Just brought a widebeam riveted house boat advise needed..

[steamcompound]

It was not uncommon for new steel and iron (wrought) boats to have concrete poured early after building especially beneath boiler spaces and in the space above the keel at the stern and I know from personal experience how hard it can be to remove. However rusting can take place underneath the concrete. You may find plates can be doubled but that will depend on the surveyor and welder. Hopefully you won't too much that requires doing, we had 25 ft out of 110ft.

[Davestampy1]

Thanks for a good answer so did you need to remove the contrete to get the work done? Im moored at a boat yard and the guy said he can take it out get it surveyed and do the work proir to buying the boat.

[MissMax]

I don't suppose you have any side pictures of the boat (which is a beautiful blue colour)

[MtB]

Yes as requested by Maxy above, a proper side-on photo showing the hull would be most helpful.

 

From what we've seen so far it looks to me like a modern welded steel boat from the 1970s.

 

Regarding the 'concrete' ballast, I have on at least two occasions encountered boaters who believed they had poured concrete ballast which on proper inspection turned out to be large paving slabs. Are you SURE your ballast is poured and not slabs?

[The Bagdad Boatman (waits)]

Looks like an old mud hopper. There is a similar one at Sowerby Bridge. The concrete forms a waterproof skin and the water you see is probably condensation. This boat was bought in about 1990 down the Witham we put a 2cyd Petter in the original converter had a Kelvin but that was long gone.

Edited August 21, 2016 by The Bagdad Boatman (waits)

[alan_fincher]

From what we've seen so far it looks to me like a modern welded steel boat from the 1970s/

Presumably the OP can see enough to know whether it is of riveted or welded construction.

 

But I agree the photos so far posted are hard to pick out much detail on.

 

Looks like an old mud hopper. There is a similar one at Sowerby Bridge. The concrete forms a waterproof skin and the water you see is probably condensation.

Why on earth would you deliberately line a mud hopper with concrete, unless it was as a crude "anti-sinking" measure? You don't permanently ballast boats you intend to load, because every ton of ballast would be a ton less you could actually carry.

[stagedamager]

Romans had concrete - what's your point?

 

Richard

My reply was in response the post above yours. More as a guide if Mr. Stampy wanted to (or had to) remove the concrete to work out roughly how heavy the slab would be to take away!

 

Dan

[Sea Dog]

The boat yard owner... advised to get a survey done before we buy it and we done the opposite and used this against the seller to get the price down as it seems a gamble.

Before the good guys here spend too much time having to speculate, I wonder 3 things:

 

Firstly, how the seller viewed the "gamble" you thought you were taking? Did his eyes light up? Slightly tongue in cheek, but this may help indicate just how deep the stuff you're now standing in is.

 

Secondly, how you expect anyone here to give decent advice without some decent photographs?

 

Thirdly, whether you are likely to take the advice you get here - after all, you ignored the best advice you could have had, i.e. the advice of the boat yard owner who possibly knew the boat, but had at least seen it.

 

Sorry if that appears blunt, but the hole you've got yourself in means you're gonna need some hard truths if you're to get back out.

[Sir Percy]

I don't know if I've read this right, but it seems that the only basis for the rough dating of the boat is the riveting on the hull.

I've been told that false rivet heads were sometimes put on replicas to give that period look.

[steamcompound]

Looks as if it has rivets to my eyes. Perhaps it was better to use concrete to ballast the boat for initial stability which also provided an even surface on which to dump 'whatever''. Limestone lumps or similar.would make removal of 'whatever' somewhat difficult.

In answer to Davestampy1 post 27 initially over plating was done with concrete in situ whilst funds were arranged to do the whole job, then all the concrete was cut out and a proper rebuild job done with plates let in.

[Alan de Enfield]

Before the good guys here spend too much time having to speculate, I wonder 3 things:

 

Firstly, how the seller viewed the "gamble" you thought you were taking? Did his eyes light up? Slightly tongue in cheek, but this may help indicate just how deep the stuff you're now standing in is.

 

Secondly, how you expect anyone here to give decent advice without some decent photographs?

 

Thirdly, whether you are likely to take the advice you get here - after all, you ignored the best advice you could have had, i.e. the advice of the boat yard owner who possibly knew the boat, but had at least seen it.

 

Sorry if that appears blunt, but the hole you've got yourself in means you're gonna need some hard truths if you're to get back out.

 

In another question the OP has asked if it will need :

 

A safety certificate

A licence

Insurance

 

I suggested that it may have been better to identify the legal requirements before spending his hard earned cash.

 

It looks like its a case of "lets live on a boat, Oh - there is one we will have that - now what do we do".

[RLWP]

a beautiful blue

 

but it hasn't a hood*

 

Richard

 

*weird childhood poem reference

bess of cranfleet1.jpgBess of Cranfleet 2.jpgLooks like an old mud hopper. There is a similar one at Sowerby Bridge. The concrete forms a waterproof skin and the water you see is probably condensation. This boat was bought in about 1990 down the Witham we put a 2cyd Petter in the original converter had a Kelvin but that was long gone.

 

It could be the other half of that boat!

 

Richard

[Catnip King]

I'm no expert but I do know to avoid poured concrete... usually used to stop them sinking and nightmare to remove.

[The Bagdad Boatman (waits)]

A layer of concreat was probably inserted to form a floor for the conversion from mud hopper to live aboard.

[Davestampy1]

Thanks for all the good replies didnt think id get such replies. I am new to tge boating scene so please forgive any questions i have asked that are not up to your standards. The pics i posted where the only ones i had when i go today ill take some more. I would definatley say it is a mud hopper. Thanks again.

[Paul C]

He advised to get a survey done before we buy it and we done the opposite

 

I wonder if he said that because he was torn between pillar and post - on the one hand, he is a salesman, and on the other hand he is a human being with a conscience. Rather than contradict one role with another (and outright say, "you're a beginner, you don't know what you're looking at, this is an almost worthless troubled barge which someone might, just might have a use for, together with the skills and time to take on the project") he realised that this would come across poorly if his boss found out, so resorted to a generic "get a survey" advice which is pretty normal.

 

Of course, I could be completely wrong - I don't know - but neither do you until you get a survey.

 

Best of luck though.

[bottle]

Thanks for all the good replies didnt think id get such replies. I am new to tge boating scene so please forgive any questions i have asked that are not up to your standards. The pics i posted where the only ones i had when i go today ill take some more. I would definatley say it is a mud hopper. Thanks again.

 

It's not about standard of questions, it is about standards of answers.

 

Many have answered your questions and some have been a bit blunt as will be mine.

 

You have ignored good advice, the boat yard.

 

Sorry to say you have gone ass about face to this.

 

I really do want all the warnings about what you may find, a metal boat with concrete ballast that could/maybe actually a concrete bottomed boat because all the metal has rusted away.

 

Good luck and prove us wrong.

 

ps. keep asking questions, we can and do help, many new and old boaters

[Tam & Di]

Thanks for a good answer so did you need to remove the contrete to get the work done? Im moored at a boat yard and the guy said he can take it out get it surveyed and do the work proir to buying the boat.

 

I may have misunderstood, but I thought you said you'd already bought the boat (at a reduced price because you were buying it without survey)

Thanks for all the good replies didnt think id get such replies. I am new to tge boating scene so please forgive any questions i have asked that are not up to your standards. The pics i posted where the only ones i had when i go today ill take some more. I would definatley say it is a mud hopper. Thanks again.

 

I know it has been suggested that it is a mud hopper, but they are a particular form of craft - the term "hopper" means they have a double skin so they can be filled to the very top with mud and with water running off over the coamings but not sink as the air between the hopper and the actual hull gives them sufficient buoyancy. So if you don't have a double skin you don't have a hopper.

 

Tam

 

edit to note that if it did act carrying dredgings without being hoppered it would have had a very rough life, as they are usually emptied using grabs and the crane drivers are not renowned for being careful of the craft they are discharging. Their grabs will easily knock the shape out of the coamings (and worse).

Edited August 21, 2016 by Tam & Di

[Tony Brooks]

I am with Brian on this one, it has much of a Thames Conservancy work flat about it. I just hope the OP has not wasted their money in trying for a bargain.

[cereal tiller]

 

I may have misunderstood, but I thought you said you'd already bought the boat (at a reduced price because you were buying it without survey)

 

I know it has been suggested that it is a mud hopper, but they are a particular form of craft - the term "hopper" means they have a double skin so they can be filled to the very top with mud and with water running off over the coamings but not sink as the air between the hopper and the actual hull gives them sufficient buoyancy. So if you don't have a double skin you don't have a hopper.

 

Tam

Agreed,my guess it that it is a Beet Barge.

 

CT

[Davestampy1]

With regards to it being a mud hopper either end it does have large under compartments not sure of the correct terminology. Inside theae is where i can see the most rust at the bottom also both bulkheads either end on the ends look like they need welding...

[MissMax]

Have you asked how much a new bottom would cost?

 

Handsome looking dog

[Davestampy1]

Thanks. No just plating he said a few hundred per plate. Anyone have any ideas if the whols bottom needs replacing?

[Tony Brooks]

The only people who will know are the surveyor - after he has inspected it or whoever gets it out of the water to give you a quote.

[magictime]

Thanks. No just plating he said a few hundred per plate. Anyone have any ideas if the whols bottom needs replacing?

 

I'd be surprised if you could get a boat that size replated for less than £10,000, but that's no more than a hunch based on previous threads in which people have talked about the rough cost of replating much smaller narrowboats.