frankling

OK, that sounds like a solution!! Thank you. Yes, I do believe her and think that she is honest - it's just that it's such a lot of money that the idea of it disappearing into the ether is horrifying...

The daughter is named on their Bill of Sale (although the father is the one who originally paid for the boat). So you think that if my Bill of Sale specifies that the payment is to be made to the dad's account, and the daughter (whose name is on all the paperwork) actually signs the Bill of Sale, that should be good enough? (I'm completely battered from the long drive to see the boat, so sorry if my questions are in any way confusing or replies short! And thank you for your message)

Thanks for your reply! I was just looking at the template for the MCA Bill of Sale - if I bought the boat and asked them to fill in this document with both their details as joint owners, would that make any difference?

I've been to see a boat today that I really like. However, the seller's dad originally bought the boat for her, and she wants me to pay the deposit-subject-to-survey/final amount directly to her dad's bank account. I have read past posts on this website saying that when you buy from a private seller, you should confirm that the name on the Bill of Sale / licence / mooring / invoices matches with the name on the bank account. What are the implications if the seller's name is on all the documents, but I pay the money to her dad instead? Thanks for any help!

Hello All Could anyone recommend a good surveyor in the Wiltshire area / on the K&A? (I did search the boards, but can't find any recent recommendations...) Thanks in advance for any pointers!

Hi all I just wanted to say thanks so much to everyone for all the advice, and sorry for not replying to everyone individually after about page 4 - the house move really took it out of me, and I'm now in a place with an unbelievably slow internet connection. I didn't end up going through with the sale - it was especially the discussion about the water tank that rang alarm bells - I was imagining limping along from tap to tap, ekeing out my water drop by pitiful drop, like a dying traveller in a desert, and did not like the picture. The boat was so cosy and gorgeous inside, I'm sure that whoever buys it will adore it, but think it's more suited to someone who wants to leave it in a marina and take it out at weekends rather than live aboard. SO, lesson learned, and back to the drawing board. A big thanks to you all - I am sad to be shacked up in someone's attic rather than on a boat of my own, but think it was the right decision, and everyone's input has saved me from restricted routes and terrible dehydration.

It was the surveyor who told me to get the sellers to replace them before finalising the sale. How would you approach the situation? Would you just eat the cost and buy them yourself? There are four leisure + one starter, so quite costly to replace all five...

Shucks, sorry to hear that! It is hugely frustrating. The only ones that seem to hang around for any length of time are the ones at Venetian and Whilton marinas, but having read the posts about Whilton on here, it would make me wary to buy from them. Now I'm really curious to know if we have been to look at any of the same boats, and whether your impressions were the same as mine! I suppose at least the broker let you know that a deposit had been taken, so you didn't make a wasted journey; but it is so disappointing when you see one that you like the look of, and then it goes in a blink.

Yes, I checked the figures for average household water consumption after seeing that the tank was 40 gallons, since most of the boats I'd previously looked at were around 120. But the answer to, "Roughly how long can the boat go before refuelling/refilling the water tank?", was "diesel on these [10-day] journeys would use a third of the tank and water wouldn’t need filling" - are you thinking that they may have misremembered the water situation? Or perhaps they never showered and only drank beer... Ahhhh, you are clearly a tough negotiator! I like the image of you stomping down the street with banknotes overflowing from your Tesco bags. The boat went on sale Thursday morning, I drove over there straight away, really liked it, and put in an offer that afternoon. There had been one viewing before me.

I met up with the surveyor just as he finished his survey, and he walked me round the boat pointing out the main things needing attention. Think I mentioned that the plan was to live on it and constant cruise for the first year at least, but perhaps not - there are a few things I wanted to check with him, so will mention it again. It's with a broker (the marina owners), and I've put down a 10% deposit, with the boat off the market for 7 days post-survey, during which time I need to decide whether to go ahead with the sale, or back out because of concerns raised by the survey. If the sale goes ahead, I was going to do some research into what paperwork the broker should provide, and maybe come back here to doublecheck. Is it the broker's job to check the paperwork (eg ensuring that the boat is "free of encumbrances", getting receipts etc from the owners), or should I do this independently anyway? Also I was going to ask if the current owners could do a handover and show me how everything works - guess this is a fairly standard request?

I wanted to constant cruise for the first year, so perhaps it is problematic. Bristol marina looks great - I used to live in St Andrews many years ago, and always liked it around the docks - and it has got even nicer down there since then. Thank you!

...which will be many years in the future, I hope! I just don't want to ever have to overplate, and want to be able to resell if this liveaboard plan turns out to be disastrous...

Yes, I will keep a separate stash of drinking water aboard - in fact, the surveyor did say to drink bottled water until the tank is drained/scraped/repainted.... I'll definitely need to learn how to be frugal with water - spit on the crockery, and polish with elbow?! You're right about the expense of a long search too - after the survey, when the unexpectedly thin steel made me question the whole purchase, I started totting up the cost of renting a place to live, time/petrol driving up and down the country, another one? two? three? surveys on other boats with unexpected issues, heightened stress levels etc, and didn't really like the total. Thank you for the welcome!! I think it's going to be interesting and challenging and invigoratingly different from the last 16 years ?

Aww, thanks for the encouraging reply. It's sold subject to survey, so .... possibly there is wiggle room on the steel?? I do need to go back to them about replacing the batteries, which are all kaput. The water tank was a big concern of mine, but the current people said that two of them have gone out for 10-day trips without needing to fill the tank, and there's only one of me. I wonder how easy it is to add a bigger tank, if it does turn out to be an issue? Heh heh - yes, learning about boat maintenance is going to be a challenge, but I'm really excited to learn! It's encouraging to hear that you have fared well with the practical stuff, and I can see that there is a vast amount of knowledge among the members here, and it is so heartening to see how willing people are to share their NB experience and brain contents. A few months ago I was looking at the courses at https://nbsc.org.uk/ and thinking how interesting they looked. Even though I'm not intending to fit out a shell, I thought it might be cool to go on a few just to understand how everything aboard is put together...

I like hearing about people with thinner steel who are not losing any sleep over it!! Before the survey took place, the surveyor said that possible pitting was his main concern; but I went along to look at the boat after he had finished the survey but before he had left, and he said there was negligible pitting.

How are you going along with your boat search? Thanks very much for the input. I agree, the market is nuts - by the time you've clicked through all the brokers each morning, the first boats that you looked at have already gone! It's incomprehensible to me how people can make offers without even viewing - to me, these sums of money are huge, and it's baffling how people can be so cavalier with their cash.

To everyone questioning the size of the water tank - that was a big concern of mine too. I asked the owners how they had gone on with it, and they said that they would take the boat out for 10 days at a time and not have to refill the tank (and that's with two people on board). That didn't sound too bad to me, as I estimated that at that rate, it would probably last me a fortnight at a time? But perhaps I'm miscalculating? Ug, do you think? Don't think my negotiating skills are that fierce ?

Thanks, Richard - it is setting my mind more at ease to hear everyone's feedback. The batteries were cronked, so the surveyor said to get the owners to replace them; then there were a few other things that need seeing to (eg the water tank could do with draining, scraping & repainting, hinges on the water tank cover replacing, and a few other bits and bobs, but I don't think anything serious). The house is sold, contracts exchanged, and I'm moving out on Monday. It's the right decision for me, though, at this point in time.

Yes, I agree it's not ideal! But I'm sure I can learn how to do some stuff - I have a book about boat maintenance, and there is so much information available on the internet these days, and I can maybe pay people in the beginning and watch closely how they do things before having a go myself. No doubt it will be a very steep learning curve, but everyone has to start somewhere, and I don't think that boat ownership should be limited only to people who are already amazing joiners/mechanics/sparkies etc ?

Crikey, thanks for all the replies, and sorry for the delay coming back to everyone - I'm moving out of my house on Monday, so have been trying to get rid of some of the 16 years' of silted-up possessions today... Will try to respond to everyone now! Thank you, TheBiscuits! I'm so glad I came and posted here - it's settled my jangled nerves that there hasn't been an overwhelming cry of horror from all the experienced boaters here. Aww, thank you, Bee. I'm sure I am paying slightly over the odds, but if it ends up being my home for five years or 10 years, the extra 'cost' is kind of spread over time. I definitely intend to keep it well maintained. Thanks, Ray - the surveyor recommended two-pack epoxy next year, or possibly pushing it to the year after, so I will follow his instructions, and also keep receipts as you advise. I think the boat's been kept mostly at the marina (although couldn't swear to it), so guess it has a galvanic isolator or transformer? But I was hoping to have a handover from the current owners, so will def check with them. Thank you. I am such a noddy for not asking about the 2017 survey before, but that's a good point about changes between 2017 and now!

Is there a way to reply to individual posts on the forum, or is it just 'Reply to topic'? If the latter: Laurie Booth - It had such a nice feel on board! But the survey had me panicking that £35,000 is such a lot to spend if the structure is a wash... Athy - 'Sale agreed' would be me - I put in an offer for the asking price, since boats are selling so stupid fast and I was so starry-eyed when I went aboard this one, and then it's sold subject to survey (and the survey is what I'm sweating bullets over now). BWM - OK, that doesn't sound so bad about the steel, then. Do you think it will be an issue if/when I come to resell the boat?

Thank you! The boat is this one: https://narrowboats.apolloduck.com/boat/narrow-boats-cruiser-stern/649928

Hello All I wonder if anyone out there can offer some advice. My life has turned a bit upside down, and in the chaos, I decided to sell my house and go for a liveaboard. I've been reading about boats and looking at boats since about May, and a couple of weeks ago thought I'd found the one for me. I got massively overenthusiastic, had a survey done, and now am paralysed by indecision. I'm too much of a newbie at all this, and think I may have rushed into making an offer and am making an expensive mistake. If anyone can offer advice to stop me from potentially making the mistake bigger and even more expensive, that would be fantastic! The website didn't have all that much information about the boat, so I did ask supplemental questions. However, I never asked anything about the most crucial bit, the hull. I thought that most canal boats were 10/6/4 or 8/6/4, with Springers being thinner. Since this boat isn't a Springer, it never even dawned on me that the steel might be not be a standard thickness. However, when it was pulled out of the water and the surveyor went to look at it, he determined that the base plate was originally 6.6mm, the swim 6.5mm and the side plating 5.0mm. The boat now is 5.9-6.0mm swim, 4.9-5.0mm side plating. Absolutely kicking myself, because the boat had had a survey in 2017, but I never asked to look at it, since it was three years old and I was planning to get my own survey done anyway, but of course the 2017 survey would have mentioned the thin steel, and then I think I would have got cold feet and walked away. The boat was built in 1998, is 45 feet, and is selling for £35,000, which I'm now thinking sounds a lot for a cheaply-built 22-year-old boat? What would you advise - is it more sensible to leave this boat alone and wait for something to come along with a higher-quality hull? Or are those steel thicknesses fine and dandy as long as I keep looking after it? I feel really lost with this. My parents lived on a narrowboat for 15 or 20 years, but I paid no attention to anything apart from the stove and the kettle on their boat at the time, and they are now too old and too far away from their boat-ownership days to help. I'm also not a very practical person - no knowledge of engines etc - and don't really know anyone who is practical who can look at boats with me. £35,000 is the top end of the budget, and it is such a huge sum to me that I am in a complete dilemma on this one. I have to admit that my love-at-first-sight feeling was a gut feeling induced by the interior - it just felt like home when I stepped aboard - and not by anything remotely practical. All advice, comments, cries of "My god, you imbecile, what were you thinking" etc welcome. Thank you in advance for any help, and sorry for the wall o' text. (P.S. I'm not sure if it's bad form to post a direct link to the boat in question so you can take a look at it?) Edit: link to boat added: https://narrowboats.apolloduck.com/boat/narrow-boats-cruiser-stern/649928