small 17ft skipper boat with an electric motor to use on the canal

[Blue37]

any useful tips for first time boat owner?

[LadyG]

Well, 17ft is fairly small, do you have a trailer and intend to move about on the inland waterways or on a river?

You could buy a self inflating life jacket.

You will almost certainly need a licence from the Navigation Authority, and insurance.

BSC will depend on the fit out.

 

.

Edited April 7 by LadyG

[Blue37]

it is on a trailer in a dry dock marina by the canal so will be trying out the canal first but hopefully later the river - i am looking into insurance now and the boat has a safety license til next year - i also need to buy a day license when i have insurance and bsc registered with local canal authority - the boat needs some work on it though and am not sure where to ask?

[Jen-in-Wellies]

5 minutes ago, Z37 said:

it is on a trailer in a dry dock marina by the canal so will be trying out the canal first but hopefully later the river - i am looking into insurance now and the boat has a safety license til next year - i also need to buy a day license when i have insurance and bsc registered with local canal authority - the boat needs some work on it though and am not sure where to ask?

A clue as to where you, or the boat are and what sort of work, mechanical, electrical, canopy, hull, paint, may help with that.

[Blue37]

its at odiham hampshire - needs some woodwork for the doors to cabin - needs a new window seal - removal of old name etc

[Tony Brooks]

29 minutes ago, Blue37 said:

its at odiham hampshire - needs some woodwork for the doors to cabin - needs a new window seal - removal of old name etc

 

Ask at the Basingstoke Canal Centre at Mychett. That is the office of the Basingstoke Canal Authority.

[MtB]

On 07/04/2024 at 13:26, Blue37 said:

any useful tips for first time boat owner?

 

 

1) Make sure you buy the correct licence before going boating.

2) Try not to fall in.

 

[Tracy D'arth]

Always carry plenty of cash and credit card.

[MtB]

3 minutes ago, Tracy D'arth said:

Always carry plenty of cash and credit card.

 

And passport! 

 

 

[Alan de Enfield]

14 minutes ago, MtB said:

 

And passport! 

 

 

 

And of course the RCR compliance certificate, and, the UK VAT paid receipt.

[MtB]

1 minute ago, Alan de Enfield said:

 

And of course the RCR compliance certificate, and, the UK VAT paid receipt.

 

 

And being an electric boat, a generator and petrol. 

 

Err....

 

 

 

[Bacchus]

On 07/04/2024 at 15:05, Blue37 said:

it is on a trailer in a dry dock marina by the canal so will be trying out the canal first but hopefully later the river - i am looking into insurance now and the boat has a safety license til next year - i also need to buy a day license when i have insurance and bsc registered with local canal authority - the boat needs some work on it though and am not sure where to ask?

 

There's a skipper 17 facebook group - not a massive group, but very knowledgeable about the marque (I have a skipper twin lifting keel - lovely little things, although I haven't actually sailed it yet...). I was rehearsing getting the rig up only yesterday with a saily mate.

[GilesMorris]

It's been a while, but I've had two boats around this size and both were wonderful. The Microplus 16ft powerboat on the canal allowed exploration of places that would never have happened with a larger boat and the Montgomery 15 sailboat was great over a large part of the Chesapeake Bay. The key is to temper your expectations - it's not going to be luxurious. And be careful who you share the cabin with - with the wrong companion it's like sleeping in a telephone box with a whale. I have my doubts about the limitations imposed by an electric motor, but you will soon be an expert on that.

[BilgePump]

13 hours ago, GilesMorris said:

It's been a while, but I've had two boats around this size and both were wonderful. The Microplus 16ft powerboat on the canal allowed exploration of places that would never have happened with a larger boat and the Montgomery 15 sailboat was great over a large part of the Chesapeake Bay. The key is to temper your expectations - it's not going to be luxurious. And be careful who you share the cabin with - with the wrong companion it's like sleeping in a telephone box with a whale. I have my doubts about the limitations imposed by an electric motor, but you will soon be an expert on that.

Agree with much of what you say in this post. There's a boatload of fun to be had with a little trailer sailer. I have one the same size as the OP's, a Leisure 17 with fixed bilge keels. Perfectly capable of estuary, coastal and Irish sea sailing but with small enough dimensions to fit on even a narrow UK canal should it take the fancy. Also have its smaller sibling at 15' but that still has a little weekender cabin. The 15' at under 400kg is easy enough to launch and recover onto trailer and the 17' not much more hassle. Boat on the canal is just a 19' cabin cruiser, teeny, tiny, but can turn it on a sixpence.

 

I  do share your doubts about the usefulness of the electric outboard though. I got one with my boat which came off a lake where petrol powered outboards were banned. It's okay for manoeuvring around the moorings in still airs for a few minutes but wouldn't have a hope against running tide, heavy wind or for any extended period of time. That worked on a lake because you were only looking to get away from the jetty before hoisting the sails. Not much chance of utilising the sails on a narrow canal so the range of travel will be dictated by the battery capacity. Even a couple of fully charged 110Ah batteries wouldn't give the same range as just a gallon of petrol. If the plan is only to go ten minutes up the canal to sit and enjoy the sunshine in a nice location before returning then the silent operation is certainly a plus. For any kind of distance though it's not going to cut it; it's not even as though you could throw a ton of solar on the roof to put some back into the batteries. There's very little spare space on the roof of one of these small boats. Good news is that even the smallest petrol outboard will push a little Skipper along the canal and old secondhand working engines can be found without breaking the bank.

 

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next post (they got merged and were to two different people)

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To the OP. I'm sure there's a lot of enjoyment to be had on the canal with your boat.

 

3rd party only insurance will cost about £75 pa. Mine is through Navigators and General (Zurich) but plenty of other companies offer similarly priced cover.

 

The 30 day canal and river short term explorer licence for 2023-4 was £138 so will be a bit more now. This allows you to use any 30 days in the year - maybe a few weeks, a few weekends and some odd days - in the water. It actually works out cheaper by the day than a week licence and allows you to cut short a week trip and pull the boat out without having paid for the abandoned days.

 

If you are only going to use the boat by putting it in when in use and then storing it on dry land, and won't be using it more than a certain number of days in the year (56 it used to be iirc) then you can avoid the requirement of renewing the BSS. The short term licences are for boats visitng CaRT's water so don't rely on the registration number that long term licence holders display.

 

The washboards to the cabin are usually just two pieces of plywood, a couple of retaining pieces and maybe a vent on it. It's an easy task and if you don't have the tools to do it yourself then it would be a quick job for any woodworker if you can give them a template of the old boards and you are prepared to do the sanding and varnishing yourself.

 

For the window seal, I'm assuming that it has the rubber windscreen type seal type, not in ally frame of such. Have a look on YouTube for videos on how to do it yourself. The tools are pretty cheap on ebay and no matter who does the job the actual rubber seal will cost money (again available on ebay).

 

Name removal will depend on whether vinyl stick on letters, painted or on their own plate.

 

All jobs that a new boat owner can get to grips with and all part of the fun!

Edited April 15 by BilgePump
to separate the two posts that got merged

[mrsmelly]

14 hours ago, GilesMorris said:

It's been a while, but I've had two boats around this size and both were wonderful. The Microplus 16ft powerboat on the canal allowed exploration of places that would never have happened with a larger boat and the Montgomery 15 sailboat was great over a large part of the Chesapeake Bay. The key is to temper your expectations - it's not going to be luxurious. And be careful who you share the cabin with - with the wrong companion it's like sleeping in a telephone box with a whale. I have my doubts about the limitations imposed by an electric motor, but you will soon be an expert on that.

A friend of mine has a Chesapeake bay retriever. Just saying like.

[Alan de Enfield]

31 minutes ago, mrsmelly said:

A friend of mine has a Chesapeake bay retriever. Just saying like.

 

 

Is that the one they named 'Boomerang'?