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Are Liverpool boats really the best narrowboats you can get?


OTL

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To put things into perspective,  even the so called "elite" builders were up to some pretty dodgy stuff too, back in the day.

I can remember a used boat having a pre-purchase survey at a marina I moored in that found the steel plates to be of various thicknesses, but basically getting thinner towards the bow.

Not a Liverpool,  nor a Marque but a company generally blowing their own trumpet as the best that money could buy. Think slab sides, portholes,  low gunwhales..

 

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Another maker’s boat I worked on always had some water, not much but enough to annoy, sitting on the base plate. Finally it was found to be an imperfect weld of two sheets of steel making up the base plate. Costly and fiddly to fix, and don’t get me started on how one had to use a crow bar to ease the changing of the fan belts.

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10 minutes ago, noddyboater said:

To put things into perspective,  even the so called "elite" builders were up to some pretty dodgy stuff too, back in the day.

I can remember a used boat having a pre-purchase survey at a marina I moored in that found the steel plates to be of various thicknesses, but basically getting thinner towards the bow.

Not a Liverpool,  nor a Marque but a company generally blowing their own trumpet as the best that money could buy. Think slab sides, portholes,  low gunwhales..

 

I heard one of their boats was found to have a distinct curve to it when it was loaded onto a truck for an IWA cruise in France…I also worked on one where the cables changed colour behind a lot of expensive woodwork with no access..thankfully the fault lay elsewhere! 

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31 minutes ago, Stilllearning said:

Another maker’s boat I worked on always had some water, not much but enough to annoy, sitting on the base plate. Finally it was found to be an imperfect weld of two sheets of steel making up the base plate. Costly and fiddly to fix, and don’t get me started on how one had to use a crow bar to ease the changing of the fan belts.

 

I discovered after we sold our Colecraft shelled boat that the deck drains were constructed in such a way that the tendency was for the water to flow into the engine bay rather than over the side. This explained why keeping the water out of the engine bilge was a constant battle. I just thought it was poorly fitting deck boards but seemingly not.

 

Edit - oh and that was another thing that the surveyor didn't spot when the boat was surveyed when we bought it.

 

 

Edited by The Happy Nomad
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25 minutes ago, frangar said:

I heard one of their boats was found to have a distinct curve to it when it was loaded onto a truck for an IWA cruise in France…I also worked on one where the cables changed colour behind a lot of expensive woodwork with no access..thankfully the fault lay elsewhere! 

Back in '99 I was struggling to find another 10k to buy one of their ex show boats. I saw it years later and was somewhat relieved that I couldn't afford it and had to make do with a cheaper Five Towns BCN tug replica. 

You live and learn,  it wasn't that I knew they were boats to aspire to owning,  just that their adverts told us they were. 

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8 minutes ago, noddyboater said:

Back in '99 I was struggling to find another 10k to buy one of their ex show boats. I saw it years later and was somewhat relieved that I couldn't afford it and had to make do with a cheaper Five Towns BCN tug replica. 

You live and learn,  it wasn't that I knew they were boats to aspire to owning,  just that their adverts told us they were. 

You got the better boat! The helm position is terrible because of those high cabin sides. I get the low hulled tug thing but make it a decent draught rather than an ungainly cabin. 

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Maybe you should go back to the heading of this thread  Are Liverpool boats really the best narrowboats you can get?

 The answer is yes or no, and in my opinion , no. That doesn't make them crap, it just says they are not the best " My boat is a self fitout, a professional would hopefully made a much better job than I did and I am sure most of you would say that.

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2 minutes ago, ditchcrawler said:

Maybe you should go back to the heading of this thread  Are Liverpool boats really the best narrowboats you can get?

 The answer is yes or no, and in my opinion , no. That doesn't make them crap, it just says they are not the best " My boat is a self fitout, a professional would hopefully made a much better job than I did and I am sure most of you would say that.

I’m still intrigued as to what broker it was…

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17 hours ago, frangar said:

If you cared to notice who had given opinions on Liverpool shells you may realise that all of us have many years experience of boats and especially narrowboats…but I guess that passed you by. 

And you say I throw insults about….I would add more but you will no doubt accuse me of personal threats again. 

 

All I would say in response to this is you seem to be assuming an awful lot about something you know little about.  Maybe one day, over a pint or three, I will tell you what I do for a living and what my boating experience is.  But until that day, please don't assume that the rest of us are idiots.  As Jesse Jackson said - "Never look down on anyone, unless you are helping them up".

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1 minute ago, lockedout said:

 

All I would say in response to this is you seem to be assuming an awful lot about something you know little about.  Maybe one day, over a pint or three, I will tell you what I do for a living and what my boating experience is.  But until that day, please don't assume that the rest of us are idiots.  As Jesse Jackson said - "Never look down on anyone, unless you are helping them up".

What makes you think I know little about it? 

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In response to the OP, I would say this:

 

  • Find a boat you like
  • Find a boat you can afford
  • Get the boat surveyed, properly
  • Take a cold hard look at the survey with head rather than heart
  • Make your decision accordingly
  • Enjoy your time on the water
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3 minutes ago, frangar said:

What makes you think I know little about it? 

 

Oh, I'm sorry...  Have we met?   Maybe you were the guy I bored to death with my life story in my local that night after I had one too many snifters of the 18 year old Glenmorangie?

 

Alternatively please don't assume that because I don't agree with your point of view that I am in some way inferior to you and that my opinions have no value.

 

The noun 'Opinion' has two definitions - 'a view or judgement formed about something, not necessarily based on fact or knowledge', being the generally accepted definition pertinent to these circumstances.  The second being - 'a statement of advice by an expert on a professional matter', now while I have little doubt that you consider yourself to be an expert, I don't think we can call this a 'professional matter'.

 

My opinion, and anyone else's for that matter, has exactly the same value as yours and it is arrogant and foolhardy to assert a contrary view.

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19 hours ago, The Bearwood Boster said:

We've had our Liverpool boat from new in 2004 & also visited the factory during the build process.I'm not daft enough to think they're the best boats,but they're blooming good value for money.Our boat has been all over the canals & has done us proud.There seems to be a lot of snobbery about/here and to compare them with Trabants is just plain rude !  

I think maybe the quality went down before the name changed? Chris on our moorings had 2 an early one and then a widebeam, he loved the early boat, but the latter one wasn't as good and was sold when finished.

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11 hours ago, Athy said:

To be fair, I think there's a close relationship. The McNaughton family is still involved, though whether they actually own the company (as Stan McNaughton did with LB) I'm not sure.

 

There may well be a relationship, I never said there wasn't. What I said was that Collingwood produce different boats to the old Liverpool Boats. 

5 hours ago, peterboat said:

I think maybe the quality went down before the name changed? Chris on our moorings had 2 an early one and then a widebeam, he loved the early boat, but the latter one wasn't as good and was sold when finished.

 

You may be right. My LB widebeam is from 2005 and for a budget boat it's pretty good.

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41 minutes ago, blackrose said:

 

There may well be a relationship, I never said there wasn't. What I said was that Collingwood produce different boats to the old Liverpool Boats. 

 

You may be right. My LB widebeam is from 2005 and for a budget boat it's pretty good.

Chris bought the boat in 2011 ish? To fit out and live on, numerous build quality problems including leaks and poor paint made him sell it as soon as it was finished.

His narrowboat before that was a good one, again it was a self fitout that he did to sell on when finished. I suspect that they were to successful for their own good?

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8 hours ago, blackrose said:

Well they probably built and sold more boats than any other UK canal boat manufacturer so they must have been doing something right.

 

Look at how Aldi's market share has increased against 'centuries' old established supermarkets, they must be doing something right - 'never mind the quality, feel the price'.

 

It is strange how our perceptions have changed over the years, not so long ago it was a matter of pride (nay, superiority) to gloat that "I paid £50 for this pair of socks from Harrods", where as now it is shouted from the rooftops when you have found a bargain in a Charity shop, or got a good deal on some tat from Poundland.

 

There was recently a TV series looking at Supermarkets and when the Aldi one came on it was very interesting how their whole ethos and business model was so different to the traditional supermarkets, and fortunately (the 1990's) coincided with this new demand for bargain buying.

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1 minute ago, Alan de Enfield said:

 

Look at how Aldi's market share has increased against 'centuries' old established supermarkets, they must be doing something right - 'never mind the quality, feel the price'.

 

 

 

Your comment can only be interpreted as saying that Aldi's quality is poor - what a load of old tosh.

 

Perhaps you are an Aldi snob who hasn't used them regularly.

 

We do our basic bulk shopping there and find that some of their items are better than anything we can find elsewhere.   For example, try their sourdough rolls for home baking - nothing anywhere else compares.  And I have 3 rechargeable 18v drills that each cost less than £30 and they are still going strong (light boat construction/maintenance and domestic use) after 5 years.

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6 minutes ago, Murflynn said:

Your comment can only be interpreted as saying that Aldi's quality is poor - what a load of old tosh.

 

Perhaps you are an Aldi snob who hasn't used them regularly.

 

Again you make assumptions.

 

Aldi's quality was poor, for example their digestive biscuits used to stick in your mouth like wallpaper paste. 

No2 Son was a Quality inspector at a Fruit and veg packing plant in Lincolnshire that supplied most of the supermarkets from M&S to Aldi and explained that the Aldi specifications for their produce was much lower than the other supermarkets, actually taking produce that was much nearer its sell by date than the others would accept.

Their quality on many products has improved over the years, and, on some products is excellent. Their 'middle aisle' is the place of dreams.

 

On your second point, we used Aldi every Thursday from 2005 until March 2020 (when the shutdown started and we switched to Asda deliveries) We did not buy everything from Aldi as it was poor compared to other supermarkets / local shops. Their bread for example is 2nd rate compared to (say) Lidl who have their own Bakeries, or the local Co-Op who bought a local Bakery.

 

We will revert back to Aldi when we are back to the 'old normal' as I reckon they average out about 20% cheaper on the weekly shop, and the stuff we don't like we can still buy from Lidl, Asda, Tesco Co-Op etc.

 

Rather than making false assumptions about people, maybe ask first "are you basing your comments on first hand experience" rather than just assuming everything I say is wrong, because it may not agree with you does not make it wrong.

 

 

 

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11 hours ago, blackrose said:

 

There may well be a relationship, I never said there wasn't.

Actually you did - your use of "taken over" implies new management and ownership. But never mind.

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On 01/06/2021 at 15:08, 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.

It is a well known fact that a Springer is the best boat that money can buy :)

 

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