Thoughts please

[Gaz1811]

The wife and I are looking at a boat purely for leisure, weekends away and occasional holidays. We have seen a few and up to now none have really appealed to us, apart from this one. We are ok doing some work internally to make our mark on it if you will. The lady who showed us around was lovely and very helpful. What are the thoughts of the more experienced amongst you, all advice/comments welcomed. 

 

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1DMcmnViaX/

[Alan de Enfield]

 

Not really much to go on, sorta like saying "I'm thinking about buying this car and the tyres are all OK"

 

Manufacturer ? (Was it manufactured by Calcutt, or is it one of their ex-hire boats ?)

Boat condition ?

What electrics, toilet, waste tank etc does it have ?

Solar panels ?

BSS ?

Pictures ?

Layout ?

Stern type (cruiser / trad / semi trad)

 

[MrsM]

2 minutes ago, Alan de Enfield said:

 

Not really much to go on, sorta like saying "I'm thinking about buying this car and the tyres are all OK"

 

Manufacturer ? (Was it manufactured by Calcutt, or is it one of their ex-hire boats ?)

Boat condition ?

What electrics, toilet, waste tank etc does it have ?

Solar panels ?

BSS ?

Pictures ?

Layout ?

Stern type (cruiser / trad / semi trad)

 

From the FB post it's a trad stern with what looks like traditional layout. BMC engine. Tidy inside and not London white, which makes a change. Looks pretty fair for the money on a cursory glance. 

[brianthesnail96]

4 minutes ago, Alan de Enfield said:

 

Not really much to go on, sorta like saying "I'm thinking about buying this car and the tyres are all OK"

 

Manufacturer ? (Was it manufactured by Calcutt, or is it one of their ex-hire boats ?)

Boat condition ?

What electrics, toilet, waste tank etc does it have ?

Solar panels ?

BSS ?

Pictures ?

Layout ?

Stern type (cruiser / trad / semi trad)

 

 

There's a link to a Facebook advert in the post. 

 

I'm far from an expert but it looks very reasonably priced to me, the amount of "message sent" responses on the Facebook post suggest others think so too, I suspect it'll sell very quickly.

[Alan de Enfield]

19 minutes ago, brianthesnail96 said:

There's a link to a Facebook advert in the post. 

 

But the false assumption is that everyone is on farcebook

[Gaz1811]

Yes, it has a BSS until July 28. 

[David Mack]

As a non facebooker I can see the basic info, just not all the photos.

[MtB]

51 minutes ago, Alan de Enfield said:

Not really much to go on, sorta like saying "I'm thinking about buying this car and the tyres are all OK"

 

Well the lady who showed them around the boat was very nice, so definitely BUY IT!! 

 

 

 

I think there's a flaw in my logic somewhere, but damned if I can spot it.....

 

 

 

[Tony Brooks]

I think Calcutt only fitted out bought in shells, and I think they favoured Colecraft - if that helps. 

[Alan de Enfield]

44 minutes ago, Tony Brooks said:

I think Calcutt only fitted out bought in shells, and I think they favoured Colecraft - if that helps. 

 

That's what I remember, but I don't like to assume too much.

One would have hoped that the surveyor would have known Calcutt only fitted out the interiors on 'bought-in' shells.

[Tony Brooks]

11 minutes ago, Alan de Enfield said:

That's what I remember, but I don't like to assume too much.

 

That is why I used "think" twice, but I have never seen any sign of having had the facilities for hull building there.

[Tonka]

1 hour ago, Tony Brooks said:

 

That is why I used "think" twice, but I have never seen any sign of having had the facilities for hull building there.

I agree with you Tony, I think their preferred shell provider is Colecraft even when the Reeves brothers were building shell literally around the corner.

Note to original poster. You should still commission your own survey though because that survey didn't have any access to the internals and is now 18 months old. Also note that the survey stated that access to the bottom was poor so does that mean he didn't see the whole bottom which on a boat of that age is important.

[brianthesnail96]

11 hours ago, Alan de Enfield said:

 

But the false assumption is that everyone is on farcebook

 

I think the false assumption was that you were duty bound to reply to the post. I very much doubt the OP was expecting a reply from people not able to see the Facebook advert. The (potential) buyer rarely has much say on where the seller chooses to place their advert. 

[agg221]

A look at the pictures on the link suggests a very well priced boat. That means it is likely to sell fast, so due diligence is more difficult. Confirming ownership (as much as you ever can) is easy enough by checking that the seller has paperwork such as the previous BSS in their name, possibly receipts for work etc. It doesn't look to have been done up for sale, which is good in that respect.

 

Does the engine start easily and run with a fairly clean exhaust?

Does it easily engage forwards and reverse or is there a delay?

 

On the hull, you would have to take a punt. I can't see it hanging around long enough for a survey at that price, which may be the point. However, another way to look at that is that this is probably a £35-40k boat once done, so if you buy it for £29k (or make an offer of say £28k on the spot) then you have £7k with which to get the hull sorted and you would be very unlucky if it looks OK and regularly blacked (but not freshly blacked) and there was more than £7k of work needed.

 

If it was what I wanted, I would de-risk as above, accept the remaining risks and find a recommended boatyard so that I could have it pulled out, surveyed and remedial work done at my expense. Some would have a different attitude to risk.

 

Alec

[MrsM]

Absolutely agree with what Alec has said above. In an ideal world you would get the hull (at least) looked over but doubt you will have the opportunity to do this. Was the engine started when you viewed the boat?

For those that don't use FB

Photo from Facebook ad

Edited February 1 by MrsM

[LadyG]

If you go to view a boat ask them  not to start the engine be4 you arrive. Check for any warmth in the engine when you arrive, and arrive an hour early.

Obviously you should not faff about unless you are in a position to make your offer the same day, and put down a deposit while you arrange the rest.

Edited February 1 by LadyG

[MtB]

10 hours ago, MrsM said:

Absolutely agree with what Alec has said above. In an ideal world you would get the hull (at least) looked over but doubt you will have the opportunity to do this. Was the engine started when you viewed the boat?

For those that don't use FB

Photo from Facebook ad

 

 

Advertised as a trad stern but the photo shows a semi-trad.

 

Not a nice thing to steer if you were expecting a trad. 

[Unicorn Stampede]

On 31/01/2026 at 21:43, Gaz1811 said:

The wife and I are looking at a boat purely for leisure, weekends away and occasional holidays. We have seen a few and up to now none have really appealed to us, apart from this one. We are ok doing some work internally to make our mark on it if you will. The lady who showed us around was lovely and very helpful. What are the thoughts of the more experienced amongst you, all advice/comments welcomed. 

 

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1DMcmnViaX/

I can only speak from our experience, but we had a survey from Jonathon Jackson and it turned out to be wrong and poor in quality to other surveyors. We have actually shown his work did other surveyors and they had very unpleasant things to say about it.

 

The one benefit was, he got you onto a certain insurance company without issue because he worked for them...

 

He also has connections with certain boat yards to point you towards them for repairs. That also influenced the quality of his survey.

 

With that, I wouldn't trust his survey work 

Edited February 1 by Unicorn Stampede
Tweaked wording