First boat, help with insurance + survey

[BEngo]

There is a rather good slipway at Circus Field, Aylesbury. That would be a good place for both a survey and for blacking if it is not too far.  Contact via the website aylesburycanal.org.uk

Or P&S  Marine at Watford.

 

As an aside, I bet your engine is a Sabb, not a Saab.  If it is a Sabb the recognised expert is Johnathon Hewitt at UCC at Braunston.  Good engines.

 

N

[jtylr]

1 hour ago, cuthound said:

Variations in the ringing sound indicated different thicknesses of steel.

I have checked the tension in bicycle wheels before by pinging the spokes and using the pitch ?

[LadyG]

Narrowboat Helen, YouTube, showed a Les Allen being renovated, might be of interest. 

Edited March 29, 2021 by LadyG

[jtylr]

On 27/03/2021 at 13:40, BEngo said:

There is a rather good slipway at Circus Field, Aylesbury. That would be a good place for both a survey and for blacking if it is not too far.  Contact via the website aylesburycanal.org.uk

Or P&S  Marine at Watford.

 

As an aside, I bet your engine is a Sabb, not a Saab.  If it is a Sabb the recognised expert is Johnathon Hewitt at UCC at Braunston.  Good engines.

 

N

Yes, it is indeed a Sabb. I was aware it was not the same as the cars... first time I noticed it was also a different spelling ☺️

[Alan de Enfield]

15 minutes ago, jtylr said:

Yes, it is indeed a Sabb. I was aware it was not the same as the cars...

 

 

SABB

 

 

 

 

 

SAAB

 

 

 

[jtylr]

On 29/03/2021 at 09:24, Alan de Enfield said:

SABB

 

[jtylr]

coming out for survey on 15th so will see what I have actually bought and get stuck in. Thanks for the tips/advice.

 

if it is a lemon I will update and leave a cautionary tale for all those ‘new to boating’ ?

[jtylr]

Quick update - Survey was pretty good.

 

Gas locker has been condemned + the blacking was a sh*t job, some minor pitting on baseplate to be filled so coming out in July to sort that out maybe go with exposure over bitumen.

 

Not entirely sure it is a Les Allen as the baseplate/hull are 6/5 but they have retained their thickness in most areas + it’s a nice little boat so I’m happy.

 

I emailed the Allen Register a while back for an ID but think the site may be dead. Is there a suitable place on the forum I could post some pics to maybe identify the builder as it would be nice to know.

 

 

[Tony Brooks]

3 hours ago, jtylr said:

Quick update - Survey was pretty good.

 

Gas locker has been condemned + the blacking was a sh*t job, some minor pitting on baseplate to be filled so coming out in July to sort that out maybe go with exposure over bitumen.

 

Not entirely sure it is a Les Allen as the baseplate/hull are 6/5 but they have retained their thickness in most areas + it’s a nice little boat so I’m happy.

 

I emailed the Allen Register a while back for an ID but think the site may be dead. Is there a suitable place on the forum I could post some pics to maybe identify the builder as it would be nice to know.

 

 

 

Don't take them at high resolution and  you can post them right here in your topic as long as they are in one of the formats the forum accepts. They are at the bottom of the new answer box. jpg, png, gif, pdf are the main ones.

[jtylr]

On 28/04/2021 at 18:32, Tony Brooks said:

 

Don't take them at high resolution and  you can post them right here in your topic as long as they are in one of the formats the forum accepts. They are at the bottom of the new answer box. jpg, png, gif, pdf are the main ones.

 

Quite a few distinctive/nice features so hopefully someone who knows their onions can ID the builder. 2x diesel tanks built into the sole: 1 at the bow and 1 midship, which is pumped to a smaller 'day tank' at the Stern. Bearers are 80mm angle sections with approx. 600mm spacing. I'm not really concerned if it is/is not an Allen, but I do like the boat so it would be nice to know.

[manxmike]

Looks nice, given it looks to have been grey, green with red and now mostly blue and grey, any idea what colour you might end up with?

You'll find numerous threads on here dealing with painting the hull and upper works - lots of good advice and tips.

 

Edited May 21, 2021 by manxmike
missed a colour

[David Mack]

6 hours ago, jtylr said:

 

Quite a few distinctive/nice features so hopefully someone who knows their onions can ID the builder. 2x diesel tanks built into the sole: 1 at the bow and 1 midship, which is pumped to a smaller 'day tank' at the Stern. Bearers are 80mm angle sections with approx. 600mm spacing. I'm not really concerned if it is/is not an Allen, but I do like the boat so it would be nice to know.

Definitely not a Les Allen!

The rubber D section down the stem post suggests it may have been built as a hire boat.

Bow and midship fuel tanks is a very unusual arrangement. One wonders why it has been done this way.

[ditchcrawler]

34 minutes ago, David Mack said:

 

The rubber D section down the stem post suggests it may have been built as a hire boat.

 

That was a Black Prince thing so I wonder if Pinder was involved

[jtylr]

8 hours ago, manxmike said:

Looks nice, given it looks to have been grey, green with red and now mostly blue and grey, any idea what colour you might end up with?

You'll find numerous threads on here dealing with painting the hull and upper works - lots of good advice and tips.

 

 

Absolutely no idea. 'paint cabin exterior' is currently scrawled in a bic somewhere toward the end of my very long arm.

Edited May 21, 2021 by jtylr

[jtylr]

On 21/05/2021 at 19:40, David Mack said:

Definitely not a Les Allen!

The rubber D section down the stem post suggests it may have been built as a hire boat.

Bow and midship fuel tanks is a very unusual arrangement. One wonders why it has been done this way.

 

Thanks for confirming not an Allen. so I have looked through the images I could find of Black Prince's and found a v. similar bow with the integrated fender but none of the other bits bits such as integrated handles etc. 

 

Re: hire boat. The engine has only 1047 hours on it, this ties in with seller saying it has lived in a marina most of its life + I sent a video of engine to a friend of a friend who services/rebuilds them, who said doesn't look like any reason to doubt the clocked hours.

 

Plot thickens

Edited May 24, 2021 by jtylr

[jtylr]

oops. ignore

Edited May 24, 2021 by jtylr

[Alan de Enfield]

6 minutes ago, jtylr said:

 

Thanks for confirming not an Allen. so I have looked through the images I could find of Black Prince's and found a v. similar bow with the integrated fender but none of the other bits bits such as integrated handles etc. 

 

Also the engine has only 1047 hours on it, this ties in with seller saying it has lived in a marina most of its life + I sent a video of engine to a friend of a friend who services/rebuilds them, who said doesn't look like any reason to doubt the clocked hours.

 

Plot thickens

 

 

I would think it is very unlikely that a hire boat would only have 1000 hours on the engine. My ex-hire boat had 10,000 hours when it was sold off at 4 - 5 years old.

 

Maybe the engine was replaced with a rebuild / zero hours engine ?

 

In 2015 I did buy a private boat that was built in 2003 (12 years old) which only had 73 hours on the clock(s).

Lack of use and standing with acidic carbon in the oil is far far worse for an engine than one that does 1000's of hours per annum.

Diesel like to be used.

[jtylr]

21 minutes ago, Alan de Enfield said:

 

 

I would think it is very unlikely that a hire boat would only have 1000 hours on the engine. My ex-hire boat had 10,000 hours when it was sold off at 4 - 5 years old.

 

Maybe the engine was replaced with a rebuild / zero hours engine ?

 

In 2015 I did buy a private boat that was built in 2003 (12 years old) which only had 73 hours on the clock(s).

Lack of use and standing with acidic carbon in the oil is far far worse for an engine than one that does 1000's of hours per annum.

Diesel like to be used.

 

Looks like its been in there a while to me ?

 

Surveyor did some basics checks of oil etc. and it runs fine, so I will do a few things like clean up surface rust on moving parts, replace the lagging + tidy up the cables in the short term. Further down the line may head to UCC and get it benched/rebuilt while I sort out the engine bay.

 

Can anyone explain what's going on with the 2 belt setup? I just ordered replacements and the guy at the end of the phone was unsure why I needed 2 rather then 1.

Edited May 24, 2021 by jtylr

[Bee]

Two alternators, one belt each. Love the gear linkage! Needs a good clean and paint down there and drying out and painting where that bright orange rust is.

[ditchcrawler]

5 hours ago, jtylr said:

 

 

Can anyone explain what's going on with the 2 belt setup? I just ordered replacements and the guy at the end of the phone was unsure why I needed 2 rather then 1.

 

 

The belts may be different sizes, its not a standard set up

[jtylr]

On 24/05/2021 at 18:38, ditchcrawler said:

The belts may be different sizes, its not a standard set up

 

You are correct!

 

What is best practice for the twin alternators? some kind of set up where once the starter battery is fully charged both of them get pointed to the leisure bank?

[ditchcrawler]

4 hours ago, jtylr said:

 

You are correct!

 

What is best practice for the twin alternators? some kind of set up where once the starter battery is fully charged both of them get pointed to the leisure bank?

You could common them with a VSR but the danger is, as a poster here discovered last year, you can have one alternator fail and not know about it until the second one gives up.