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I am torn - To Buy or not to buy. Am I naive ?


Pengie

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4 minutes ago, Mad Harold said:

Lister engine = big bills to fix.

 

Most of your words are wise. This part, though, surprises me. As I believe that the SR2 is a simple and durable engine, and that spare parts are available for it, why should it be expensive to maintain?

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24 minutes ago, Athy said:

Most of your words are wise. This part, though, surprises me. As I believe that the SR2 is a simple and durable engine, and that spare parts are available for it, why should it be expensive to maintain?

My SR2 needed a bit of a rebuild, £2500. Gearbox broke down twice at £1600 a time. Diesel leaking into the oil twice, a few hundred quid a time. A three inch bit of fuel pipe and weird fitting broke, over a ton to get a replacement plus fitting. There's probably more that I've forgotten. 

I suppose it's what you define as expensive, spread out over 30 years it's not bad, but it does need to be factored in.

Plus trying to find anyone local to work on it, which is almost impossible now. 

Edited by Arthur Marshall
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11 hours ago, Pengie said:

I am really torn.

May I ask why - why this specific boat? What is it about this boat that makes you what to pour so much time, energy, and finance into it?

 

For some boats the bottom line at the end of the project is less important that personal accomplishments, however you can't spend what you don't have. An extreme fixer-upper is probably not the best idea for someone with absolutely no experience of boats but if there's a very good reason why you want to do this rather than spend a bit more on a boat that needs less or no work to get you out on the canals then the devil's in the details.  Projects usually alway run over budget and time but the less experience you have the more likely this will happen and potentially by a bigger margin too, so if you're doing this to save money then the likely hood is you won't, you need to really breakdown and plan what this whole thing might entail, and what the boat might be worth at the end of it. For me there is rather a lot in your first post the screams too much work for too little return, add to that a lack of experience and no permanent place to work out of and this could all get rather overwhelming. There are a lot of questions to ask yourself here - Tools? Materials? Transport? Removal and disposal of rubbish? Who can help you? Who can you get in to do the stuff you can't? Can you trust them? And how much will they charge? What will you do when the weather is against you? How will you secure things and keep them safe when you're not there? How much time do you have realistically? What order would it be best to tackle each job in? How much will each individual job cost so you know how much you need before you commit to starting it? And these are just the questions at the tip of this particular iceberg. As a starter write a list of all the tools you think you'll need, them pop into the screw fix website, put them all in your basket and see what the total comes to, I guarantee you will need more tools than this so if this total scares the bajeesus out of you then you may have your answer. If that total doesn't scare the living daylights out of you then the likely hood is you've grossly underestimated what this project will take. If however you already have most of the tools needed then you might be good. 

 

The value of a fibreglass topped boat is always going to be quite a bit less that a full steel shell but the work to restore them would likely cost the same for each, which would make a fully steel boat the better bet.

 

If you are only doing this because you can only afford to buy the boat but will then have to save to do some of the improvements then you may find the whole thing a bit soul destroying. I loves me a good project but when it comes to a narrowboat project my first one wouldn't be a fibreglass topped one, unless I desperately wanted and "Agenda 21" boat, which this boat isn't . 

 

12 hours ago, Pengie said:

Is there a reason it hasnt sold having been on the market for so long?

Probably definitely - it's quite likely because of it's fibreglass superstructure, they are rarely held in high regard, but other factors may have contributed. 

 

 

What ever you choose to do good luck with it. 

 

 

 

  • Greenie 3
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14 hours ago, Pengie said:

 

Is there a reason it hasn't sold having been on the market for so long?

 

 

 

I don't think that a month or so constitutes "so long". A desirable boat, such as a really well presented Hudson in tip-top condition offered at a fair price, might be expected to sell quicker than that; but I suspect that the walking wounded which populate the lowest reaches of the market would typically take longer than that to find the right buyer.

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Would love to hear more details from the o/p before putting my size eights in but on the face of it, I'd steer well clear. As everyone has said, it'll end up costing, so you might just as well save/borrow and get a ready to go boat that is mostly a known quantity, and then just maintain and enjoy it. That first flourish of enthusiasm as you start ripping off all the old carp will soon fade... depths of winter, pouring with rain, cold, damp, trying to fit kitchen cabinets, run pipes, wiring etc etc etc. If you get something that is up and together, you could look forward to arriving at the boat, lighting the stove and getting the kettle on - rather than donning your overalls, lugging a bunch of materials down a muddy towpath (in the rain) and breaking out the tools (if someone hasn't already broken them out for you that is!).

Use the poor survey result as an excuse to try and get your deposit back - if not just cut your losses and walk away.

  • Greenie 2
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I would like to say avery big thank you to all that have given me the benefit of their experience in relation to my dilema.  I may need to rethink my dream of cruising the waterways in the short term, (And to those who queried it I do mean cruising in the true sense).  But hopefully it wont be too long before I get out there and get to meet some of you in person. Happy cruising to you all. Pengie

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1 minute ago, Pengie said:

I would like to say avery big thank you to all that have given me the benefit of their experience in relation to my dilema.  I may need to rethink my dream of cruising the waterways in the short term, (And to those who queried it I do mean cruising in the true sense).  But hopefully it wont be too long before I get out there and get to meet some of you in person. Happy cruising to you all. Pengie

 

To add some balance, pretty much ANY boat put up here for pre-purchase analysis gets ripped to bits, even the screaming bargains.

 

If you answer the questions asked of you in the thread, you'll get far better focussed advice, for both this boat and any future boat you ask for comments on, as we will get a better feel for what you want and what will suit you well.

 

 

 

 

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2 minutes ago, Pengie said:

I would like to say avery big thank you to all that have given me the benefit of their experience in relation to my dilema.  I may need to rethink my dream of cruising the waterways in the short term, (And to those who queried it I do mean cruising in the true sense).  But hopefully it wont be too long before I get out there and get to meet some of you in person. Happy cruising to you all. Pengie

Well, don't be a stranger, by all means come back and talk over some of your ideas. There is also a huge amount of helpful info in the archives of the older posts, plus the search tool is pretty good. 

 

But you still have your survey of this boat to come, lets see what it says before we abandon all hope entirely. :) 

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4 minutes ago, Mike the Boilerman said:

 

Post 33 says it has been on the market for 18 months to 2 years...

 

 

Yes it does, but that was Tumshie's interpretation rather than the O.P.'s original statement. He said that it had been at its current mooring for 18 months to two years.

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18 hours ago, Athy said:

A desirable boat, such as a really well presented Hudson in tip-top condition offered at a fair price......

This is a tautology, surely!

 

(Sorry, couldn't resist!)

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Just now, alan_fincher said:

This is a tautology, surely!

 

 

When I posted it, I thought they'd soon be rising!

Substitute name of any modern boatbuilder whose work you hold in high esteem - Brinklow? Five Towns? or of course Mel Davis.

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8 minutes ago, Athy said:

When I posted it, I theought they'd soon be rising!

Substitute name of any modern boatbuilder whose work you hold in high esteem - Brinklow? Five Towns? or of course Mel Davis.

Well taking your  comment rather more seriously, I actually disagree.

 

By my observation those rather more "upmarket" boats, often with proper engine rooms, old engines, and maybe fake rivets tend to take rather longer to find a buyer than 55 to 60 foot "Clonecraft" to a mid specification and a fairly standard layout.

 

That is partly, I think, because the market is more specialist with not that many potential buyers, but also I think because often the initial advertised prices for those more upmarket boats is "optimistic".  A lot seem to end up priced at £90K plus, even if (say) 10 years old or more.

 

I'd be suspicious of a 57 foot clonecraft still on the market after (say) 3 months, but it is perhaps more common for the very top end boats, (in which I don't include Hudsons - because they are just a more expensive mass produced offering to my mind).

Edited by alan_fincher
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12 minutes ago, alan_fincher said:

 

 

That is partly, I think, because the market is more specialist with not that many potential buyers, but also I think because often the initial advertised prices for those more upmarket boats is "optimistic".  A lot seem to end up priced at £90K plus, even if (say) 10 years old or more.

 

 

That's why I specified boats offered at a reasonable price, yes.

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1 hour ago, alan_fincher said:

 

That is partly, I think, because the market is more specialist with not that many potential buyers, but also I think because often the initial advertised prices for those more upmarket boats is "optimistic". 

 

This one seems to have sold, with an asking price of £150k.

https://m.apolloduck.com/boat/steve-hudson-62-traditional/514161

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7 minutes ago, David Mack said:

 

This one seems to have sold, with an asking price of £150k.

https://m.apolloduck.com/boat/steve-hudson-62-traditional/514161

Built to an incredibly high specification, I believe. We met it and its owner while he and we were mooring on the Atherstone Flight about three years ago. The owner was, from memory, a retired fireman (the F.B. on the prow stood for Fire Brigade, I think he told us), and he'd specified just about every extra you could think of (note Godin stove, for example). It is probably the shiniest boat I've ever seen.

 

Of course, we don't know how long it took to sell, and at what price it did sell. But it does show that there's some demand for very high-end boats 

Edited by Athy
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