materials, £20k, plus 'your' wage 14K. You need plenty of skills, plumbing (water / gas / c.heating), electrics (12/24v + 240v), woodwork etc etc. Its a big job and you'll probably need professional help at some stage. No doubt someone will dispute these figures, probably upwards. Bon chance. Jo

Boat 1 includes moorings if required. That, if residential, can be a huge attraction. (Still pricey though) I suppose if you sell, you stick it up v. high to start with to see what happens. You never know. If you want to really sell the boat and move on you have to be realistic. There are a lot of very nice boats out there (as I suspect there are lots of 'less nice' ones) competing in a tough market.

If you have a mooring see if it can be transfered with the boat. If so, especially if it is residential, a free advert placed on Apollo Duck highlighting the mooring should get you some enquiries. Anyone buying seems to look at all web sites offering boats for sale so you may as well try your own advert first. Keep your asking price realistic.

As a comparison. We lived on an NB for 4 years and are temporarily ashore in a 2 bed flat in Shrewsbury. We owned the boat and we own the flat outright. It's fair to say that we lived on the boat about the most expensive way you can without mooring down south. Stripping costs to boating only and excluding day to day living (food, booze, car etc.) our approximate figures are thus: Boat: Marina £2,400 Licence £600 Insurance £300 Heating / gas / coal £400 (Kabola heater, Morson squirrel, gas cooking - PRE- diesel increase Electricity £200 Rough total £3,900 (This is before cruising costs, diesel & extra licences. Assume that these costs equates to taking a holiday from a flat?) Flat: C Tax £1,120 Insurance £200 Gas / electric / water £800 Total: £2,120 Assume that repairs / maintenance would be roughly equal to boat / flat @ approx £1k per annum. (although in reality the boat would probably be more - reduced if you can learn to service engine, black the hull etc. yourself). If you're planning to live on a boat, the biggest cost saving is on the Marina by continually cruising but then of course the diesel expense increases (now by quite a chunk). BUT - what price living a dream?

A couple of discussion points having carefully chosen your builder: 1 Engage the services of a surveyor to oversee the build. (Ideally you would oversee the build yourself but with the best will in the world amateurs, especially buyers who are totally new to boating, cannot be expected to understand what is what.) 2 An independant third party (mutually agreed by builder and buyer) should hold the funds for the full purchase price. (An interest bearing account would cover the costs). 3 This third party releases stage payments to the builder, on pre-specified dates, after the surveyor has OK'd each phase. The cost to the buyer may increase slightly but there would be peace of mind here for both parties. Jo