Am I missing something?

[Grassman]

When we bought our boat 9 years ago from Braunston it had 3 windlasses in the locker. The following week we went to collect it and take it up to our moorings in Staffordshire. It was January and with the short daylight hours we overnighted just south of Hillmorton Locks. The following morning, on reaching the locks we were horrified to discover that the windlasses had disappeared from the locker.

 

With no alternatives on board such as an adjustable spanner, and the boatyard at Hillmorton closed, we thought the chances of another boat coming along were slim as we hadn't seen anything on the move the previous day, especially as the weather was atrocious.  Just as we were considering phoning a friend to bring one out to us, a boat appeared at the locks. Like most of us they had quite a collection of them and they let us have one.

 

Sadly somebody (and it wasn't the previous owners) must have nicked them from the locker while it was moored in the marina. Obviously we'd assumed they'd still be there, but we should have checked before setting off really.

[enigmatic]

On 28/08/2021 at 13:10, Neil2 said:

At least they took a photo of the engine...

 

What annoys me constantly about narrowboat ads, and the major brokers are no exception to this, is that you rarely get a shot of the engine bay, unless it's a boatmans cabin style boat.

 

I suppose it's the last thing most narrowboat buyers think about, especially these days, but I just think why take several pictures of the galley and not one of the engine bay?  And even when they do, it's often badly lit so you can't really see any detail, or they cut off the final drive, etc. 

 

To me the state of the engine bay says a lot about how well the boat has been looked after.  Not too long ago £56k would have bought you a boat in tip top condition, with everything working and no faults.  The fact that someone thinks a boat with an engine bay like that is worth the asking price just says everything about the market at the moment.  TBH no-one in their right mind would buy a narrowboat just now, the market is being stoked by people with absolutely no idea what they are doing.  

 

 

tbh it was pretty obvious why the engine bays hadn't been featured in photos in most of the broker boats I looked at last year... 

 

Funnily enough, a couple of the exceptions were the weird graffiti-liveried boat that you'd need a full repaint to take outside London, which had a photo of an engine bay shiny with more tasteful paint, and the one with the engine bay I'd rather have eaten out of than the kitchen (I was the first person to look at it and he was as embarrassed he hadn't cleaned his kitchen as he was proud of his standard modern engine!). I guess the boats which were neat and tidy everywhere sold before I got to look at them...

 

-

 

Sometimes I think people are leaving a lot of money on the table not paying someone minimum wage for a couple of hours to do very basic tidying up though. Boat I looked at last summer was very well laid out, fairly priced and at the "hot" 40k bracket of the market. Expensive stuff looked fine: very nice engine bay and the paint was intact if a little faded. It also had moss growing on the windows and a coat of green stuff in the toilet bowl 🤢 which screamed "this boat hasn't been used in at least a couple of years and stuff may not work", Was still on sale the following spring despite everyone complaining about lack of boats, and may well have gone for a lot less than market value when it did go, Even picking the moss off the windows, throwing away a tatty unnecessary mini pram hood over the hood and sticking plastic film and a COVID safety sign over the toilet (Whilton do this!) would have sold it in days rather than months

 

 

[TNLI]

The OP's picture of the engine bay looks just like mine did after it was salvaged from the Thames, (On the bottom for over a year). Don't be put off by a real mess of an engine and serious corrosion of the beds and drip tray, (Might be the hull). If the price is right after you barter, go for it. It's often better to restore your own boat, including the all important engine and support areas in the engine bay or room. The option is to pay far more only to discover the owner had good reasons for selling, like a cracked head gasket. 

 

My lifeboats only cost one pound on the bottom, although the top of the cabin was visible. 2 grand to salvage and another grand for the HIAB truck job from London to Poole. That last initial bill was a bit high as I had trouble finding a suitable HIAB. It should have cost about 750 quid.

 

The real creepy thing was when I gutted the cabin I found a very nice brass devil in a draw near the engine raw water filter unit. It was that bronze filter that sank the boat, as some chump had used a steel bolt on one side after losing the bronze one. Not sure if the same marine engineering expert left the sea cock on, or knew the solar panel diode had failed, but that trio of devils sank the boat! I gave the brass devil away and change the boats name. 

  It's regarded by some, (Myself included), to be bad luck to change a boats name, BUT the double ender 27ft offshore lifeboat conversion I purchased had suffered a lot of bad luck, even in the canals, as it had been holed twice, (Repairs only visible after gutting), and seriously grounded on a rock someplace. One of the alloy ribs was bent in about 6 inches! That's enough bad luck for me to rename her Elsie May. lifeboats should be named after a deceased person, or persons like wot thye RNLI always does. Hence she was renamed after my late mother who loved lifeboats, to TNLB Elsie May.

Edited October 21, 2021 by TNLI

[Mad Harold]

42 minutes ago, TNLI said:

The OP's picture of the engine bay looks just like mine did after it was salvaged from the Thames, (On the bottom for over a year). Don't be put off by a real mess of an engine and serious corrosion of the beds and drip tray, (Might be the hull). If the price is right after you barter, go for it. It's often better to restore your own boat, including the all important engine and support areas in the engine bay or room. The option is to pay far more only to discover the owner had good reasons for selling, like a cracked head gasket. 

 

My lifeboats only cost one pound on the bottom, although the top of the cabin was visible. 2 grand to salvage and another grand for the HIAB truck job from London to Poole. That last initial bill was a bit high as I had trouble finding a suitable HIAB. It should have cost about 750 quid.

 

The real creepy thing was when I gutted the cabin I found a very nice brass devil in a draw near the engine raw water filter unit. It was that bronze filter that sank the boat, as some chump had used a steel bolt on one side after losing the bronze one. Not sure if the same marine engineering expert left the sea cock on, or knew the solar panel diode had failed, but that trio of devils sank the boat! I gave the brass devil away and change the boats name. 

  It's regarded by some, (Myself included), to be bad luck to change a boats name, BUT the double ender 27ft offshore lifeboat conversion I purchased had suffered a lot of bad luck, even in the canals, as it had been holed twice, (Repairs only visible after gutting), and seriously grounded on a rock someplace. One of the alloy ribs was bent in about 6 inches! That's enough bad luck for me to rename her Elsie May. lifeboats should be named after a deceased person, or persons like wot thye RNLI always does. Hence she was renamed after my late mother who loved lifeboats, to TNLB Elsie May.

I like it.

Something different to the usual boats you see on canals.

I'd like to do something like that,but I fear I don't have sufficient skills to make a very good job of it.

Whats the hull made of?

Is it narrow beam? (6'-10")

[TNLI]

Mad Harold,

  The main issue is with the basic design and carpentry. I did not have time to do more than a fag packet sketch, so although I looked at the design of the most famous US based lifeboat, the USCG 36500, a 36ft full displacement offshore rescue boat, you can't scale down, only up. So that boat which is in the famous rescue and love story film from Disney, "Their Finest Hours", a great film for all the family. The other rather more important issue, is that I'm no carpenter, anyone can scrape and paint, but most of the time spent in boatbuilding is carpentry, even for an Alloy boat like mine.

  It's not too difficult to do a, "Hull up project", as long as you get some correct advice about design changes, materials and tools, BUT I really would think 3 times about trying to do a full build without good professional help. 

 

 

Edited October 21, 2021 by TNLI

[TNLI]

Sorry, missed the second part of the documentary about CG 36500 Chatham:

   

 

[Big Bob W]

On 21/10/2021 at 13:05, TNLI said:

The main issue is with the basic design and carpentry. I did not have time to do more than a fag packet sketch, so although I looked at the design of the most famous US based lifeboat, the USCG 36500

 

We visited the USCG 36500 at Orleans, Cape Cod a couple of years ago. A superb restoration.

[Arthur Marshall]

On 27/08/2021 at 22:59, MtB said:

 

I have a boat for sale in a superficially scruffy condition. I could probably get another £10k for it if I put in a load of effort to tidy it up and present it well. But as it happens I have better things to do with my time and for someone who can see past the paint that needs a polish and the washing up in the sink, it represents quite a bargain I reckon. 

When I looked at mine, the owner was just heaving up the manky carpet and clearing out the beer bottles left from the last party he'd had on board five years before. His new wife hadn't like boating. We couldn't see the shower cos there was a wasps nest in it, the water heater didn't work (though I found it did when cleaned up a bit) and there was no hot air ducting from the Lister. We agreed to knock a grand off if he didn't bother with the carpet (as I'd replace it anyway) or any other internal stuff. I loved it at first sight and still do.

Bit like buying houses, you've got to have the imagination to see through what someone else has done to it, to what you're going to make it into. No good being picky. If it looks perfect, it just means either the photos have been doctored or the defects have been carefully hidden.

[TNLI]

11 hours ago, Big Bob W said:

 

We visited the USCG 36500 at Orleans, Cape Cod a couple of years ago. A superb restoration.

Wow!! Great to see her and I really wish I could have been there when they were filming the film, " Their Finest Hours", (It's Disnery film for all the family). I know the Cope Cod area fairly well, and have been for a few drinks and a bowl of clam chowder in the very restaurant/bar in the film. I was fling from Boston Executive, (Beverly I think it was called), for a few months most summers. But often had 2 or 3 days off and would drive to Gloucester, which is a very large fishing port, to go on the all day or 6 hour fishing trips on the big party boats, (The same boats go whale watching), for some incredible bottom or jig fishing, for very large Cod, Pollock and other bottom fish. Great fishing and even better eating!

 

I really wish I could have simply copied the CG 36500 design, but my alloy hull, (One pound sunken boat job), is only 27ft. If I had copied it, the forward cabin would have had no standing headroom and the wheelhouse would have been far too small. So my homebuit follows to thinkg of the designer, but not the final result.

  I also wish I could afford the Monel plates that were used to make these boats ice worthy to a limited extent. The Pacific version had a fold down sailing rig.