No knowledge and buying a project boat!

[Arthur Marshall]

37 minutes ago, LadyG said:

No one has mentioned a grp cruiser, not as suitable as a steel boat for a year round liveaboard,  but much cheaper, and possibly simpler, it would give them an idea of whether they would be suited to the lifestyle.

I would urge the OP not to buy this boat, because :

1) It is too small to live on.

2) it is a money pit

Yes, after two years they will have picked up some usefull skills and knowledge, but the boat will still be too small and they will be two years older.

 

 

Do we actually know that this is the relevant boat? I'd like the OP to confirm the size of the boat before commenting further. I would consider 55 foot the minimum size for a liveaboard boat for fwo people. I couldn't have lived on my forty footer longterm, though a friend did live on a thirty five foot boat for many years, but he was on his own, and it was almost all cabin with a trad stern.

[LadyG]

We don't know that is the boat, I assume someone saw it on Ebay or suchlike and the engines matched the OP s description.

He has not denied it, maybe moved on .....

Edited March 9 by LadyG

[BoatinglifeupNorth]

14 hours ago, LadyG said:

So your partition walls are determined by the location of the bearers, so if they are six feet apart your bathroom is either six foot wide or twelve foot wide. 

I give up.

 The sheets will be standard ply size 8ft x 4ft fitters will want to use maximum sheet to save cutting and expense, the bearers will normally be 18”-24” shell builder depending.

 

13 hours ago, Alan de Enfield said:

 

 

Our floor lifts up in sections,

 

Lift up carpet, lift up floor panels (which sit on bearers in 'joist hangers') 

Remove bearers and totally free access to the engine room.

 

 

But your boats not a narrowboat so in reality completely irrelevant comparing it to narrowboat design and steelwork as your pictures show..

Edited March 9 by BoatinglifeupNorth

[MtB]

3 hours ago, rusty69 said:

And then one day you find
Ten years have got behind you. 

 

No-one told you when to run,

you missed the starting gun.

 

[agg221]

The OP may find Danni & Joe's youtube series on refitting their boat quite informative. They started a step ahead of this - the hull was done, the engine was in and I think it had been sprayfoamed, but in the grand scheme of things this is a relatively short part of the total work.

 

38ft for full time liveaboard with no other space for worldly goods would be very challenging for two people, but it does depend a bit on the expected pattern of use. It's fine for four of us for a fortnight because we don't have to take much else with us, and that includes a substantial engine room and a foredeck rather than well deck.

 

Alec

[nb Innisfree]

My first attempt at designing a nb layout finished up with a cabin 100' long, and that was trying to be realistic! 

[MtB]

13 minutes ago, nb Innisfree said:

My first attempt at designing a nb layout finished up with a cabin 100' long, and that was trying to be realistic! 

 

ALL my attempts end up like that!!!! 

 

[BilgePump]

12 minutes ago, nb Innisfree said:

My first attempt at designing a nb layout finished up with a cabin 100' long, and that was trying to be realistic! 

Family's old 60' narrowboat had a bit in front of the cabin that was an open area, could put down a few camp beds, folding work table or chairs as needed. The entire cabin on the 17' or 19' GRP I have now would fit into that space (if you dropped the headroom to about 4'6") and they still each have room for two berths, a loo and space for a stove/wash bowl. Couldn't have lived full time on the narrowboat personally, not unless had workspace, garden, shed on land close to the boat.

[nb Innisfree]

I spent hours sat on a pretend toilet deciding on optimum size of toilet/shower room. 

[IanD]

10 minutes ago, nb Innisfree said:

I spent hours sat on a pretend toilet deciding on optimum size of toilet/shower room. 

First rule of narrowboats : the optimum size of *anything* is always bigger than you can fit into the space available... 😉 

[Bacchus]

18 minutes ago, nb Innisfree said:

I spent hours sat on a pretend toilet deciding on optimum size of toilet/shower room. 

 

when I was planning the camper-van I unpacked the Thetford cassette loo, put it in a corner, and sat on it with a pretend newspaper to establish where the walls should go...

[Ewan123]

On 08/03/2024 at 09:49, MtB said:

"Vibration" isn't really the right word where proper slow revving vintage marine diesels are concerned. My Kelvins rev at about 300 rpm and there just isn't anything to vibrate. Its more a case of feeling the boat rock a bit from side to side on each firing stroke. The K1 would tip the boat slightly and send a ripple sideways away from the hull across the cut on each firing revolution. All very charming. 

 

 

I quite enjoyed it when Emu or Clover were alongside us for diesel etc. Looking down the boat from one end, you could see the whole body twisting slightly from motion of the Bolinder. 

[StephenA]

On 08/03/2024 at 08:09, blackrose said:

 

I've never understood how an engine without flexible mounts doesn't just shear the mounting bolts. Where does all that vibration go?

 

What vibration? Mintball's BMC 1.5 leg's are bolted to large wooden bearers which are bolted to a metal frame. We have a spider in the prop coupling and we've never had any real problems.

[BilgePump]

3 hours ago, Bacchus said:

 

when I was planning the camper-van I unpacked the Thetford cassette loo, put it in a corner, and sat on it with a pretend newspaper to establish where the walls should go...

Newspaper? Should have been a copy of Land Rover Monthly, Old Glory, PBO or Waterways World.

[Bacchus]

1 hour ago, BilgePump said:

Newspaper? Should have been a copy of Land Rover Monthly, Old Glory, PBO or Waterways World.

😁

 

 

Boundary conditions innit. If it will fit a Sunday broadsheet, Land Rover Monthly, Old Glory, PBO or Waterways World will slot in nicely.

[TheBiscuits]

2 hours ago, StephenA said:

We have a spider in the prop coupling

 

You used to move Mintball more often than that ...

[ditchcrawler]

On 08/03/2024 at 19:34, LadyG said:

I can't imagine why anyone would have individual floors in each room. If, for example I wanted to build the galley floor, with the dining floor adjacent, where would the join be that would allow you to lift the galley floor, and the dining floor. Would it be under the partition wall?

Do you remove all the cabinets first. Surely you don't expect to ever lift the floor, a few inspection hatches may be needed, but if the floors need to be removed, something has gone wrong. 

The use of laminate flooring, carpet, vinyl,  engineered wood etc are the wearing surfaces, surely they sit on top of the flooring boards in most cases.

I think there are some things on these boats which are tried and tested, once you've lined the walls with ply, you won't want to take it down every few years.

Its very handy for redistributing the ballast 

6 hours ago, Ewan123 said:

I quite enjoyed it when Emu or Clover were alongside us for diesel etc. Looking down the boat from one end, you could see the whole body twisting slightly from motion of the Bolinder. 

I think I was on Spey and standing on the deck you could see her twist with every beat 

Fitting a narrowboat doesn't take long, ask DeanS 

 

[Francis Herne]

I'm generally happy with my little 31ft boat to live on, there's more than enough living space for one person with that mindset.

 

I've considered looking for an ex-working boat with a hold so I can get back into hobbies/projects that need storage space, which is one major limitation of a small boat. And also because they're lovely things in their own right. Would have similar or less cabin.

 

I do think 31ft, and possibly 38ft, might be too small for two people long-term. Not enough room to be apart and do separate things sometimes. A friend visiting me for a few days was ok but a bit short on privacy.

Edited March 9 by Francis Herne

[Slim]

On 08/03/2024 at 18:10, nb Innisfree said:

Maybe but in our case we finished up with a boat with loads of extras that would have cost much more new and I couldn't possibly find a boat with all the fitout I wanted. 

On the other hand you end up with a shed load (literally) of left over fittings, fastenings and materials. At least, I did.

Edited March 10 by Slim

[StephenA]

16 hours ago, TheBiscuits said:

 

You used to move Mintball more often than that ...

Mintball has spiders everywhere - there has been a "Boris" living by the horn housing since she was built.

[Arthur Marshall]

14 hours ago, ditchcrawler said:

 

Fitting a narrowboat doesn't take long, ask DeanS 

 

I did mine after stripping out to bare shell in about six months, though the engine and electrics were still in place and the latter didn't need much tweaking. New gas and plumbing, insulation and the rest. But it was on hard standing for which I wasn't charged and I was only working two days a week so had plenty of time to do the job. Small boat, too.

[MtB]

Many years ago a firm set up in a big industrial unit near me fitting out new, small dutch barge shells. They were very attractive boats about 50ft x 12ft. They used me as a subcontractor to install the gas systems.

 

Point is though, as a regular subby I got a pretty close look at the whole operation and it seemed to take them about six or eight months to get a new shell out the door and delivered. This was with a team of about ten people working in there full time with full, money-no-object workshop facilities in the unit with the boats. Quite often there were two boats in under fit-out at any one time.

 

With a selling price of about £350k per boat IIRC, I could never quite see the sums adding up. One day the whole operation just upped sticks and vanished. Fortunately not owing me any money. 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited March 10 by MtB
Get the boat size right!