No survey, am I an idiot

[MtB]

1 hour ago, tree monkey said:

Admittedly I use hammer survey techniques on trees not boat hulls but the method is the same, surprisingly accurate too

 

 

You have a far better ear than me then.

 

I never seem to be able to accurately determine the degree of corrosion in trees myself, by tapping them with hammers...

[Hudds Lad]

3 minutes ago, MtB said:

 

 

You have a far better ear than me then.

 

I never seem to be able to accurately determine the degree of corrosion in trees myself, by tapping them with hammers...

Simples. 
 

Stand well back with brew but within earshot.

Get apprentice to hit tree with large hammer.

If limbs fall on apprentice and he screams, tree knackered, cut down.

If no noise from apprentice, tree sound, move on to next tree.

[Arthur Marshall]

11 hours ago, Phoebeg543 said:

Yeah that's the type of thing that concerns me. I was thinking if I got it and ended up having to get it overplated/it's a bit of a write off sinker how much do you reckon it could sell for?

I'm quite interested in the answers to this as I'm coming to the end of my boating life.

Mine's an old boat, probably mid sixties, been overplated twice. In effect, to a few inches above the waterline, it's an entirely new hull, three years old. I don't see why this should make the boat worthless, as MtB suggests, as it has given it another twenty years of life.

Certainly the layout is old-fashioned and the fit out, which I did, not bespoke, but it's very comfortable to live on, cosy and warm in winter, old engine but refurbished gearbox and engine mostly rebuilt.

It would make someone a seriously good home. I'd hope to flog it for enough to buy a smaller GRP for pottering about in.

BUT if your first thought about living on a boat is how much you're going to sell it for, I think you need to question how seriously you are taking this step. What is certain is that you won't get all the money you'll spend on it back. I bought the boat thirty years ago for seven grand, spent two on the first replate and nine on the second. Gearboxes have cost me three. Rewiring one. About one on the first refit. Annual maintenance not a lot  just paint, blacking a few hundred quid every few years. Licence and mooring about fifteen hundred a year now.

I'd guess I'd get about what I paid for it if I sold it now.

[tree monkey]

3 minutes ago, Hudds Lad said:

Simples. 
 

Stand well back with brew but within earshot.

Get apprentice to hit tree with large hammer.

If limbs fall on apprentice and he screams, tree knackered, cut down.

If no noise from apprentice, tree sound, move on to next tree.

That's very advanced stuff and nowadays it's difficult to replace the apprentices easily, woke culture gone mad if you ask me

[MtB]

3 minutes ago, Hudds Lad said:

Simples. 
 

Stand well back with brew but within earshot.

Get apprentice to hit tree with large hammer.

If limbs fall on apprentice and he screams, tree knackered, cut down.

If no noise from apprentice, tree sound, move on to next tree.

 

Not sure I buy that, especially not line three.

 

If you cut one down with a Tree Preservation Order protecting it, I believe the local Tree Preservation Officer can make you put it back up again at your own expense. 

 

 

 

 

[MtB]

2 minutes ago, Arthur Marshall said:

Mine's an old boat, probably mid sixties, been overplated twice. In effect, to a few inches above the waterline, it's an entirely new hull, three years old. I don't see why this should make the boat worthless, as MtB suggests

 

 

Point of Order. That's not what I said at all! 

 

I suggested a boat sinking from corrosion perforations and in immediate need lof full overplating has a value of approximately zero. Once fully and competently overplated at enormous expense then I agree with you, it has 20 years more life and possibly £20k more value.

[Hudds Lad]

1 minute ago, tree monkey said:

That's very advanced stuff and nowadays it's difficult to replace the apprentices easily, woke culture gone mad if you ask me

My experience is from the late 80’s when for a couple of years on weekends and holidays i was that apprentice  

It was a fantastical time to be landscape gardening, all cash in hand and the world and his bank manager wanted work doing. Used to make more cash on a weekend than most of my mates in full-time jobs. Blew it all on S & D & RnR, happy days  

[cuthound]

11 hours ago, Phoebeg543 said:

Yeah that's the type of thing that concerns me. I was thinking if I got it and ended up having to get it overplated/it's a bit of a write off sinker how much do you reckon it could sell for?

 

Hard to say as at the moment boat prices are rising.

 

The boat in question was bought for £10k at a time when Springers of that length in great condition were going for £15k.

 

So the boat was worth £15k but cost £30k.

[tree monkey]

12 minutes ago, Hudds Lad said:

My experience is from the late 80’s when for a couple of years on weekends and holidays i was that apprentice  

It was a fantastical time to be landscape gardening, all cash in hand and the world and his bank manager wanted work doing. Used to make more cash on a weekend than most of my mates in full-time jobs. Blew it all on S & D & RnR, happy days  

Very similar to my youthful experience tbh

[Arthur Marshall]

45 minutes ago, MtB said:

 

 

Point of Order. That's not what I said at all! 

 

I suggested a boat sinking from corrosion perforations and in immediate need lof full overplating has a value of approximately zero. Once fully and competently overplated at enormous expense then I agree with you, it has 20 years more life and possibly £20k more value.

Agreed. Mine was letting water in when I got it to the yard for replating. Real problem was a slightly duff replating job twenty years earlier,  and the new replating at Stoke Boats cost about nine grand. So if a 12 grand boat cost that, it would still be a reasonable buy as long as not too much else needed doing.

Another point is that thirty foot isn't very big as a liveaboard. Cabin size is crucial - my boats 40ft but the cabin is only 23. It was fine for me to live on by myself, wouldn't work for a couple, though it's ok for holidays, just. It has slept six, but I wouldn't recommend it. There just isn't the storage space.

Edited September 16, 2022 by Arthur Marshall

[MtB]

56 minutes ago, Arthur Marshall said:

Agreed. Mine was letting water in when I got it to the yard for replating. Real problem was a slightly duff replating job twenty years earlier,  and the new replating at Stoke Boats cost about nine grand. So if a 12 grand boat cost that, it would still be a reasonable buy as long as not too much else needed doing.

Another point is that thirty foot isn't very big as a liveaboard. Cabin size is crucial - my boats 40ft but the cabin is only 23. It was fine for me to live on by myself, wouldn't work for a couple, though it's ok for holidays, just. It has slept six, but I wouldn't recommend it. There just isn't the storage space.

 

 

My own solution to the storage problem you describe is to buy a house too, and keep one's junk in that whilst living on the boat. 

 

 

[David Mack]

On 15/09/2022 at 08:11, MtB said:

 

Yes a well known and well regarded surveyor checked the condition of the baseplate on one of mine a few years back using the hammer method, and pronounced it sound as a bell and in A1 insurable condition. 

I had a not well known surveyor (but recommended by someone whose judgement I trust) check the condition of the baseplate using the hammer method, and he knocked three holes in the bottom. He then offered me a pitifully small sum of money to take the boat off my hands. When I declined his offer he packed up his van and drove off without completing the survey. And I never got a survey report or a bill!  But the experience did confirm that the boat needed rebottoming.

[Sass]

On 14/09/2022 at 16:43, Arthur Marshall said:

If it has been blacked recently, find out where and go and see if the yard remember it. If it's awful they will, if it's perfect for it's age they will, if the don't remember it, it's probably ok.

PS, I bought mine without a survey, so may be biased...

that's such a good idea haha