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Sub £10k Narrowboats


SailorJerold

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2 minutes ago, Murflynn said:

there's none so deaf as those who don't want to listen.

 

you asked a question.  if you don't like the answers you are on the wrong forum.

 

perhaps you should try a forum dealing in fairy-tales that always end with living happily ever after.

Your entitled to your opinion but again I was asking for people's experience and this reply adds absolutely nothing to the discourse. Perhaps you are the one who should leave this thread, as, unless a mod asks me to leave I think I'll elect to stay. 

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5 minutes ago, Murflynn said:

.....  maybe not 'unkind' ... more like a kindly advice not to approach the pitfall-strewn business of buying a cheap steel boat wearing rose-coloured glasses.  

 

as we are all aware, any steel boat suitable for a live-aboard and that has a good length of life left in it before it needs substantial repairs is worth a lot more than 10K . 

 

I'll wager that those who live on their boats 'happily ever after' have all made significant efforts, with significant costs to get to that happy state.

Fair comment.

4 minutes ago, SailorJerold said:

Your entitled to your opinion but again I was asking for people's experience and this reply adds absolutely nothing to the discourse. Perhaps you are the one who should leave this thread, as, unless a mod asks me to leave I think I'll elect to stay. 

There is no need for anyone to leave it at the moment. Actually the words of Murflynn (a very experienced boater, I believe) DO add something - a note of caution, which actually isn't a bad ingredient. 

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There are many things that make a boat cheap. Not all of them are a disaster. Awful fit out, useless owners, rotten woodwork for many reasons. worn out engine, owner ill, deceased, divorced. lost interest, and so on. With imagination, enthusiasm, some  skill, grim determination and a bit of luck you can have an ok boat and with some imagination you can live on it without breaking the bank. If it was not like that many of us would not own the boats we have. Look at as many boats as you can, look beyond the piles of junk on the cabin roof, ignore the tramp like smell of the owner and the filthy killer dogs / cats that live on the boat and remember that so long as the steelwork is not rusted away under the water then there is life in the thing. Good luck.

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3 minutes ago, Athy said:

Fair comment.

There is no need for anyone to leave it at the moment. Actually the words of Murflynn (a very experienced boater, I believe) DO add something - a note of caution, which actually isn't a bad thing

I'm sorry but the first reply was less a note of caution and more of a 'get lost' with a heavy hint of sardonic.  

 

The reply to your reply fair enough.

 

I've not said that this is my plan. I've not said this is what I'm doing. I've said I'm always tempted when I see the boats come up on Ebay. These boats get sold, so some people clearly buy them and I was hoping to hear from them people. 

 

So far the replies I've had suggest that the boats are write offs or that it would cost more to repair than buying a boat 4 times its price. I am interested to know what the cost and effort implications are of such a boat.

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15 minutes ago, SailorJerold said:

I think I'll elect to stay. 

In which case have a search around for 'boat scrap yards'

 

Here are a couple to get you started (decent repairable boats won't hang around for long)

 

http://www.boatwrecks.com/power.asp

 

https://www.boatsandoutboards.co.uk/Canal-Narrow-Boats-for-sale/unknown-unknown/292298

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2 minutes ago, SailorJerold said:

 

 

So far the replies I've had suggest that the boats are write offs or that it would cost more to repair than buying a boat 4 times its price. 

It IS true that lower-end boats seem to have gone up in price. In 2010 I bought a scruffy but basically sound 26 foot Springer for £7,800.  Similar boats today are advertised at around £12,000. So it might be advisable, if you can, to revise your budget upwards.

 

Have you been to see any for-sale boats yet?

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1 hour ago, Boater Sam said:

?  Plus you cant put a price on the satisfaction of not paying down someone elses mortgage whilst they are living it up on their boat!   ☹️

 

Oooh that hurt!

 

A )  I don't have any mortgage.

B )  My property is rented out at a low rate so I pay less tax.

C ) I am not at present living it up on my boat, we overwinter in the Philippines.

D ) We worked damn hard and long to get where we are and sour grapes because we live so well is uncalled for.

Sam.

God damn, you are living my dream life...

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7 minutes ago, SailorJerold said:

So far the replies I've had suggest that the boats are write offs or that it would cost more to repair than buying a boat 4 times its price. I am interested to know what the cost and effort implications are of such a boat.

One of the problems of buying at the bottom end of the market is how many 'bad' ones you will find.

You have a budget of £10,000.

 

It will cost you getting on for £1000 to have the boat dry docked and surveyed, the surveyor finds problems and trells you it will cost £10,000 to sort out, you decide not to go ahead.

 

You have spent £1k of your budget and are now left with £9k. You find another boat and pay your £1k for the lift out and survey, surveyor says needs £8k on plating and £5k on an engine rebuild, you decide not to go ahead,

 

You have now spent £2k and have £8k left to buy a boat - how many 'ugly ducklings' will you go thru before you find one that only needs a couple of thousand spending on it ?

 

If you can wait and increase your budget to (say) £20k you stand a much better chance of one that will 'pass' the surveyor 1st time.

 

There are dozens of 'projects' lying in boat yards that people have bought to 'do the dream' and after 2, 3 or 5 years and £1000's of pounds in yard charges have given up and walked  away.

 

Try asking another question "does anyone know of any abandoned projects' lying around ?

Some yards will actually pay to take away (what they see as) scrap.

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13 minutes ago, Athy said:

It IS true that lower-end boats seem to have gone up in price. In 2010 I bought a scruffy but basically sound 26 foot Springer for £7,800.  Similar boats today are advertised at around £12,000. So it might be advisable, if you can, to revise your budget upwards.

 

Have you been to see any for-sale boats yet?

On ebay at the moment a couple caught my eye.  But have so far not made any visits.

 

There is this shed on steel: 

 

https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.co.uk%2Fulk%2Fitm%2F124027521930

 

This has a bit of a wierd survey in the pictures but looks pretty:

 

https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.co.uk%2Fulk%2Fitm%2F274132893811

 

This one I would love to go and buy:

 

https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.co.uk%2Fulk%2Fitm%2F202861508135

 

Thats slightly over though at £13k but I could probably stretch to it. 

 

Should mention also that once I purchase a boat I will still be saving and would not be moving in for probably another 6 months to a year depending on when I buy it to save for an emergency fund and pay for any repair work that I can't do myself. It won't be a case of life savings in then I'm destitute if I need a repair. 

 

 

 

 

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6 minutes ago, Alan de Enfield said:

One of the problems of buying at the bottom end of the market is how many 'bad' ones you will find.

You have a budget of £10,000.

 

It will cost you getting on for £1000 to have the boat dry docked and surveyed, the surveyor finds problems and trells you it will cost £10,000 to sort out, you decide not to go ahead.

 

You have spent £1k of your budget and are now left with £9k. You find another boat and pay your £1k for the lift out and survey, surveyor says needs £8k on plating and £5k on an engine rebuild, you decide not to go ahead,

 

You have now spent £2k and have £8k left to buy a boat - how many 'ugly ducklings' will you go thru before you find one that only needs a couple of thousand spending on it ?

 

If you can wait and increase your budget to (say) £20k you stand a much better chance of one that will 'pass' the surveyor 1st time.

 

There are dozens of 'projects' lying in boat yards that people have bought to 'do the dream' and after 2, 3 or 5 years and £1000's of pounds in yard charges have given up and walked  away.

 

Try asking another question "does anyone know of any abandoned projects' lying around ?

Some yards will actually pay to take away (what they see as) scrap.

This makes a lot of sense I'd be loathe for it to happen several times at £1k a pop. How much for a structural survey?

 

I will research unfinished project boats to see whats lying around. A prerequisite at the moment is that it floats and drives. Pretty much the only criteria I want. 

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2 minutes ago, SailorJerold said:

Wooden top, steel hull = Leaks.

 

3 minutes ago, SailorJerold said:

This has a bit of a wierd survey in the pictures but looks pretty:

 

https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.co.uk%2Fulk%2Fitm%2F274132893811

 

This one I would love to go and buy:

Fibreglass to, steel hull = leaks

Needs £5k ? overplating

 

 

5 minutes ago, SailorJerold said:

Now you are getting warmer.

Possibly still different material for the cabin to the hull and no access / egress forward.

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2 minutes ago, SailorJerold said:

This makes a lot of sense I'd be loathe for it to happen several times at £1k a pop. How much for a structural survey?

It will vary whereabouts ion the country you are looking 

 

Survey cost will be £500-£800 lift out will be £200 (ish) 

 

Remember that you need to 'get it home' and many of the canals are closed for Winter maintenance - do you have a couple of weeks to bring one back from London ?

If you have it carried on a truck you will have to get it somehwere with a crane, then £150 - £200 for a lift out, £800-£1000 for the truck and £200 for a lift back in.

I paid £2300 last month for a truck to move my boat 200 miles + £180 at each end for hoists. BUT, it was a widebeam not a narrowboat.

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12 minutes ago, SailorJerold said:

On ebay at the moment a couple caught my eye.  But have so far not made any visits.

 

There is this shed on steel: 

 

https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.co.uk%2Fulk%2Fitm%2F124027521930

 

This has a bit of a wierd survey in the pictures but looks pretty:

 

https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.co.uk%2Fulk%2Fitm%2F274132893811

 

This one I would love to go and buy:

 

https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.co.uk%2Fulk%2Fitm%2F202861508135

 

Thats slightly over though at £13k but I could probably stretch to it. 

 

Should mention also that once I purchase a boat I will still be saving and would not be moving in for probably another 6 months to a year depending on when I buy it to save for an emergency fund and pay for any repair work that I can't do myself. It won't be a case of life savings in then I'm destitute if I need a repair. 

 

 

 

 

3rd one looks good.

from personal finance point of view, I think buying and immediately living on it saves you more money... why pay another 5k to 10k rent + CRT license

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5 minutes ago, Alan de Enfield said:

It will vary whereabouts ion the country you are looking 

 

Survey cost will be £500-£800 lift out will be £200 (ish) 

 

Remember that you need to 'get it home' and many of the canals are closed for Winter maintenance - do you have a couple of weeks to bring one back from London ?

If you have it carried on a truck you will have to get it somehwere with a crane, then £150 - £200 for a lift out, £800-£1000 for the truck and £200 for a lift back in.

I paid £2300 last month for a truck to move my boat 200 miles + £180 at each end for hoists. BUT, it was a widebeam not a narrowboat.

 

I do have the time to chug it home but would prefer not to if it was anything like the hellscape in the 2nd link on your previous post. 

 

I will definitely have to take into account transport costs though, thanks for the rough idea on prices I can expect to pay should it need moving by truck

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Exactly what Alan said re leaks. Any combination of steel hull      plus a different material cabin is likely to eventually leak and on an older boat even it it once had a steel up-stand inside the cabin side base that up-stand may well be rusted through so more leaks. Such boats can be tarted up with cover strips and lots of sealer to be leak free on a temporary basis but they all seem to leak eventually. If possible within budget avoid. A cabin side leak dripping onto your bed during a storm at 3am is not pleasant and drying the bedding and mattress will be difficult

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4 minutes ago, restlessnomad said:

3rd one looks good.

from personal finance point of view, I think buying and immediately living on it saves you more money... why pay another 5k to 10k rent + CRT license

 

True true. This would only be if she was a proper fixer upper. If I could feasibly live there I would do. 

 

To answer your previous question I'm a cabbie in Cheshire. 

3 minutes ago, Tony Brooks said:

Exactly what Alan said re leaks. Any combination of steel hull      plus a different material cabin is likely to eventually leak and on an older boat even it it once had a steel up-stand inside the cabin side base that up-stand may well be rusted through so more leaks. Such boats can be tarted up with cover strips and lots of sealer to be leak free on a temporary basis but they all seem to leak eventually. If possible within budget avoid. A cabin side leak dripping onto your bed during a storm at 3am is not pleasant and drying the bedding and mattress will be difficult

Thanks for this I will definitely bare it in mind whilst browsing.

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5 hours ago, SailorJerold said:

 

What is the cheapest boat you have bought and lived on for any length of time? 

 

Did you regret your purchase?

 

£12K in 1998 for a c1974 Springer that required £2K of overplating.

 

I knew nothing about boats at the time. I knew about the overplating but the engine and gearbox were crap and my surveyor missed that and a few other basic things too. I think the vendor had a word with him and they hatched some sort of deal while I was in the yard office sorting out payment for the crane. 

 

I regretted using that surveyor and regretted buying the boat, but I lived on it for nearly 3 years so the few thousand that I lost on it wasn't the end of the world.

 

 

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2 hours ago, SailorJerold said:

Jeez. Quite a list. I mean you can get a brand new insulated shell with tanks for 13k.

That sounds remarkably cheap.

I can't imagine it would be up to much.

Can you provide a link, please?

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31 minutes ago, SailorJerold said:

This makes a lot of sense I'd be loathe for it to happen several times at £1k a pop. How much for a structural survey?

 

I know every post I am making has a hint of negativity, but I'd rather you know both sides - you can find all the 'its a wonderful life' videos on YouTube.

 

With a small boat (30 foot) if it needs overplating it needs to be very carefully done as the overplating can add a large weight (proportionally) to the boat making it sit much lower in the water. There was an example a year or two ago where one had been overplated and it was itting so low in the water that the engine room vents were only just above the water level. - it sank in seconds.

 

This was on the Thames.

 

I will see if I can find the news reports.

Note the last paragraph - surveyors are not infallible.

 

Overplated NB Sinks on the Thames.

 

Here it is probably apposite to quote the case of the narrow boat MINI MOO ex MARY MINT. The following is quoted verbatim from a Safety Bulletin issued by the Port of London Authority: –
On the 24th August 2012, a narrow boat was delivered by road to South Dock Marina in London for a new owner. The vessel was lifted into the dock and the new owner requested to lock out of the marina as they had an overnight berth in Lime House Marina; a short distance up the River Thames. The vessel departed the lock at 17:00 with 5 adults and 1 dog aboard. As they departed the lock the lock keeper commented to them that they should have lifejackets on board as they appeared to be missing. The crew decided to continue on and left the lock with 3 adults in the aft cockpit and 2 adults in the cabin. The vessel transited directly across the river to the starboard side of the channel and then turned upriver towards Lime House Marina. Shortly into their transit the crew noted a change in the engine note and opened the engine room hatch to find the engine half submerged. All persons quickly moved to the stern to try and bail out the engine room, but were unable to cope with the ingress of water into the vessel. The engine room continued to fill with water and flooded into the main cabin, submerging the aft coaming below the water, resulting in severe flooding of the vessel which sank within 10 seconds. All of the crew and the dog entered the water without lifejackets, but were rescued by a nearby RIB and Police Launch.

Marine surveyors and others concerned with narrowboats should obtain a copy of the Bulletin from the PLA and take note of its recommendations.

It was noted by the PLA that the vessel had been the subject of extensive overplating. Whoever had recommended the overplating had also recommended partly blocking off the engine room air jalousie on the port side as its bottom edge was considered even then to be too near the waterline. The following Figure 1 below shows the effect of the overplating and the number of persons seated aft.

The buyer of the MINI MOO bought the boat on the strength of a survey report provided by the seller. The marine surveyor concerned had estimated the height of the engine air intake jalousie from water level marks on the hull although the vessel had been out of the water for a considerable time prior to his survey. He had estimated the intake to be 200 mm above the waterline but when it measured after the salvage it was only 65 mm. The marine surveyor had covered himself with the caveat that it was an estimate only. In that particular case, when the vessel sank, no life jackets were on board and at least one person on board could not swim. The survivors were very lucky that nearby boats managed to pluck them from the water immediately. The fact that a marine surveyor’s report perhaps covers him with words such as estimated does not provide much comfort if bodies have to be pulled from the water.

Edited by Alan de Enfield
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4 minutes ago, alan_fincher said:

That sounds remarkably cheap.

I can't imagine it would be up to much.

Can you provide a link, please?

Liverpool Boat Builders

 

http://www.liverpoolboatco.co.uk/id6.html

 

Saw a video of the guys making it, looked legit I think they said 10" base plate 4" superstructure but thats from memory don't quote me on it.

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Aintree 45 ft narrowboat shell only, no engine, no insulation is £16k. I think finding one for £13k would be tough!

 

And a sailaway is more than twice the price. If the OP is going to liveaboard while fitting out then anything less than a sailaway is going to be impossible - and even that would be camping.

Edited by David Mack
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4 minutes ago, SailorJerold said:

 

True true. This would only be if she was a proper fixer upper. If I could feasibly live there I would do. 

 

To answer your previous question I'm a cabbie in Cheshire. 

Thanks for this I will definitely bare it in mind whilst browsing.

well, in that case you have a lot of freedom and because you are in north, you can hope to buy at reasonable price. Please be very careful, dont throw 10k down the canal... and do post picture of your new boat... and progress if a project.

there is another member(or two of them) who like to take GRP projects.. cant find the thread where they show the progress, pretty good.

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3 minutes ago, SailorJerold said:

Liverpool Boat Builders

 

http://www.liverpoolboatco.co.uk/id6.html

 

Saw a video of the guys making it, looked legit I think they said 10" base plate 4" superstructure but thats from memory don't quote me on it.

Liverpool boat builders closed down several years ago.

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