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buying ex-hire boats?

mutters

By mutters
in Living Afloat

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John Orentas Veteran II

John Orentas

Posted
Posted

Nothing really wrong with ex-hire boats as long as they are sensibly priced but from my experience they rarely are, what Machy says is a fairly typical reaction. What we are never told is how do you 'maintain' a base plate in such a way that it will not be worn through in a few years and all the mechanical bit and pieces how do we stop those from being worn out in a couple of years when in a private boat they may well be good for twenty years or even more.

 

The hire fleet or the commercial use of cars is a good analogy, when I was a commissioning engineer before most of the motorway system was built I would drive more that 50,000 miles per year, when I took the car back after a year of that kind of use everything about it was knackered, burning oil, jumping out of gear, differential whining, you name it, yet to the poor bloke that would eventually buy it with 15,000 on the clock, it was a nearly new car, no one would ever believe me when I told them that I would wear out a car every year.

 

A hire boat that has dragged it's way up to Llangollen and back 30 times a year for the last five years with uncaring crews will by any kind of judgement be totally clapped out there is an awful lot of expensive bits in a boat to wear out.

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Jason Wilson and Family Proficient

Jason Wilson and Family

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Posted (edited)
Nothing really wrong with ex-hire boats as long as they are sensibly priced but from my experience they rarely are,

Too right. I looked through some that were linked yesterday and they seem priced higher than any regular second hand boat.

Edited by Jason Wilson and Family
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BlueStringPudding Veteran II

BlueStringPudding

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Ours was two owners down the line from the hire company so saved us mucho spondoolees - but still only 9 years old.

 

However an AngloWelsh boat we looked at was already 16 years old and they still wanted £30k for it - direct from the hire company. :cheers:

 

But you're right in the sense that there are plenty of second hand not-ex-hire boats out there for the same sort of money, or cheaper. Often younger too!

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BlueStringPudding Veteran II

BlueStringPudding

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hmmm - yeah. Would want the liveaboard nik naks already there really... I'm sure to want (have?) to do stuff anyway so the less it needs modifying the better really.

 

Think I'll prob concentrate the search on non-ex-hires.......

 

You might not want to rule them out entirely - ours is ex-ex-ex-hire; the previous owners having installed a wind turbine, battery monitor system, flashy stereo... there's life after hire, ya know! :rolleyes:

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StoneHenge Rising Star

StoneHenge

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I'd say pros, lots of cabin space to sleep in if you need it, generally come with full service and maintenance records, and you can always have a detailed survey done if you were worried what damage the boat might have suffered during it's hire life.

 

Cons', as bluestringpudding said, not enough living space, but is easily rectified as none of the fit out is that expensive given most hire boats are built to cost, so you can be genereous in your destruction.

 

I would also say if you are going to be a first time live aboard one thing you have is an idea of how you want everything to be. Then when you actually live on it, you will find everything is not working how you expected it to, and so you want to rearrange things.

 

Our plans were nothing like how it's now turned out because you never really know what you will need until you move on board and live on it, then you find out what you can and can't live with.

 

On the whole, they are probably not as well fitted out as previous private owned boats who may have lived aboard and they will have got some of those gremlins sorted already, but it may not be your taste etc.

 

So not terrible, but always go for the good price, and check out the hire company and how long they keep their boats. Black prince keep theirs two, but one near us has only just replaced it's boats after 15 years of hire. They were beautifully fitted out in solid wood etc, and repainted fairly frequently, but I am guessing whoever owns them now will probably have some hull issues to deal with soon enough, and maybe a new engine etc.

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BlueStringPudding Veteran II

BlueStringPudding

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Posted (edited)
...and a very long boat?

 

Yup! 65ft is just right! A living room (stern cabin), a bedroom, a study (mid cabin), a bathroom, a laundry room (second loo with said item removed!) a kitchen/diner (galley!), a patio (cruiser stern) and a front garden (bow deck) :)

 

Such a landlubber... :rolleyes::boat:

 

Oh yes - and a roof garden B)

Edited by BlueStringPudding
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carlt Veteran II

carlt

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Posted
Yup! 65ft is just right! A living room (stern cabin), a bedroom, a study (mid cabin), a bathroom, a laundry room (second loo with said item removed!) a kitchen/diner (galley!), a patio (cruiser stern) and a front garden (bow deck) :)

 

Such a landlubber... :rolleyes::boat:

 

Oh yes - and a roof garden B)

cut the top off your poo tank, clean it out and you've got an indoor swimming pool.

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Hekaterine Engager

Hekaterine

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Ours is an ex-hire boat, although, like Blue String Pudding's boat, it's not direct from the hire fleet.

 

The people before us ripped out a lot of the fitted furniture, which we were pleased about, and have put freestanding furniture in it, which suits us down to the ground.

 

I think if you are buying a boat which has already been fitted out, you might not like the way it's been done anyway, regardless of whether or not it's ex-hire. We saw some awful fit-outs while we were looking round.

 

It has plenty of storage space, which wasn't the case with a lot of the boats we looked at and, because it was a boat that people would have paid good money to spend a week on, it has a decent bathroom, central heating and a good size toilet holding tank.

 

It didn't cost us much (perhaps because we didn't get it direct from the hire company) and the surveyor we used said it was a lot of boat for the money.

 

The only 'cons' I can think of are that, having been hired a lot by inexperienced people over the years, it has one or two impressive dents in the hull but the survey showed that there was nothing of concern.

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NB Willawaw Experienced

NB Willawaw

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Posted (edited)

My experience of hire boats is limited, but two observations I have made is that 1) they normally have dinettes and those very uncomfortable fixed seats that are designed to convert to make additional beds but which on a liveaboard boat are very "sit up and beg" and 2) the rudders always seem to be very "girt" and vibrate/rattle/have internal play (presumerably through wear and tear).

 

I guess none of these are insurmountable and furniture can be ripped out and rudders stripped down and the bearings etc replaced.

 

If you are looking at hire boats, you might need to consider this and include extra in your refurb budget.

Edited by NB Willawaw
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