Buying a boat for dummies

[Dave_P]

My advice is completely different from the above.

 

Learning enough to buy the 'right' boat first attempt is SUCH a complex task that I think no matter how much research you carry out, you are doomed to failure. Just as picture paints a thousand words, owning a narrowboat, ANY narrowboat, will teach you a million things you won't realise you wanted to know until you actually own and use a boat.

 

So my advice is find a boat you that you fall in love with but is cheap enough not to be a financial disaster when you come to sell it on. The first boat you buy will never be right. You second will be a close approximation, but come your third attempt you'll have a sporting chance of buying exaclty what you really want.

 

Hope that helps.

 

MtB

 

I'm still living on the first boat I ever bought. I love it. It's perfect. I've never seen another I'd sooner have for less than twice the price I paid. I did a LOT of research before buying.

 

I'm still living on the first boat I ever bought. I love it. It's perfect. I've never seen another I'd sooner have for less than twice the price I paid. I did a LOT of research before buying.

 

Oh, and wading into the old, old toilet debate... with much trepidation... it seems to me that if you can happily afford the charges, and moor close by to a place where you can be pumped out, and never (or hardly ever) cruise anywhere, then maybe, just maybe a pump-out would be ok. For every other scenario, you'd have to be stark raving mad to have a pump-out, in my humble opinion. There have been a few occasions where I simply would have been up the proverbial creek if I had a pump-out.

 

My posts on this subject are always tongue in cheek as I firmly believe that really it is for each person to make there own choice given their individual circumstances and preferences.

 

But in your scenario of frozen canals it really depends on capacity - a large PO tank will likely see you through a canal freeze but if it doesn't you won't be able to move the boat to empty the PO either....you may however be able to chuck the cassettes in the car and take them to get emptied.

 

This of course only works if you get frozen in near your car.

 

Exactly! The cassette in car option is annoying but much better than the pump-out situation. Yes a big tank should see you through but consider November 2010. What first appeared to be an early cold snap turned into one of the coldest winters in a long time. Where I was moored you couldn't move your boat more than a few feet until early February due to ice. In this case the cassette in car or cassette on wheely trolley option is there. But what of cc'ers who had let their pump-outs tanks get rather full earlier in November, not expecting the big freeze that followed, and more than a few feet away from a pump-out?

[muddywaters]

Well thanks for all the reply's a lot of which have given me food for thought and a lot have confirmed that a lot of what I thought to be correct.

Think the main issue's for me will be size of boat and moorings.

As I live in the north and need to be close to Liverpool size might or might not become an issue, as I will be planning on doing some cruising as well.

[dmr]

You can of course take a 70 footer right into Liverpool, don't let anyone, including the good people at CaRT, tell you otherwise!

And if you fancy a cruise you can go all the way down to Bristol (as long as you don't get one of those fat things).

 

............Dave

[Nev]

My advice is completely different from the above.

 

Learning enough to buy the 'right' boat first attempt is SUCH a complex task that I think no matter how much research you carry out, you are doomed to failure. Just as picture paints a thousand words, owning a narrowboat, ANY narrowboat, will teach you a million things you won't realise you wanted to know until you actually own and use a boat.

 

So my advice is find a boat you that you fall in love with but is cheap enough not to be a financial disaster when you come to sell it on. The first boat you buy will never be right. You second will be a close approximation, but come your third attempt you'll have a sporting chance of buying exaclty what you really want.

 

Hope that helps.

 

MtB

We are on our third....and got a keeper now. One thing I would agree with that has been posted above is consider some of those aspects that are not quite right can be changed at a later date (when you really know what you want and have the money) Some things... stern type length, builder...are not economically viable to change IMHO... whatever you do enjoy the process.

 

Nev NB Percy