Advice much appreciated!

[widebeamboy]

 

Even more expensive (and no engine!)

 

http://www.fineandcountry.com/international-template/property-for-sale/details/e16/50058515

 

Tim

It does have an engine (and quite a sizeable one as well), I went to view it the other weekend as currently moored in Limehouse on the visitor pontoons. Nicely finished as youd expect from a German built item however quite soulless and really just an apartment on a platform on the water.

[widebeamboy]

 

 

Maybe there are differences depending on where advertised - your £1000 + VAT per month is £14,400 per annum

 

ON BWML LImehouse website it shows the per annum rate for Fully Residential moorings as :

 

up to 13 Metres £7078

13-18 Metres £8709

18 Metres + £9804

 

Notes

* Up to a maximum length of 18m. Boats of more than 18m will be charged a per metre rate. Please contact us for more details.

All Prices Inclusive of VAT at 20.0%

— For Hardstanding rates please contact your local marina office

— Widebeam surcharge may apply for craft over 3 metres beam inland and 4.5 metres beam coastal. Please contact individual marina for confirmation of prices.

 

 

yeh was thinking of max length coming in at 70' which of course this one isn't.

[hopefulboaterlndn]

On balance I think we will look to get a survey, I don't think we're experienced enough or brave enough to risk it! Once again thank you so much everyone for your invaluable advice!

[Lizzy]

By the way it is not impossible to find a residential mooring around Greater London. For example Packet Boat offered me one last year without problems. It's a bit further out than Brentford, but well connected by train. Prices much lower than Central London as well obviously. Limehouse quoted about £1200 per month for my 60ft narrowboat a few weeks ago. I just asked out of curiosity. It's silly prices and they have a long waiting list anyway.

[Murflynn]

If I had a spare 85k knocking about, I would probably have gone down there yesterday and bought it on the spot if the boxes were all ticked.

 

Get in quick with this one but check;

 

mooring status and transferability

mooring costs

pick through the boat inside and out with a fine tooth comb - condition of hull and blacking as far as you can see, any evidence of damp inside, quality and type of insulation, condition of engine and bilges, service history.

check every appliance and gizmo to make sure it all works. Furnishings/fixtures & fittings are less important, most newbies get this the wrong way round.

 

If it all looks fine, take a very deep breath, give the seller a holding deposit and head to the nearest pub.

 

p.s. start with an offer of 75k, might as well ;-)

I tend to agree.

 

I would check with other residents and establish if they consider their tenancies (moorings) are reasonably secure.

 

Property prices and rentals in London are what they are, and anyone planning on living on a boat in/near London will take that into account.

 

For comparison, my daughter just sold her 2 bed terraced house near the Harrow Road in Kensal Green area for £915K. Assuming a return of 6% the rent would have been about £4000/month.

 

If I needed to live in West London, securing the mooring alone would be worth a king's ransom and the boat (which appears to be in good condition) would be a bonus. And i would rather live in a boat in a secure marina in Brentford than in a 2 bed terrace in Kensal Green.

Edited November 30, 2016 by Murflynn

[Nightwatch]

Talk to the owner. Say you prefer a survey before commitment. Judge their reaction. If you feel a survey is for you, then get a survey.

 

May I suggest just a hull survey. Try all the appliances on board, pumps,toilet seals,lights,check batteries and so on, not too difficult to see if they work or not.

 

I don't know where docking is available, but if it means a cruise ask if you can accompany the boat. You will learn a great deal.

 

Enjoy the experience. Make an offer,subject to survey result. Be cheeky, don't lose it though by being too cheeky.

 

The owner may well need to sell the boat, you just want to buy a boat.

 

Martyn

[MtB]

Talk to the owner. Say you prefer a survey before commitment. Judge their reaction. If you feel a survey is for you, then get a survey.

 

May I suggest just a hull survey. Try all the appliances on board, pumps,toilet seals,lights,check batteries and so on, not too difficult to see if they work or not.

 

I don't know where docking is available, but if it means a cruise ask if you can accompany the boat. You will learn a great deal.

 

Enjoy the experience. Make an offer,subject to survey result. Be cheeky, don't lose it though by being too cheeky.

 

The owner may well need to sell the boat, you just want to buy a boat.

 

Martyn

 

 

Very true, and finding out for sure is usually quite easy. Ask them!

 

A direct question such as "why are you selling?", will often be answered truthfully.

[hopefulboaterlndn]

Sorry for the silence over the past few days! We have had an offer subject to survey accepted (exciting!). I'm just trying to organise the survey and if we go ahead blacking too. I've had a quote from one place (the only one that has a space in the next 6 weeks) but it is coming up to nearly £6000 for docking, jet washing, and painting with bitumen. We would then have to pay the surveyor on top of this. Am I going mad? This seems very expense and is not what I was expecting

[Jak]

You need another quote. Don't pay anyone 6K to lift and black the boat! You may also find problems. Remember whilst it's out of water and subject to survey it's not your boat yet.

[hopefulboaterlndn]

Yes I need to hunt around I think! I rang bulls bridge and they said they might be able to squeeze us in for a survey but not blacking it. This isn't ideal as I'd hoped we could complete the sale whilst the boat is docked and then pay them to black the boat but if the other quote is £6000 then it seems I wouldn't be saving money anyway. I think my only other option would be to do survey at bulls bridge and then get a quote from someone else to black it in about 6 months

[Victor Vectis]

<snip> .....but it is coming up to nearly £6000 for docking, jet washing, and painting with bitumen. <snip>

I've recently paid just over a tenth of this for a 51' boat. Midlands though, not in that there London.

[Alan de Enfield]

£6k is too much - but bear in mind that you will be taking up a dry-dock (assuming it is a dry dock) for about 7 days.

This is not an ideal time for blacking as the cold damp air means that the blacking will not 'stick'.

Many reputable firms will not undertake blacking before about April (even May) unless they have a heated indoor dry-dock.

 

If you 'do it now' you may well need to do it again next year.

 

Have your survey and drop it back in the water - next summer take it for blacking - but - book your 'slot' now so you know its there for you.

Waiting 6 months is going to have little to no effect on the state of the Hull.

 

Edit for 'preducitff' text.

Edited December 7, 2016 by Alan de Enfield

[hopefulboaterlndn]

thank you very much this is very helpful! also reassuring that i'm not massively out of touch with the cost of things!

[Northernboater]

I just can't believe some of the prices mentioned in this Thread. I can see why more people are coming to the Northern network, buying boats, having the hull work/blackening done and transporting them to the South.

Just seams a no-brainer to buy up North and save a lot of money even with the transportation costs.

[hopefulboaterlndn]

I just can't believe some of the prices mentioned in this Thread. I can see why more people are coming to the Northern network, buying boats, having the hull work/blackening done and transporting them to the South.

Just seams a no-brainer to buy up North and save a lot of money even with the transportation costs.

 

It is getting very hard to swallow that is for sure! I love London but living here is like robbed on a monthly basis

[Peter X]

To save the OP the cost of transporting her boat twice to get it blacked up north, it might be helpful to her if someone can suggest a good place on the southern wide waters to get it done in spring/summer, and give an idea of the likely price? My (not very educated) guess would be around £2000.

 

I'm guessing the best value for money would be well away from London, and the Thames in general? Maybe the OP fancies taking her boat for a nice trip up the GU or the K&A, then another trip back a week or two later?

[hopefulboaterlndn]

To save the OP the cost of transporting her boat twice to get it blacked up north, it might be helpful to her if someone can suggest a good place on the southern wide waters to get it done in spring/summer, and give an idea of the likely price? My (not very educated) guess would be around £2000.

 

I'm guessing the best value for money would be well away from London, and the Thames in general? Maybe the OP fancies taking her boat for a nice trip up the GU or the K&A, then another trip back a week or two later?

 

Nice excuse for a summer holiday cruise!

[BEngo]

To save the OP the cost of transporting her boat twice to get it blacked up north, it might be helpful to her if someone can suggest a good place on the southern wide watters to get it done in spring/summer, and give an idea of the likely price? My (not very educated) guess would be around £2000.

 

I'm guessing the best value for money would be well away from London, and the Thames in general? Maybe the OP fancies taking her boat for a nice trip up the GU or the K&A, then another trip back a week or two later?

I would suggest P&S at Watford. Not too far, nice big crane and on-site blasting if you wanted to 2 pack epoxy it so as not to have any blacking worries for at least 5 years.

There are also boat yards at Winkwell and Bulbourne that could handle a widebeam. Not sure about Uxbridge or Iver or Harefield.

 

N

[Northernboater]

 

It is getting very hard to swallow that is for sure! I love London but living here is like robbed on a monthly basis

For a tiny bit extra you could of got this boat from Sheffield

.

http://narrowboats.apolloduck.co.uk/feature.phtml?id=438102

 

A similar boat from the same shell builder is being touted around London with the owner telling everybody he paid £300,000 for which in fact he paid aprox £150,000

 

Is this the start of the rise of boat prices to silly prices due to the demand of people in the London area wanting cheaper accommodation?

[Peter X]

For a tiny bit extra you could of got this boat from Sheffield

.

http://narrowboats.apolloduck.co.uk/feature.phtml?id=438102

 

A similar boat from the same shell builder is being touted around London with the owner telling everybody he paid £300,000 for which in fact he paid aprox £150,000

 

Is this the start of the rise of boat prices to silly prices due to the demand of people in the London area wanting cheaper accommodation?

That boat would fit in even further south, as to me the green and yellow colour scheme says Southdown buses, as seen widely in Sussex:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southdown_Motor_Services

 

As to the question, on the whole the answer is no unless the buyers are daft enough not to do a little research, because a buyer doesn't need too many brain cells to see that if similar wide beams are available in the north and south, you just weigh up the cost and trouble of transporting the northern one against its cheaper price. So if the difference is more than a few thousand, get on the phone to Tuckey's. In theory the man selling the overpriced boat should not find a buyer.

 

Of course if enough boats (wide or narrow) get bought in the north and moved south, the economics of supply and demand would push prices up all over England, Wales and even beyond, but that effect in turn should be reduced because boat builders see the opportunity presented by greater demand and increase their production. In practice it takes time for these market forces to work, because once any existing slack in production is taken up any further demand can only be met by investment in boatyard capacity and staff training.

 

In conclusion, I get the impression that boat prices are rising gradually and this trend will continue, demand in London being one factor behind it. But they won't go wild like London property prices have, because boats can be moved. Mooring prices in London, on the other hand, could in theory go wild.

[Naughty Cal]

For a tiny bit extra you could of got this boat from Sheffield

.

http://narrowboats.apolloduck.co.uk/feature.phtml?id=438102

 

A similar boat from the same shell builder is being touted around London with the owner telling everybody he paid £300,000 for which in fact he paid aprox £150,000

 

Is this the start of the rise of boat prices to silly prices due to the demand of people in the London area wanting cheaper accommodation?

Nice boat that. Shame about the exterior colour scheme though.

[matty40s]

Nice boat that. Shame about the exterior colour scheme though.

Nice boat???

If you like your boat designed by the same designer as kiddies bath toys yes....

[Northernboater]

Nice boat???

If you like your boat designed by the same designer as kiddies bath toys yes....

Very nice when you compare it with what the the OP is looking to buy at roughly the same price and it's not even that wide at 10ft. Despite the colour the one from the North wins hands down especially at 60ft x 12ft looks a great bargain for whoever's bought it. Edited December 8, 2016 by Northernboater

[bargemast]

I would suggest P&S at Watford. Not too far, nice big crane and on-site blasting if you wanted to 2 pack epoxy it so as not to have any blacking worries for at least 5 years.

There are also boat yards at Winkwell and Bulbourne that could handle a widebeam. Not sure about Uxbridge or Iver or Harefield.

 

N

The drydock at Uxbridge can handle widebeams.

 

Peter.

[Lizzy]

The drydock at Uxbridge can handle widebeams.

 

Peter.

 

I was in the dry dock in Uxbridge Boat Centre recently. We were two narrowboats side by side, one really wide widebeam taking up the whole dock could be quite a lot more expensive (Though it may actually fit two widebeams side by side I'm not sure).

 

I had had a quote from Bulls Bridge before as well, but that was a lot more expensive. I can really recommend Uxbridge.