Hello again! Any thoughts / opinions on MCC boats please?

[ARAL]

 Hello once more, back in the room! ? Does anyone have any experience of, or opinions on, boats built by Alken Engineering? I have seen one for sale, and it looks nice, but they seem quite rare, and there’s not a lot of information available on them. Thanks as always. 

[Boater Sam]

Well respected engineers in High Peak Nr. Stockport Seen a couple, look well made, nothing special in design.

http://www.alkenengineering.co.uk/finished-products/narrow-boats

[MtB]

55 minutes ago, Boater Sam said:

Well respected engineers in High Peak Nr. Stockport Seen a couple, look well made, nothing special in design.

http://www.alkenengineering.co.uk/finished-products/narrow-boats

 

 

Looking at their gallery of work, only one out of perhaps 50 photos is a boat shell so hardly specialists in the field of boat building.

 

Their fabrication skills are probably fine but don't expect any of the finer points of narrow boat shell design to be present, given it appears they'll had a bash at anything. 

[TheBiscuits]

59 minutes ago, Mike the Boilerman said:

Looking at their gallery of work, only one out of perhaps 50 photos is a boat shell so hardly specialists in the field of boat building.

 

Their fabrication skills are probably fine but don't expect any of the finer points of narrow boat shell design to be present, given it appears they'll had a bash at anything. 

It looks more like they bought one of the various sets of boat plan files for their laser cutter, and have people who can weld the kit together after that.  It all depends on the plans they have, as they are not boat designers.

[ARAL]

Thankyou all, I agree that they are clearly a fabrication company more than a boat-building company. That’s not necessarily a bad thing though, I guess. I was just keen to know whether anyone had seen their products ‘in the flesh’, and what their general thoughts / opinions were. 

[ditchcrawler]

11 hours ago, TheBiscuits said:

It looks more like they bought one of the various sets of boat plan files for their laser cutter, and have people who can weld the kit together after that.  It all depends on the plans they have, as they are not boat designers.

Narrowboats have been built in Norfolk like that

[ditchcrawler]

9 hours ago, ARAL said:

Thankyou all, I agree that they are clearly a fabrication company more than a boat-building company. That’s not necessarily a bad thing though, I guess. I was just keen to know whether anyone had seen their products ‘in the flesh’, and what their general thoughts / opinions were. 

That depends on the shape of hull they are welding together. Lots of the hull builders build to there own shape not commercially available plans.  http://www.dutch-barges.net/bespoke_designs.html