What would you do with a small lowish value GRP boat with a dead inboard?

[BilgePump]

Just raising the question after thoughts on other threads. It's a hypothetical one not my personal situation.

On a boat worth a few thousand (in working condition) and assuming that the problem is more than repairs of £high hundreds and beyond economically viable repair by a marine engineer, what would you do?

-Sort it out yourself. You have the skills to breathe life back into these things or to fix-up and fit a cheap replacement. 
But, if like many of us, you are not an engine whisperer, we have a number of options.....
-You're attached to that engine like a faithful pet and prepared to throw ridiculous amounts of money at the thing to get it ticking again.
-Have  a new engine installed at far greater cost than the boat will ever really be worth.
-Have a recond engine installed at probably still near the value of the boat.
-Rope is cheap, boat not heavy. Horse not needed if you tow it around yourself, although doubtful you'll be too popular with boats moored on the towpath side!
-Ignore, remove prop, stick on outboard bracket, old 10hp Yamaha and chug off.
-It's the canal not Southern Ocean. A 3hp powered dinghy could move it.
-Leave in marina for 4 years, dreaming of resurrecting the dead lump.
-Use it as a donor for prototyping your latest steampunk/perpetual motion powered design.
-Sell it and pass the question on to somoene else.

Personally, if the engine really is beyond repair then I don't think it should be the end of all hope. It's the canal, no one is battling the high seas, quite a few old boats seem to have had their inboards removed and everything sealed, if necessary the transom is adapted for an outboard and if the work's done by the owner the boat keeps moving for much less money than an inboard option. It may not be great for those who want to really cover the miles but for pottering up and down off a mooring for a few hours at a time outboards are okay. We used to go on holiday for two weeks in a Dawncraft 25 with a 15hp outboard and I don't remember it being a nightmarish hell. Google Maps these days must surely be a boon for identifying petrol stations near to the cut. Many of the older cruisers came in inboard and outboard flavours when new anyway so you wouldn't be creating anything too radical. Or is this just a bodge job that will doom the boat to an earlier demise? I've never done it but have considered such project boats in the past when buying.

[Murflynn]

far too hypothetical, IMHO......  how would you have determined that the engine is 'dead'?  ................  diesels are pretty resilient beasts when used at steady low revs for hours on end.

[MtB]

1 hour ago, BilgePump said:

Just raising the question after thoughts on other threads. It's a hypothetical one not my personal situation.

 

In which case I hypothetically CBA to read, consider and compose a properly thought out response.

 

  

[zenataomm]

It's hard to imagine all of what you describe without images.

Photos! We need to see and love photos on this forum.

Your wife/girlfriend even next door neighbour, we're not fussy.

[MtB]

17 minutes ago, zenataomm said:

Your wife/girlfriend even next door neighbour, we're not fussy.

 

I hope none of these people feel insulted by this!

[zenataomm]

Until we get to see them we'll never know if they should.

[Tony Brooks]

As others have said far too general to spend much time on.

A big hole in the crankcase then I would suggest an OB, for anything else we need to know far more about what the problem is. Some so called "professional engineers" on the waterways are something else so unless you are 100% sure of them a second opinion is very sensible.

Lets have the FULL story.

[Murflynn]

...............  but it's hypowhatsit, so I guess we are s'posed to make up the story on OP's behalf ...................  DUHH !!   ....................  dammit, I'm off to walk the dogs.

[BilgePump]

Seriously, there's no story. It's just that over the years I've noticed quite a few boats for sale with engines half cannibalised, removed for repair and lost, missing outdrives and big holes where the leg once was. Often the hull and interior of the boat look sound, but unlike a bigger and newer boat, having a new or re-cond lump dropped in wouldn't make financial sense for someone who hasn't got the skills to do it themselves. 

I realise that old diesel engines should be good plodders and few problems will be truly terminal but there must be cases where a single major failure or multiple problems with an inboard and drive on a small boat mean that repairs or replacement get near to or even above the value of the boat in working condition. My original question suggests that the hypowhatsit boat is already in use by the owner who would need a solution. In a way though, I suppose, it is as much a question of whether it would be worth considering buying such a project if it became apparent that an inboard couldn't be repaired without great expense. 

[Tony Brooks]

41 minutes ago, BilgePump said:

Seriously, there's no story. It's just that over the years I've noticed quite a few boats for sale with engines half cannibalised, removed for repair and lost, missing outdrives and big holes where the leg once was. Often the hull and interior of the boat look sound, but unlike a bigger and newer boat, having a new or re-cond lump dropped in wouldn't make financial sense for someone who hasn't got the skills to do it themselves. 

I realise that old diesel engines should be good plodders and few problems will be truly terminal but there must be cases where a single major failure or multiple problems with an inboard and drive on a small boat mean that repairs or replacement get near to or even above the value of the boat in working condition. My original question suggests that the hypowhatsit boat is already in use by the owner who would need a solution. In a way though, I suppose, it is as much a question of whether it would be worth considering buying such a project if it became apparent that an inboard couldn't be repaired without great expense. 

I suppose that depends upon the cost of the boat. I would have thought that he value of an OB powered boat woodlouse be rather less than in inboard diesel so as long as you got the boat for a price that having bought the outboard, sorted the transom if needed, and in the case of an older, smaller outboard sorted alternative/additional battery charging that kept the final total to what such a boat would then be worth it would be worth doing. However it seems many people overestimate the value of their boat so getting one for a realistic price may not be easy.  I would hope that an old GRP boat with a dead inboard would only fetch a very few hundred pounds or less because it would cost the owner money to get it scrapped but owners often do not seem to appreciate that. I would hope that such a boat may be available for nothing as long as you transport it.

[Alan de Enfield]

2 minutes ago, Tony Brooks said:

I would have thought that he value of an OB powered boat woodlouse be rather less than in inboard diesel so as long as you got the boat for a price that having bought the outboard,

??????

[MtB]

1 minute ago, Alan de Enfield said:

??????

 

Yes a first class unintended auto-correct, I thought!

Applying a bit of common sense to the sentence, the correct word clearly is "would".

[WotEver]

2 minutes ago, Alan de Enfield said:

??????

Perhaps he’s suggesting that the old boat is damp and rotting

[MtB]

I suspect Tony mistakenly typed "woudl", which the auto-correct decided should be woodlouse. 

[Alan de Enfield]

1 minute ago, Mike the Boilerman said:

Yes a first class unintended auto-correct, I thought!

 

1 minute ago, WotEver said:

Perhaps he’s suggesting that the old boat is damp and rotting

My thoughts eggs-actly

[BilgePump]

Thanks Tony for the only serious reply. Thanks the rest of ya, sorry if the word 'hypothetical' freaked you out. Christ's sake, teachers, doctors, engineers on here. I didn't think it was that big a word.

[harrybsmith]

If the boat had some form of drive in place then I'd potentially consider having a crack a transplanting the engine out of a small diesel car into it. I met a guy with a Freeman 22 with a 2 litre Passat engine with the turbo blanked off, seemed like a reasonable boat and apparently wasn't too much work. 

If it didn't have a drive then I'd bulk up the transom and bang an outboard on it.

[Tony Brooks]

8 minutes ago, BilgePump said:

Thanks Tony for the only serious reply. Thanks the rest of ya, sorry if the word 'hypothetical' freaked you out. Christ's sake, teachers, doctors, engineers on here. I didn't think it was that big a word.

Its not but as some kind of engineer I find it very difficult to give sensible or helpful answers to hypothetical cases. For instance the price quoted to fix an engine could easily be an "I don't want the job" price or it could be a very fair one. The diagnosis undertaken to arrive at that price could have been extensive and thorough or it could have been an "off the top of the head" price. Hence myself and others asking for more information.

The there is the boat, some makes hold their value well and age well while others were shoddy to start with and realistically would be worthless now.

The original question was really unanswerable until you explained what you had in mind. How many times have we seen questions without much, if any, background information where we have to ask for answers that we sometimes do not get. It all gets a bit wearing over time and you got the inevitable responses.

 

[BilgePump]

Tony, you are right, it was vague, without specific example, and just something I thought I would ask of the forum. It's not my situation, I just see these around and wonder. Thanks again for your replies

[magpie patrick]

Someone I know had such a boat, except it was petrol inboard that had seized. He fittted an outboard engine and is still happily cruising 5 years later

Edited December 31, 2017 by magpie patrick

[MtB]

12 hours ago, BilgePump said:

Tony, you are right, it was vague, without specific example, and just something I thought I would ask of the forum. It's not my situation, I just see these around and wonder. Thanks again for your replies

 

I strongly agree with Tony. It can take a considerable amount of time and thought to craft a relevant, technically accurate and complete answer to a question.  FAR more effort than it took to ask it! So putting in the effort for a hypothetical situation isn’t going to get you the same degree of help as you see others getting for real life questions. I’m constantly amazed at the time and effort Tony puts into his detailed answers on this forum. He should get a CWF knighthood for services rendered. 

[cuthound]

2 hours ago, Mike the Boilerman said:

I’m constantly amazed at the time and effort Tony puts into his detailed answers on this forum. He should get a CWF knighthood for services rendered. 

^^^^ +1

[Tony Brooks]

Not really much effort because as my apprentice friends keep reminding me back in the day they considered me to be a swat on such matters, that plus virtually 60 years assorted experience. Most comes out of my head. The effort comes from knowing I do not know everything and trying to craft an answer that is probably correct but leaves wriggle room.

Please stop embarrassing me.

[BilgePump]

On 12/29/2017 at 22:30, Mike the Boilerman said:

 

Edited December 31, 2017 by BilgePump
Civility

[W+T]

I was going to reply at first, then not, then i was etc etc

 

Now i will, Hyp or not question. If you have a boat that the engine is knackered then it is either replace it, if you like the boat enough, or get rid. If you get rid then what, by another boat with an engine you dont know maybe. 

As we know boats are money pits anyway so to get rid of a boat as there is a problem at what ever cost is daft if you like the boat. 

The biggest expense in boats can always be the engine anyway.