Buying a GRP cruiser for liveaboard

[jugular]

Hi,

 

So I'm considering buying a cheap grp cruiser to liveaboard. I have a lot of questions and a lot of research to do but I will start with just one:

 

I have a preference for a narrowbeam cruiser so that I'm free to travel across the country in my boat, I especially like the idea of going up to Birmingham for curry. I don't drive so it would be a big asset to me to have a boat that is also one of my main modes of transport.

Anyway, as I peruse ebay all misty-eyed, it's becoming apparent to me that the boats that look feasable as a liveaboard (they have showers) are also wide beams.

 

Should I give up on this idea of getting a narrow beam cruiser if I want to practically live on it?

Or should I get used to washing in a sink?

Or are there in fact plenty of examples of narrow beam cruisers with showers?

 

___________

Context: I am a poor boy with fairly humble needs for living, so I'm looking for a boat I can get for <£10, 000 under 30'. I intend to (genuinely) continuously cruise around the London loop.

[Phil Ambrose]

I make no comment or judgement on your proposed choice of cruising pattern. That said, you should have a look at the website of Apolloduck, plenty of choice on there. You will find a 30ish footer with a shower that I'm sure of, eBay is not the best place to find a boat.

Phil

Edited May 3, 2015 by Phil Ambrose

[W+T]

Hi jugular, theer are not many GRP at the 30 foot plus length, but the ones you could search for are Dawncraft Rover, Creighton 32, these do and can have showers. Well any boat can have what ever you need if you are prepared to fit it. Ebay can be good just dont go mad with an offer or bid. soemthing will show up sooner or later.

Still make sure you a get atleast a hull survey done and expect to pay a good £10k plus for a good one.

 

good luck and wish i could only do this myself someday.

 

wayne

[Naughty Cal]

10k should get you a nice boat. A lot of older cruisers don't have showers, not sure why but that's just how it was. Depending on the boat, you can retrofit one fairly easily.

 

Your real limiting factor will most likely be that you want a true narrow beam hull. There are a lot of cruisers of that length that are over 7ft beam.

[Graham Davis]

There's a GRP cruiser advertised in the For Sale section here

[Laurie Booth]

I especially like the idea of going up to Birmingham for curry.

 

 

You need to go North of Birmingham to get a good curry, Tipton for example.

[MarkHez]

I live on a creighton 27, fitted a shower (and a woodburner to heat the water!) and it's fine as a sole liveaboard, though I often wish I had a steel narrowboat. My main issue is headroom (about 5'9" - im 6'1"!).

[jugular]

Thanks for the replies.

I feel like it seems that there are enough narrow beam cruisers out there with showers that I shouldn't have to choose between the two.

The boat I keep seeing that seems perfect for me is the Nauticus 27. It looks pretty, has a narrow beam, usually has a shower and lots of space, and the prices I see are between £5000 and £9900. Oh and it's pretty.

They're usually quite old though, from the 70s. I read somewhere on this forum that you shouldn't let the age put you off as the hulls were built particularly sturdy. Would it be a massive risk to buy such an old boat? The engines are usually inboard, does that present a money-pit? Would it be freezing cold in the winter? Is it possible to get a double-skinned boat at the size and price I'd be looking for? Or should I accept the cold and stick carpet on the walls?

 

In terms of price and "niceness", the only thing I'm looking for really is reliability, and having everything in the cabin basically there. I know that whatever boat I buy will be a project in some way, for example I'll have to fit solar panels... so I don't want to give myself too much work upon buying the boat. Scruffyness is no bother to me, and I'm only 5'4" and my friends and lovers are mostly, conveniently, short.

 

The cheaper it is also lessens the financial risk of course, as I'll be tied to the debt for a shorter length of time, so I'm just trying to work out where the balance lies between not taking on too much debt and not buying something that will sink in 2 years.

[Phil Ambrose]

Old is good, boats built of GRP in the 70's were normally built like tanks as it was a fairly new material in terms of boat building, "How thick shall we make it? 1/2" nah lets go 3/4" to be on the safe side"

You will not freeze in the winter if you are sensible. We lived on a 40 x 12 GRP Broads cruiser for 10 years so do have some experience.

Depending on the boat you may find a degree of double skin already exists in the form of internal panels over the hull but not normally on the cabin sides, carpet is the norm. The roof of the boat should have a roof lining ( our boat did have double skin roof plus a head lining)

A small S/F fire will keep you snug ir maybe a diesel fired stove.

With a bit of lateral thinking you will be OK.

Phil

[jugular]

Great!

 

I stayed on one of those selby barge(?) permanent moorings on the Thames for a couple of weeks in the winter. It was only insulated by the gardens on the roof and ply panels on the interior. It was bloody freezing. But you get used to it and I reckon this will be warmer.

 

Hey sorry I did google but to no avail... what is an "S/F fire" ?

[Alan de Enfield]

Solid Fuel

 

Logs, coal etc

[jugular]

ah! Thanks.

[jugular]

So it looks like the main job at hand upon buying a grp cruiser would be to install a heating system making it tolerable in winter?

 

Either a sold fuel stove or diesel, either one would require the installation of a chimney?

[Naughty Cal]

So it looks like the main job at hand upon buying a grp cruiser would be to install a heating system making it tolerable in winter?

 

Either a sold fuel stove or diesel, either one would require the installation of a chimney?

We have blown air diesel heating on our cruiser. Keeps the boat toasty warm in the depths of winter.

 

You need electric to run the fans and pump though so it does rely on you having plenty of charge in the batteries and then putting it back. Draws about 4 amp.

 

No chimney required just a stainless exhaust skin fitting in the side of the boat.

 

Worth fitting a silencer as they make a big difference to the exhaust noise, ours is bearly audible.

[Jim Riley]

Highbridge 27 or 32,a later version of Dawncraft. Fit a woodstove, with an ecofan that will warm the whole boat nicely. Something to consider is the engine, not much 12v output from an outboard motor, better with inboard and an alternator. I had a Dawncraft 22 with small pot belly stove, hankered after a Highbridge 32 for years but ageing hips make one hard to get on and off, so now got a cheap 32 ft steel nb project. Have fun.

 

Autospell edit.

Edited May 6, 2015 by Jim Riley

[W+T]

Hi Jim, hows things, where abouts are you nowadays, DCO went down didnt it, shame as i am getting another boat AGAIN lol.

Edited May 6, 2015 by W+T

[Arthur Brown]

Biggest thing I'd look for in a GRP cruiser is an inboard, water-cooled diesel engine, could be small, but petrol makes fuel and safety and BSS difficult and an outboard makes neither hot water not (much) electricity.

 

Solar is good but GRP always made complex curves easy which then makes fitting flat panels hard -or you need small expensive ones. I'd always fit a 1 - 10 watt panel dedicated to the starter battery -half of a boar's problems go away when the engine starts.

[nebulae]

The Nauticus is a nice boat.If you are going to cruise a lot, go for diesel engine. Quite a lot of cheap steel boats around for £10,000.,if you are prepared to do some work on it.

[Naughty Cal]

The Nauticus is a nice boat.If you are going to cruise a lot, go for diesel engine. Quite a lot of cheap steel boats around for £10,000.,if you are prepared to do some work on it.

You pays your money and takes your choice but I would rather have a nice £10k GRP cruiser which is ready to go over a cheap £10k steel boat that requires a lot of work.

 

£10k is a good budget to buy a nice cruiser.

 

There would however be more choice if the OP didnt require a narrowbeam boat as a lot of the cruiser are over 7ft wide.

[jugular]

Really appreciate all the replies to this. Feel much more like I have an idea of what I'm looking for now.

 

Okay, so an inboard motor it is... on the issue of fuel, I've read on here before that the preference is for diesel for availability and economy... but a lot of the boats I've been looking at which are otherwise perfect have petrol engines.

 

How much of a pain in the arse is a petrol engine to a continuous cruiser?

[GoodGurl]

Really appreciate all the replies to this. Feel much more like I have an idea of what I'm looking for now.

 

Okay, so an inboard motor it is... on the issue of fuel, I've read on here before that the preference is for diesel for availability and economy... but a lot of the boats I've been looking at which are otherwise perfect have petrol engines.

 

How much of a pain in the arse is a petrol engine to a continuous cruiser?

That depends how far you have to walk to the garage and back with jerry cans, we had a 30ft dawncraft for 15 years and it was a pain in the arse being petrol, Diesel is alot cheaper and more accessible from marinas and at around 65p a litre it's a no brainer.

[Naughty Cal]

Really appreciate all the replies to this. Feel much more like I have an idea of what I'm looking for now.

 

Okay, so an inboard motor it is... on the issue of fuel, I've read on here before that the preference is for diesel for availability and economy... but a lot of the boats I've been looking at which are otherwise perfect have petrol engines.

 

How much of a pain in the arse is a petrol engine to a continuous cruiser?

Depending on where you cruise you might struggle to find petrol waterside. Where we cruise there are really only a few marinas that sell it and this is in an area with a lot of big gas guzzling petrol boats. If you do find it expect to pay through the nose, current price at Burton Waters is £1.50 per litre, their diesel on the other hand is £0.75 per litre.

 

Expect to be filling up from jerry cans and walking to petrol stations to get your fuel if you go down the petrol route.

 

For us it was never really an option, we had to have diesel. We were offered a boat the same as ours with a petrol engine for £10k less then we bought our diesel variant. The same boat today is for sale for a song. It just isnt as desirable as the diesel boats.

 

You pay your money and take your choice but just remember that for any given boat it is almost always more desirable in the diesel option. At some point you will want to sell the boat.

[Alan de Enfield]

There is a Diesel engine GRP cruiser (not narrowbeam) for sale in our Marina - it has been a liveaboard (for a couple) for 10-15 years. A couple of years ago the owner had a stroke and the hospital / social services were not happy about letting him back on the boat, (even after a 'reasonable' recovery and fair mobility). The local council re-homed them in a bungalow.

 

They kept the boat planning to use it for weekends and the odd holiday but after 2 years it has not been used and they have reached the conclusion 'its not going to happen'.

 

Has had an offer of £4000, is wanting £8,000 - maybe there is room to meet in the middle ?

 

It is 'rough' looking and is now starting to go 'green' with mould / lichen (whatever) growing on it.

 

Would cost about £1000 to get it trucked down to London area.

[magictime]

Our old 23ft narrowboat had a petrol outboard and 13 litre tank, and we used to cruise hundreds of miles every year around the northern waterways with that set-up. So it's certainly doable. We used to get on Google Maps before a trip, find the locations of handy petrol stations (marinas/boatyards never seem to sell petrol), and mark them in our Nicholson's Guides. More often than not they'd be the petrol stations at supermarkets we'd have been visiting anyway.

 

We usually did long days (10 hours plus) when we were off cruising, and basically counted on having to fill our two 5 litre jerry cans once a day. So there's no denying it's an inconvenience if you're cruising solidly in that way. But depending on your cruising pattern, you might find it's not an issue at all. You could last for months on a full tank and two full jerry cans if you were only moving a few miles every week or two (assuming you weren't running the engine just to generate electricity, of course).

[Naughty Cal]

A few examples for sale at the moment of decent diesel cruisers under £10k.

 

http://bwml.co.uk/brokerage/sm-9219-nene-naiad/

 

http://bwml.co.uk/brokerage/pm_kingfisher/

 

http://bwml.co.uk/brokerage/sm_9123_serendipity_2/