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Are Liverpool boats really the best narrowboats you can get?


OTL

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Low gas usage????absolutely daft.

Gas is for cooking and maybe heating if running an Alde boiler, nothing to do with Liverpool boats.

Granted, given the dome shaped cabin roof, some do have greater headroom inside, however, this is not quantifiable as sustainable in any shape or form.

 

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Despite what many believe, particularly the highly opinionated AdE (who appears to have knowledge of salty boats, but I am not aware that he has ever owned a steel canal boat, narrow or wide), there is nothing wrong with most boats built by LBC.   The fact that they once dominated the market for shells and their high production figures allowed them to make economies of scale and offer shells at lower prices than many serious steel boat builders (ignoring the general steel fabricators who made a few ugly sewer tubes as a sideline) does not automatically imply they are badly built and of poor quality.  There are of course exceptions and Friday afternoon boats that may have faults, but once they produced about 50% of all shells sold each year and if 5% have significant faults, that is a lot of boats.   Trabant - no; Vuaxhall - maybe.

 

Of course a LBC shell will use less gas - because the owner is more aware of costs and does not waste heat unnecessarily.

 

 

Edited by Murflynn
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6 minutes ago, Murflynn said:

Despite what many believe, particularly the highly opinionated AdE (who appears to have knowledge of salty boats, but I am not aware that he has ever owned a steel canal boat, narrow or wide), there is nothing wrong with most boats built by LBC.   The fact that they once dominated the market for shells and their high production figures allowed them to make economies of scale and offer shells at lower prices than many serious steel boat builders (ignoring the general steel fabricators who made a few ugly sewer tubes as a sideline) does not automatically imply they are badly built and of poor quality.  There are of course exceptions and Friday afternoon boats that may have faults, but once they produced about 50% of all shells sold each year and if 5% have significant faults, that is a lot of boats.   Trabant - no; Vuaxhall - maybe.

 

Of course a LBC shell will use less gas - because the owner is more aware of costs and does not waste heat unnecessarily.

 

 

 

I truly hope a Liverpool boat is better built and better quality than the pile of cr@p Vauxhall I once owned..?

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39 minutes ago, Alan de Enfield said:

 

Two words - Bovine Excrement.

 

 

If you imagine an Eastern European Trabant motor car being a boat, it would be well above the quality of a Liverpool boat.

They dont appear to be cheap on the market though. More affordable than a Aqualine.

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40 minutes ago, OTL said:

I was told by a broker that LIverpool boats are the most sustainable liverboard vessels due to their headroom and low gas usage.

 

I have heard things about pitting issues so I'm not sure if this statement is true.

 

Any feedback will be greatly appreciated.

They are mid-market boats. Not the best but not the worst. Different marques have their champions who will claim their boats are the best but I can’t say there is a definite number 1 builder.

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27 minutes ago, Murflynn said:

Despite what many believe, particularly the highly opinionated AdE (who appears to have knowledge of salty boats, but I am not aware that he has ever owned a steel canal boat, narrow or wide),

 

 

You have obviously not read the threads properly. or seen photos of them being blacked, painted or whatever. An apology will be accepted if offered.

I have had 12 NB's over the last 30+ years.

 

You have never noticed my involvement in thread regarding steps going down into the cabin, blocked with leaves, boat sunk & recovered ?

You've never seen my posts about using my NB to try and pull another NB away from the weir at Cromwell ?

You've never seen my recommendation for a painter / blacking in Nottingham following having ours done there ?

 

 

These are the last 3

 

Summer Hill was kept at Whixhall marina when we were looking to buy the Marina but were pipped to the post by BWML (Sunk recovered)

 

Sweet Dreams was at Kings marina Newark (sold this one via CWDF 'boats for sale' to a couple as a liveaboard in London)

 

Juno was kept at Kings also, but picture shows her being blacked in Nottingham (This is the one where we got 'locked in' for over 2 weeks at the Sawley lock when the Trent flooded one September)

 

I think we were in Kings Marina for over 10 years

 

 

IMG_20130912_101847.jpg.bf7c4532763e9261dd3db58f47f1b307.jpg

 

 

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CAM00052.jpg

Edited by Alan de Enfield
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39 minutes ago, OTL said:

They dont appear to be cheap on the market though. More affordable than a Aqualine.

Since Liverpool Boats ceased production a good number of years ago, their price on the secondhand market now will reflect more on the way they have been looked after over their life, than on their original position in the pecking order.

  • Greenie 1
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If I was looking for a boat there are really not many builders I would reject - and then mostly for styling. If it got a good  thickness survey and passed my own realistic survey of what mattered and what didn't then I wouldn't be too bothered if it came from Liverpool, China, or was rivetted together in some grubby yard in Birmingham.

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I had a Liverpool Boat, I always thought the hull looked more characteristic than that of those which were considered to be more premium. That said, she was moored up next to a slightly newer Aqualine boat and the difference in build quality was immense. You could tell that the Aqualine was far superior. (thicker steel, better welding, better design etc etc)

I'd say Liverpool Boats are at the higher end of the budget market. Would probably stop short of saying they're mid-range though.

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4 hours ago, Alan de Enfield said:

 

 

You have obviously not read the threads properly. or seen photos of them being blacked, painted or whatever. An apology will be accepted if offered.

 

 

 

 

I can go one better than that - I have owned a Scouseboat from new and visited the factory 3 times during its construction.

 

It would appear your only evidence for comparing them unfavourable to a Trabant is some photos you have seen of "them" being painted.  IMHO the quality of the steel, the workmanship and the company's integrity were (in 2005) beyond criticism.  the design was a little unimaginative but not as patently ugly as some shell builders.

  • Greenie 1
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I would rather pay more for a better produced hull with better underwater shape, fully welded guards and a boat that is built to be a boat rather than a boat which compromises all of the above for more living space and a roof which is so curvaceous it wouldn't look out of place on a house built by Bilbo Baggins in Hobbiton.

  • Greenie 4
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1 minute ago, stagedamager said:

I would rather pay more for a better produced hull with better underwater shape, fully welded guards and a boat that is built to be a boat rather than a boat which compromises all of the above for more living space and a roof which is so curvaceous it wouldn't look out of place on a house built by Bilbo Baggins in Hobbiton.

 

Well that was a very good way of alienating potential customers who happen to own Liverpool boats...

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5 minutes ago, stagedamager said:

I would rather pay more for a better produced hull with better underwater shape, fully welded guards and a boat that is built to be a boat rather than a boat which compromises all of the above for more living space and a roof which is so curvaceous it wouldn't look out of place on a house built by Bilbo Baggins in Hobbiton.

Indeed. The poor welding of the rubbing strakes is just storing up a heap of trouble that will be expensive to fix. I always think they look like Nissen huts especially the widebeams. 

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