Is Now the right time?

[Arthur Marshall]

23 minutes ago, BoatingLifeUpNorth2 said:

Or, in some cases in excess of £350K buying 70ft Narrowboats. Trying to out do the other boats. 

I don't see why spending that amount is trying to outdo anyone. We all want to get the nearest thing to what we actually want that we can afford. If someone has worked hard enough to be able to afford something close to perfect for them, that's the way it should be.

I decided a long, long time ago to work as little as I could get away with and enjoy myself the rest of the time, earning money in the process if possible, so I ended up with a bit of an old wreck which I had a lot of fun fixing up. If my premium bond comes up with a million quid next week I'll buy something electric and magnificent - not to outdo anyone but just for the hell of it.

Envy isn't a good look, nor is imputing attitudes to other people without any evidence - already been called out once in this thread.

[BoatingLifeUpNorth2]

4 minutes ago, Arthur Marshall said:

I don't see why spending that amount is trying to outdo anyone. We all want to get the nearest thing to what we actually want that we can afford. If someone has worked hard enough to be able to afford something close to perfect for them, that's the way it should be.

I decided a long, long time ago to work as little as I could get away with and enjoy myself the rest of the time, earning money in the process if possible, so I ended up with a bit of an old wreck which I had a lot of fun fixing up. If my premium bond comes up with a million quid next week I'll buy something electric and magnificent - not to outdo anyone but just for the hell of it.

Envy isn't a good look, nor is imputing attitudes to other people without any evidence - already been called out once in this thread.

I was on about the tech, paintwork. the extra’s. They all seem to want a little bit more it seems.

[LadyG]

5 hours ago, Dunworkin said:

Then I suggest you shove your tiller arm somewhere where the sun doesn’t shine and keep your thoughts to yourself 

I reported this abusive post, but it has not  yet disappeared.

To the poster

this is a forum to discuss boat related matters, not to abuse people.  Im sure there are other places to go, you dont need advice,  you  know enough.

Edited March 29 by LadyG

[BoatingLifeUpNorth2]

7 minutes ago, LadyG said:

I reported this abusive post, but it has mysteriously disappeared. I'll report it again..

For the poster, this is a forum to discuss boat related matters, not to abuse people. 

Why report this then tell people you have?

 Do people honestly think he’s being that abusive?

Edited March 29 by BoatingLifeUpNorth2

[David Mack]

2 minutes ago, BoatingLifeUpNorth2 said:

Why?  it seems to only be offending you. Not really abusive is it?

Debatable whether its 'abusive', but it is unnecessarily aggressive and is the sort of response that makes me think that I would rather not bother to contribute my thoughts on the original question.

[Tam & Di]

8 minutes ago, BoatingLifeUpNorth2 said:

Why?  it seems to only be offending you. Not really abusive is it?

I suspect it was probably directed at the poster after mine, but even if was at me it didn't bother me, and it has now been repeated here by LadyG anyway.  😁

Edited March 29 by Tam & Di

[BoatingLifeUpNorth2]

1 minute ago, Tam & Di said:

I suspect it was probably directed at the poster after mine, but even if was at me it didn't bother me, and it has now been repeated here anyway.  😁

I suppose some people have thicker skin than others and people can read into posts differently to others and if they want to be offended they’ll find it.

[ditchcrawler]

35 minutes ago, BoatingLifeUpNorth2 said:

No chip on the shoulder just stating facts, so get over yourself. Or haven’t you got a clue to how much a new boat costs?

I didn't realise they were now that much and thought I was being realistic at £150K  I was going by this 

 

[mrsmelly]

4 hours ago, brianthesnail96 said:

 

Slightly bizarre response to a post where you have asked for people's thoughts! 

 

Given the nature of your initial post and most subsequent ones in this thread I'd suggest Tam & Di's post appears pretty much on the money. You wouldn't be asking the question otherwise... 

 

I imagine you've probably been married rather longer than me. However in the time I've been with my now wife I have learnt that if she says "we should do this" it's a good idea to do it 😁

Rather bizarrely some blokes actualy think they are in charge 😂 yes I know you couldn't make it up. 

I am the boss in our house because the wife says I am 😜 

Edited March 29 by mrsmelly

[BoatingLifeUpNorth2]

9 minutes ago, ditchcrawler said:

I didn't realise they were now that much and thought I was being realistic at £150K  I was going by this 

 

You’ll be surprised at the cost of a new boat and like yourself a lot of boaters don’t realise, especially when they start adding the extras they fancy.

[LadyG]

20 minutes ago, David Mack said:

Debatable whether its 'abusive', but it is unnecessarily aggressive and is the sort of response that makes me think that I would rather not bother to contribute my thoughts on the original question.

Ive put him on ignore. As a newby he is making unpleasant posts on a family friendly type forum, maybe this is how he behaves in public, but i doubt it.

[Rob-M]

19 minutes ago, LadyG said:

Ive put him on ignore. As a newby he is making unpleasant posts on a family friendly type forum, maybe this is how he behaves in public, but i doubt it.

You seem to be the only one making a fuss about it.

[LadyG]

1 minute ago, Rob-M said:

You seem to be the only one making a fuss about it.

I dont think he will continue in this vein.

 

[BoatingLifeUpNorth2]

30 minutes ago, LadyG said:

Ive put him on ignore. As a newby he is making unpleasant posts on a family friendly type forum, maybe this is how he behaves in public, but i doubt it.

Hopefully we’ll get some kids and teenagers on here, as people think the forum is full of mostly miserable old gits. (Hope I don’t get reported to the mods for inappropriate language) 😂

Edited March 29 by BoatingLifeUpNorth2

[ditchcrawler]

52 minutes ago, LadyG said:

I dont think he will continue in this vein.

 

You wont know, he's another on your "list"

[cuthound]

2 hours ago, Stroudwater1 said:

Does it really matter how much whose boat cost anyway? It will have supported a good few builders and suppliers if new after all, and some boat brokers surveyors etc  if second hand. 

 

Very true and irrespective of price, builder etc they all float on the same water and offer the same views.

[Arthur Marshall]

2 hours ago, BoatingLifeUpNorth2 said:

I was on about the tech, paintwork. the extra’s. They all seem to want a little bit more it seems.

I think you've been boating a while. Certainly when I started none of this stuff was about - hitech was a windmill thing to top up your battery. My boat's still as it was then, all 12v and a single leisure battery. But people expect to pay more now, and they want most of the stuff they have at home. But while it still seems odd to me that people will pay more for a boat than they might for a house, I don't begrudge it. Some people worked hard to earn the right to buy prettier toys than others. There's folk on here who have put their boat in for a professional repaint, which would probably cost more than I'd get for mine if I sold it. I resent paying eighty quid for a pot of Dulux, but if it makes them happy, fine. Times have changed.

[Mike Coombes]

25 minutes ago, Arthur Marshall said:

I think you've been boating a while. Certainly when I started none of this stuff was about - hitech was a windmill thing to top up your battery. My boat's still as it was then, all 12v and a single leisure battery. But people expect to pay more now, and they want most of the stuff they have at home. But while it still seems odd to me that people will pay more for a boat than they might for a house, I don't begrudge it. Some people worked hard to earn the right to buy prettier toys than others. There's folk on here who have put their boat in for a professional repaint, which would probably cost more than I'd get for mine if I sold it. I resent paying eighty quid for a pot of Dulux, but if it makes them happy, fine. Times have changed.

 

Absolutely - our first 'proper' narrowboat was a poor thing by todays standards, not much above camping on water when we bought it for £1500 in 1977. No water tank, fuel tank-only five litres - integral with the single cylinder Yanmar engine which had only a dynostart. We improved battery life by using flourecent tube lighting, no led's then! Start each morning was by hand cranking, again to extend battery life. "Bucket and Chuck It" proper tin Elan loo. 

 

It was improved over the time we had it, lockers on the cruiser stern which doubled as seating, Stainless Steel 150 litre fuel tank, balanced by a 200 litre Stainless Steel water tank. We were young, knew the right people for top quality work at 'mates rates' - the tanks were made by the bloke who made the works Lola race cars chassis for Eric Broadly.

 

Those days are long gone, now we buy something that has what we need. We made two columns, 'must have' and 'nice to have'.

 

The Duchess filled most of the must haves and many of the nice to haves.

 

The 55K it cost was, IMHO, what it was worth.

 

I shall endevour to do most maintenance myself, not to save money, but to ensure it is done right. I can coach paint and although it would require a lot of work, should it be required, I would do it.

[Stroudwater1]

2 hours ago, BoatingLifeUpNorth2 said:

You’ll be surprised at the cost of a new boat and like yourself a lot of boaters don’t realise, especially when they start adding the extras they fancy.

I think you could be wrong, it’s surprising that Aintree boats seem to be advertising a new 70 footer fitted out for under £80k.   I would have put their boats in the region that @ditchcrawler put them £150k.

http://www.aintreeboats.co.uk/prices/

 

Then there’s alleged new ones at Tingdene for £150k.

 

https://tingdeneboating.com/boats-for-sale/narrowboats/
 

More upper end, Braidbar Finesse Oakhams  (maybe!) and the like £3-350k 

 

Bit like a basic small Smart car up to an Aston Martin SUV the price will vary according to quality with iterations, and of course as you say all the optional extras, on boats and cars… 
 

 

[Arthur Marshall]

Actually, to get back to the original question, the answer is yes. It's always the right time to buy a boat (if you haven't got one already).

Then it's just down to how much you want to pay... But that's an entirely different question.

[BoatingLifeUpNorth2]

51 minutes ago, Stroudwater1 said:

I think you could be wrong, it’s surprising that Aintree boats seem to be advertising a new 70 footer fitted out for under £80k.   I would have put their boats in the region that @ditchcrawler put them £150k.

http://www.aintreeboats.co.uk/prices/

 

Then there’s alleged new ones at Tingdene for £150k.

 

https://tingdeneboating.com/boats-for-sale/narrowboats/
 

More upper end, Braidbar Finesse Oakhams  (maybe!) and the like £3-350k 

 

Bit like a basic small Smart car up to an Aston Martin SUV the price will vary according to quality with iterations, and of course as you say all the optional extras, on boats and cars… 
 

 

Just shows how wrong you could be when you are classing Oakhams with the likes of Finesse and Braidbar. Oakhams and Bickerstaffe sold a lot of boats on the backs of a couple of YouTubers, they obviously fooled a lot with their quality. So much so the Oakhams boat YouTubers publicly distanced themselves from them. The Bickerstaffe YouTubers gave up boating a few weeks after Bickerstaffe boats were sold, maybe they never actually owned their boat?

 I’m sure if you Google Oakhams you’ll see less than positive reviews.

[Stroudwater1]

Just now, BoatingLifeUpNorth2 said:

Just shows how wrong you could be when you are classing Oakhams with the likes of Finesse and Braidbar. Oakhams and Bickerstaffe sold a lot of boats on the backs of a couple of YouTubers, they obviously fooled a lot with their quality. So much so the Oakhams boat YouTubers publicly distanced themselves from them. The Bickerstaffe YouTubers gave up boating a few weeks after Bickerstaffe boats were sold, maybe they never actually owned their boat?

 I’m sure if you Google Oakhams you’ll see less than positive reviews.

Indeed anyone with any awareness knows that. Which is why, after them I placed a (maybe!) They are probably as expensive as Finesse and Braidbar. Which is why I also later added on cars quality with iterations. So although Range Rovers are high end quality priced cars they suffer (allegedly) significant build quality issues.

 

Theres much on here about O hams, quite often under IanDs posting which of course you probably don’t bother to read but he does know his stuff. Similarly stuff often on here  re Foxes afloat/  Bickerstaff which is why I didn’t bother to mention them. 
 

The point really is that all three builders I mentioned are well into hybrid/ electric boats which are selling new at a premium at your correct £300k + estimations. However not ALL new boats are selling for that sort of price, and we are agreed not ALL £300k boats are worth it.
 

back to the OP and I think they mentioned a buyers market. It is a good time to buy a decent second hand boat at a decent price. …. 
 

 

[BoatingLifeUpNorth2]

2 hours ago, Stroudwater1 said:

Indeed anyone with any awareness knows that. Which is why, after them I placed a (maybe!) They are probably as expensive as Finesse and Braidbar. Which is why I also later added on cars quality with iterations. So although Range Rovers are high end quality priced cars they suffer (allegedly) significant build quality issues.

 

Theres much on here about O hams, quite often under IanDs posting which of course you probably don’t bother to read but he does know his stuff. Similarly stuff often on here  re Foxes afloat/  Bickerstaff which is why I didn’t bother to mention them. 
 

The point really is that all three builders I mentioned are well into hybrid/ electric boats which are selling new at a premium at your correct £300k + estimations. However not ALL new boats are selling for that sort of price, and we are agreed not ALL £300k boats are worth it.
 

back to the OP and I think they mentioned a buyers market. It is a good time to buy a decent second hand boat at a decent price. …. 
 

 

I think you need to check your Aintree prices, the price you mentioned £80K is for a sailaway, fully fitted 70ft’s start at £145, this will be basic, like cars the more you want the more the price goes up. 
 Oakhams boats used to use Chinese shells, two half’s welded together, large skylights to get the assembled flatpack cupboards in. Now they use a decent builders shells, so maybe they’re learning from previous customer feedback and court cases against them. There’s no prices on their site, but I definitely don’t think they’ll be near the £300K mark, maybe the fancy apple green lustre or candy red glitter paint jobs will fool new buyers into buying. A bit like Bickerstaff with their quirky canopy windows and custom paint.

 As I said not in the Finesse or Braidbar league. You get what you pay for and yes even the high end builders boats have fettling problems. 
 It will be interesting to what price the YouTubers, who distanced themselves from Oakhams boat goes on the market for. Will it be the new “most famous boat on the canal”??

Edited March 29 by BoatingLifeUpNorth2

[ditchcrawler]

18 minutes ago, BoatingLifeUpNorth2 said:

 It will be interesting to what price the YouTubers, who distanced themselves from Oakhams boat goes on the market for. Will it be the new “most famous boat on the canal”??

Here is a 3 year old one   

 Oakums Narrowboats boats for sale UK, used Oakums Narrowboats boats, new Oakums Narrowboats boat sales, free photo ads - Apollo Duck

[blackrose]

15 hours ago, Tam & Di said:

I get a feeling that the OP has a "Yes, but" attitude, and whatever advice he gets to go ahead and buy he will come up with the "... but" which argues against it. Even though his wife wants him to go ahead and buy he seems to be looking for a way out of actually doing so.

 

I don't think the OP's attitude is very different from any of us. Have you noticed that when it comes to personal matters, most people don't usually follow the advice of others? They ask for advice and then they do their own thing, often completely ignoring all the advice.

 

For those offering what seems like sensible advice this may feel frustrating, but only that person knows how they feel, and often what people are doing when they ask for advice is asking themselves what they should do. Others are simply a sounding board enabling that person to distil their own thoughts and hear themselves more clearly. 

Edited March 30 by blackrose