Newbie narrowboat rental questions

[cuthound]

18 hours ago, ditchcrawler said:

How do you spend £12k on maintenance in a year. Licence, insurance, moorings maybe £5K so where does the other £7K go?

 

When I had shares in boats they did 1200 hours plus per year and needed blacking and a repaint every year. When you have to pay a boatyard for everything the costs quickly add up.

 

The repaints were a quick "touch in, flat off and put another couple of coats on" which are just as effective and cost considerably less than a back to the metal repaint.

Edited August 16, 2022 by cuthound
To add the last paragraph

[ditchcrawler]

9 hours ago, manxmike said:

I have been looking into this possibility for myself, searching on line and speaking to people already holding shares, the prices I quoted are fairly similar to what I have found. OK, if I were to go for a new build with a butler, kitchen staff, hot and cold running chambermaids (I wish) then I would expect to pay a lot more.

There seem to be quite a number of shares available in quite a few boats at the moment, maybe the "boom" is coming to an end and prices are becoming more realistic?

However, I would be happy with a slightly older boat and the costs are pretty much as I said. Given that the OP rather likes the look of an older boat these charges are what he might find.

Horses for courses - you get what you pay for!

One thing to remember when buying, the share is costing the seller a high percentage of the sale price as his share while he is trying to sell it. so the resale may not be so good as some think.

2 hours ago, cuthound said:

 

When I had shares in boats they did 1200 hours plus per year and needed blacking and a repaint every year. When you have to pay a boatyard for everything the costs quickly add up.

 

The repaints were a quick "touch in, flat off and put another couple of coats on" which are just as effective and cost considerably less than a back to the metal repaint.

I do getting on for those sorts of hours and don't black every year.  I don't think water flow washes the black off.

[cuthound]

7 minutes ago, ditchcrawler said:

I do getting on for those sorts of hours and don't black every year.  I don't think water flow washes the black off.

 

But you don't share your boat with eleven other families, most of whom can't steer... 😱

 

On a couple of occasions my holiday came up after just one other co-owner had been on it after blacking and repainting and the number of deep.scratches was shocking.

[Paul C]

Alan, please look into the difference between timeshare and shareboat - they are different, in important ways. I am sure you just made a slip and didn't fully read the posts, though.

 

Share boating makes a LOT of sense if you want to do more than just occasionally hiring, but you can't see yourself using a boat for more than 4 weeks/year - for example if you work full time, and don't have the holiday allowance. But beware of comparing their costs to other boats, they get absolutely hammered (more than hire boats) and their life is like "dog years" for things like engine replacements, repaint, etc. An older shareboat is likely to be like trigger's broom, re-engined and re-painted and most of the important components on their 2nd or 3rd iteration.