MajorJones

Full electric boat frightens me in the same way as Tesla does. I do understand the concept, I do understand I don't need more than it can provide, but I still do not feel comfortable with the idea. Perhaps for me it's a matter of making sure I won't be left stranded with the empty battery in the middle of a motorway canal. Is there a post or an article where you have talked about your build? It will be super interesting to read about it!!

I may be wrong, but I thought that heating of a boat is done with webasto/eberspacher and it uses diesel rather than electricity or gas? As for the calorifier - I thought it is plumbed into the engine coolant re-circulation system plus it has electric immersion heater? So to summarise - my understanding was that the only use for gas is a hob and a stove - am I wrong?

Based on their math and generation of 7KW I don't see an issue of getting 1 hour of electric propulsion from 1 hour of diesel propulsion (but that doesn't include any other consumption). As for the benefits - I see some: - having 3 hours of 'silent' cruising every day (we tend to cruise for 6-7 hours a day) - going through the locks without diesel exhaust - no need to think about gas bottles - I find non-gas hobs and stoves much cleaner (and we all are a bit OCD when it comes to clean kitchen). - We plan to have half of our cruises to be short trips (2-3 days) - so batteries can be charged from the shore, where diesel generation is an addition. Having said that - I do understand that it all could be better, and the price is frightening. And I'm sure in a couple of years hybrid generators will produce more, while batteries will cost less. So my original plan to get a second-hand NB and only few years after that get a new build with a hybrid system seems the most reasonable to me (I do understand hybrids are not everyones cup of tea, of course).

400ah will set you back in a region of £24k and they have a 'double the battery' offer with the larger inverter ( 5kVA / 10kVA peak) for around £27k so you can get up to 12h cruising. Also, The nice side effect is that you can remote control your boat (handy when you do locks alone). The best way to charge it is when cruising - 1200rpm gives you 7kW generation capability. Plus, I don't think it makes total sense without an array of solar panels (something like 8 x 160W). So for me personally it all sounds absolutely fantastic. The only thing that doesn't - is the price.

All things considered it seems it won't save us any money, I'm still toying with idea to get a lined+ sailaway and finish it myself as a way to know our boat inside out, that includes taking her from a boat builder to my shop in Kent and then moving to Oxford when done. But the more I calculate everything the more obvious it is that there is no saving in it even before I add cost of my time. (so tempting though! lol) It's more than my budget, but the idea is if I go hybrid the cost associated comes from a different budget.

If I go with the hybrid system I'm copying what has done few times already in the last two years using ready kit from Hybrid Marine, but I have no intensions of going "ultra green" - idea of a hybrid kit and webasto doesn't sound wrong to me.

I do fully appreciate all comments and thoughts here - I have no illusion I may have a better understanding of the situation compared to someone who did it before, after all - it's my first rodeo. As for my journey - I do have an ideal boat in mind, but it's from Ortomarine and alike, and starts from 135k so not this time, hence the whole wiggle between second-hand for 50-60k vs should I spend a "tad bit" more and aim for a 70k but have a boat that is brand spanking new. Having a broad selection of second-hand NBs that fit my requirements I would not probably even consider a new build this time.

It seems I need to itemise properly what's missing and get relevant quotes from shops and merchants. Thank you for sobering me up!

In the lined+ the list above is incomplete (things like batteries, toilet, calorifer, shower tray, enclosure, tiles and tiling are included), but yes you are right - there are quite a few things missing even in lined+. I'm trying to understand what (in terms of the 'items') is the difference between second-hand and lined+ and if I can get myself a new boat for "roughly" the same budget as I have for the second-hand. As for the painting - I'm going to go to one of the shops, not doing it myself (after all I want it to look stellar, and the boat painting is not the skill I have under my belt). Thank you for your advice! In terms of season - do you reckon autumn/beginning of winter is a good time to buy/sell? Do prices of the second-hand boats have seasonality?

I'm trying to understand what's the difference between 'finished' boat and what LMBS is offering as lined+, so far I understand I'm missing: - "kitchen" (galley, appliances) - dinette, furniture - webasto - radiators I don't want/need stove - it's a holiday boat for us, so I'd rather have more space and go dust free. As for the gas - I've decided that if we go second-hand it will be a traditional engine+gas, but if we decide to take lined+ to finish it I'd go with the Hybrid Marine 10kw system (so no gas at all). Have I missed something still?

Thank you very much guys for all your answers - means a lot to me! I have slightly different (yet related) question to my original one (so I've decided to post it here rather than in a new post) - There are boat builders that offer lined sailaway / lined sailaway with additions, like that one - http://lmbs.co.uk/narrowboat-pricelist-2/ - Tyler Willson semitrad 57" in "lined additions" goes for £52.5k, am I right to assume that from what they offer as a "lined additions" I'm only missing exterior painting and kitchen/furniture/internal doors (that I can do myself) so I'm looking at the ballpark of slighly over £60k (so same budget as before, but a brand new boat) - or am I terribly missing something?

I obviously prefer to find something near Oxford Canal lol, but if there is a nice barm cake somewhere up north I would not think twice!

I believe it's about my comment above about brokers are keeping old boats in their listings to get more inbound internet traffic.

Thank you very much! I've just tried to verify my view of the market, to understand that I'm not trying to find something that doesn't exist and is always 'under offer'. Is there any known difference between buying boat private vs brokerage? Thank you!!! Thank you for all your comments! And in regard to that one above - I'm quite new to the market, so I struggle to understand if there is a boat that I like on a website, but it's marked as 'sold' does it mean I'm simply late or it was sold year ago and brokerage keeps it for the 'volume' of listings. Thank you for the insights! Yes, I understand I have to be open-minded. There are things that I simply don't see reasonable to change on a NB - i.e. I don't want to buy a trad layout to change it to reverse, in that case I'd rather go with a sailaway, but there are few things I don't see a problem to either change or adapt, like semi-trad/cruiser, or cassette/PO, or a PRM that can be replaced to my liking.

Thank you very much for your reply. Are there any good, well-known, major boat brokers you might recommend? That's a very interesting comment, thank you. I'm always trying to compare used NB market to user cars market (where no one will try to sell a car for a double of price), but apparently it's just not that. In order to understand the magnitude of that situation - with the budget of 40-45K what was advised to you by a broker? 50? 55? 60? 70? Yes, I've used them as well, but it seems that brokers websites are just more up-to-date.

Hello fellow narrowboaters! I would like to apologise in advance if the question I'm about to ask has been asked previously (I've tried to use search but could not find anything relevant) or if it's inappropriate/boring. I'm new to this forum - was reading it for quite a while previously, but never registered. Anyway, back to our situation and questions. After years of hiring NBs for occasional cruising, we have finally decided to buy a NB (mostly because we want to move from a hire fleet that's usually just OK to a NB that feels like your home away from home and can fit our requirements). We plan to use NB for cruising (something like at least half of the summer and few weeks in spring and a few weeks in autumn) for a family of two adults and two kids. Before making a move on buying a new build with a hybrid system, we have decided to buy a second-hand boat first (to give ourselves a full tasting session of a similar size/layout) for a few years. What we are after is a semi-trad 57ft full reverse / mid reverse layout (saloon is at the stern, followed by the galley / galley at the stern). Question #1 - if we set a budget of 50k to 60k is it a healthy one? What "quality"/age/condition of a boat can we expect in that price range? Will it require additional work straight away, or is it something that we can happily use for several years? I know "mileage may vary" - I'm after a general understanding of the situation. Question #2 - I've checked a dozen of websites and most of the boats they have are either sold, under offer or priced either too low or too high. What is the best approach for the search process in our case? p.s. Sorry for starting my forum life from such a lengthy post!