bargemast

You will find people with all kinds of boats that hardly ever move, some are just scared to try to get out of their marina, making a good show of their lack of skill, which ofcourse will never improve like that. Others are worried to get a scratch or worse on their paintwork and it will be easy enough for others to find other reasons for not moving. I know at least of one example of a wheel-steered dutch barge style NB, that did cruise a lot, and didn't zig/zag at all, the owners had a tiller-steered NB before, and had no difficulty adapting to the wheel, I steered their boat aswell and found it dead easy, and it required very little efford (I've always had wheel-steering on my barges anyway). The frontdeck was small but plenty big enough for safe rope handeling, and the wheelhouse was dismanteled if needed in about 5 minutes and was a practical social place where 4 people could sit while cruising. It also gave a much more spacious impression then traditional NB's of the same dimensions, and was an ideal boat for 4 people, or 6 if you used the dinette. There was a small back cabin with a double bed, with privat shower, w.c. and handwashbasin, and up front between the dinette and the spacious master bedroom another bathroom fully equiped. They fitted that boat out themselfs, and impressed the jury so much with their small barge for which they reseived the "Marion Munk" trophee, and had a couple of pages in nov '96 issue of WW. It may not be everybody's taste, but I think that she's a very pretty boat.

I love the looks of this one, Gary, you are such a clever man, doing all this highly complicated wiring etc. If you want to sell that "ship" , just do only one very easy thing, which is : move the comma one number to the left and I'll be there as quick as I can and will be the happiest of all the customers you've ever had. p.s. if you do, you better pm me, to avoid a huge battle with other potential buyers. Cheers, Peter.

Well Julian, I've said it before and even more now after having seen more photographs of the building and fit-out You are making yourself a very nice comfortable and extremely well built boat. Nice strong bottom too with those high ribs, she's not going to bend in a bit of a sea either, all good work of R&D. I hope that you will find the time needed to finish the fitting-out shortly, to enable you to enjoy her fully. Good luck, Peter.

Nobody HAS to know your age, so you are not obliged to give the forum members that "privat" information, there is however no need to give a fake age. It's entirely up to you, if you need (or want) a man, but stay far away of these types living on old boats (they could very well be the nicest people you will ever meet in your life) with their fierce looking dogs maybe not even licenced (the ones on new boat are safe, they will have frienly dogs and licenced boats).

At last something simple, that's not likely to go wrong, even after many years, and if it does it can be replaced for a couple of £'s. If their inverter gives up, and the generator is gone aswell, they can still charge the mobile phone with the cigarette lighter socket, to give you an S.O.S. call to sort it all out. KISS !

I do have an enormous respect for people of a surtain age that are still single handed boating, they often have done it for many years, and it keeps them fit. I have NEVER seen anyone like you (but I know many other liers !) wanting to start boating on their own ( not like 7 years ago on a borrowed on !) at the age of 97.

The day you have the cash, if you want to buy, don't wait until tomorrow, do it today ! I've lost some nice possible buys by waiting till tomorrow.

I just looked at their web-site and if they will be really as cheap as you think they will become in about 18 months, they will be ideal. For the next 12 months their production is sold-out already, and they only want to do business with high volume buyers. Maybe something to buy with lots of forum members all together. I'm planning to use several 220 V AC consumers, like an A+ fridge, the circulation pump and injection burner for the central heating, washing machine and a few kitchen tools. The reason is that they are all much cheaper to buy, and to replace or repaired wherever you are, as they are plentyful, and well known to repairers. 12 V DC equipment is not easily available everywhere, and you will often be obliged to order and wait for it to arrive. Another reason for this choice is that I am a liveaboard and will be cruising a lot, my batteries will be well charged after a days cruising, and won't run out of power over night. For wintering I will find a place with shore power supply. Cheers, Peter.

I have seen most of them in and out of the water, and hanging in the crane in Migennes (France) where they are normally launched for their first dip in French waters. In the water and inside of them they don't look too bad, and sometimes even very nice, but the yard in Migennes had to do lots of work on most to make them handle a bit better, as they don't (didn't) steer well, and if you looked at their underwater shape, it was easy to understand why, and almost surprising that they managed to move at all, with very bad access of water to the prop. The yard that is building them now is Peter Nicholls, who had to finish of the last one that was built elsewhere, but work had stopped on her as the yard folded. I think that there are far better boats on the market for that sort of money (and less). If I wanted anything like that, I would buy the one that Gary has for sale that needs finishing, but is bigger and better aswell. Cheers, Peter.

Maybe most people prefer mass produced boats then, as this being one of the last Watsons built and with lovely 5 cyl Gardners, sounds cheap. I love the looks of one of those, but don't think that they make the best liveaboards with their big engine-room in the middle, but they are still great REAL boats.

This is a great boat, for very little money, you won't find anything better for the sea, and it looks in beautiful condition, I wonder why they sell it so cheap. Maybe while I was writing this, you were busy writing your cheque already, if you want to buy, don't wait too long, now that many others know about this bargain. Cheers, Peter.

If you want a UK design, you can look at the Branson designs, he does kits that are built by several boatbuilders in the country, he also does what is called a coaster that should be good for a bit of sea work. and quite a nice looking Luxe-motor named the "Thomas" serie. Normally sea going boats have more draught, and are not ideal for canal cruising, I've got a sea-going twin engined Trawleryacht (that you can see in photos of your boat) which is very nice and comfortable, but often only 1 inch to spare going under canal bridges. It will always be a compromise (in my case a compromise I enjoy having) Good luck with your research. Peter.

Just for your information, the life-boats of the R.L.N.I. were no mass produced boat, that only were built to be sold as soon as they left the factory, with as much profit as possible. They were never built on a budget, only the very best materials, and the very best builders were allowed to produce one of those, that's why they will last almost forever.

Patrick, you've got yourself a gorgeous and very energetic new crew member, hope that his whole life will be as enjoyable as his running on the video, he must be great to have on the boat. Cheers, Peter.