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Opinions on a 60' trad for sale?


jetzi

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9 hours ago, ivan&alice said:

Are you saying you think there may be work done that could cause BSS failures?

 

 

 

 

I am not saying it is,just that the work has been done over the past 3 years which was following the last inspection. If it was all done right it will be fine. From the equipment listed he doesn't sound someone who has skimped things

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11 minutes ago, Alan de Enfield said:

 

1) The height of the bed makes a huge difference (6"-8") if the bed is positioned below the gunwhale or level / above the gunwhale.

.

This is well expressed. Our mattress is fairly thick ("Suits you, Sir", I hear you cry), 8" I think, but there is just enough wriggle-room under the gunwale to insert toes and thereby stretch comfortably.

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35 minutes ago, rusty69 said:

I'm 6'3" and have a hole cut in the side of the boat for my feet /head. 

 

Why, oh why did i buy a narrowboat! 

Did you not consider having your legs shortened?

  • Haha 1
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47 minutes ago, Athy said:

This is well expressed. Our mattress is fairly thick ("Suits you, Sir", I hear you cry), 8" I think, but there is just enough wriggle-room under the gunwale to insert toes and thereby stretch comfortably.

If there is just enough room on one side to get your feet under, surely there can't be enough on the other side to get a pillow and your head under?

 

Or does it slope heavily downhill towards the head end?

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20 minutes ago, alan_fincher said:

If there is just enough room on one side to get your feet under, surely there can't be enough on the other side to get a pillow and your head under?

 

 

A good point!  I can stretch out without burying my head under the gunwale, I'm relieved to say.

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1 minute ago, Athy said:

A good point!  I can stretch out without burying my head under the gunwale, I'm relieved to say.

 

I'm genuinely surprised - generally the pure geometry of any modern boat built to a "narrow" 6' 10" external maximum means any cross bed will be well under 6 feet, unless it is low enough below the gunwales that you can exploit the full width between hull linings.

I recommend the OP if they are considering any boat with a cross bed to actually go and see if it works for them.  For many taller people it may not.

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13 minutes ago, alan_fincher said:

recommend the OP if they are considering any boat with a cross bed to actually go and see if it works for them.  For many taller people it may not.

 

^^^this^^^

 

In particular, take a pillow with you. Putting you head comfortably on a pillow moves you 4”-6” down the bed compared to just test-lying on a bare bed.  

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Dave would have built it and wessex have done the fitout, this is what I would think.

 

Rarely if ever did I see or hear of Dave fitting out other builders shells. Wessex, I'm not sure, haven't heard much about them.

I could be wrong and it could be that Dave fitted it out.. Just very, very unlikely. He did fitout, but usually only his own shells.

 

Dave built and still builds, although more his son now I think.. Anyhow, he builds a good solid shell. Built huge numbers for many mid range builders over the years, inc Hallmark.

 

Dave Clarke was mainly a shell builder, however that may have changed over the years as he would be in his mid 60's now and may have decided to branch out. But the year 2002, makes me believe it is a Dave Clarke shell and whoever Wessex are, were the fitters, worth asking anyway.

 

Dave was another good friend, many years ago.. Probably still is, not been intouch for quite a while.

 

 

Oh and R&D, he was the 'D', the other Ray IIRC.. Prior to split up, of course.

Edited by 70liveaboard
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1 hour ago, alan_fincher said:

I'm genuinely surprised - generally the pure geometry of any modern boat built to a "narrow" 6' 10" external maximum means any cross bed will be well under 6 feet, unless it is low enough below the gunwales that you can exploit the full width between hull linings.

I'm not sure I follow the logic here, with 4" wide gunwales and a maximum of 1" of hull, that's still 6' 1" of bed which should give me two inches of wiggle room (quite literally...). I really have to have my legs straight and wiggle my toes while I sleep to be comfortable though so I'll definitely test her out.

 

1 hour ago, 70liveaboard said:

Dave would have built it and wessex have done the fitout, this is what I would think.

 

Rarely if ever did I see or hear of Dave fitting out other builders shells. Wessex, I'm not sure, haven't heard much about them.

I could be wrong and it could be that Dave fitted it out.. Just very, very unlikely. He did fitout, but usually only his own shells.

 

Dave built and still builds, although more his son now I think.. Anyhow, he builds a good solid shell. Built huge numbers for many mid range builders over the years, inc Hallmark.

 

Dave Clarke was mainly a shell builder, however that may have changed over the years as he would be in his mid 60's now and may have decided to branch out. But the year 2002, makes me believe it is a Dave Clarke shell and whoever Wessex are, were the fitters, worth asking anyway.

 

Dave was another good friend, many years ago.. Probably still is, not been intouch for quite a while.

 

 

Oh and R&D, he was the 'D', the other Ray IIRC.. Prior to split up, of course.


I searched the forum and I found hints that Wessex Narrowboats were a hire company (see here and here)  so if they did any work on boats themselves I'd assume it would be the fit out. I also see that Wessex were bought out by Alvechurch (see here and here) who it seems aren't that renowned as hull builders. So that information does support your theory that Dave Clarke built the hull and Wessex fitted it out for hire purposes? That makes the boat more appealing as the fit out seems to have changed quite a bit in the last few years.

 


 

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3 minutes ago, Alan de Enfield said:

 

 

Didn't he have another 4 guys 'backing' him ?

 

I bet he was 'Glad all Over'

:D

He intended to feel Glad all over but a certain DJ beat him to it.

 

I met a chap and his wife who were on a quite small boat cruising the Canal du Midi some 12 years ago. He said that he had been half of R&D and that he had now retired. I wonder if that was him.

Edited by Athy
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2 minutes ago, ivan&alice said:

I'm not sure I follow the logic here, with 4" wide gunwales and a maximum of 1" of hull, that's still 6' 1" of bed which should give me two inches of wiggle room (quite literally...). I really have to have my legs straight and wiggle my toes while I sleep to be comfortable though so I'll definitely test her out.

 

Whatever the external width of the boat shell at the point you have the top of the mattress at, you probably need to subtract at least 4" - that is 2" per side for the combined thickness of the steel shell (not a lot), the insulation (up to 2" is not at all unusual), and the cabin lining (could be 0.5" or more).

Most modern build shells are probably less than 6' 10" externally across the gunwales, (because the top part of the hull sides are often bent inwards, but even if you assume full width at the gunwales and 4" wide gunwales, then it will only be 6' 2" across the lowest point of the cabin steelwork.  Subtract from that at least a further 4" (as explained above) and your bed is only an absolute maximum of 5' 10".  In most cases I reckon it will be less.

Also don't forget that the cabin sides slope heavily inwards.  So if the mattress top is at gunwale height, the separation of the cabin linings will be even less by the time you are considering your head laid on a pillow on top of the mattress.


 

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2 minutes ago, Athy said:

:D

He intended to feel Glad all over but a certain DJ beat him to it.

I've been wobbed - and mislead, I'm outraged.

 

Glad All Over" is a song written by Dave Clark and Mike Smith and recorded by The Dave Clark Five.[1] In January 1964, it became the British group's first big hit, reaching No.1 on the UK Singles Chart.[2] In April 1964, it reached No.6 on the American US Billboard Hot 100 chart, becoming the first British Invasion hit by a group other than The Beatles. It was also No.1 in Ireland, No.3 in Australia[3] and No.2 in Canada.[3] It reached No.4 in the Netherlands[4] and No.16 in Germany.[5] "Glad All Over" was the No.2 selling single of 1964 in the UK (behind "Can't Buy Me Love" by The Beatles),[6] and also had sufficient UK sales in November and December 1963 to make it the 58th best-selling single of 1963;[7] put together these statistics suggest UK sales for "Glad All Over" of around 1,000,000 units by the end of 1964.

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It's hard to tell from the photos alone but the fit-out smacks to me of being a bit like one of those cheap-and-cheerful instant makeover tv programme jobs. It's all white but is it all right? I'd be looking to see how solid and accurate it all seemed to be; don't want it falling apart on you in the next couple of years.

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Agree with all the above - very London focussed and the cross bed IS an issue you need to check otherwise you are saying all the right things so it might be time to take the plunge ........

Have fun and take it steady as changing your mind after the event can be expensive 

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I honestly think even in today's market you can do a lot better for £45k.  It's clearly been tarted up to sell, diy fit out which probably won't wear well, and why a cross bed on a 60 footer?  A cross bed is a bad idea full stop unless it's a space saver on a short boat.  Even then what happens is you have to have the bed down low to get enough clearance under the gunnels which compromises storage space.  On this example they have the bed at the normal height and there isn't enough room under the gunnels.  Alan F is right, most cross beds will be 5'!0" or less. 

 

Funnily enough the only cross bed I have tried which was comfortable was on our first boat a 23 foot Springer.  On most Springers the gunnels are very high so you can easily get you head under even with two pillows, and the linings are quite "thin" so even though the boat was well under 6'10" beam the cross bed worked surprisingly well. 

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13 hours ago, starman said:

the fit-out smacks to me of being a bit like one of those cheap-and-cheerful instant makeover tv programme jobs.

 

1 hour ago, Neil2 said:

even in today's market you can do a lot better for £45k.  It's clearly been tarted up to sell, diy fit out which probably won't wear well

 

The interior is not really my primary concern though, because surely this can be changed, improved or fixed as and when necessary - even the cross bed? What I'm looking at is the hull, the equipment, the electrics - all of which seem really decent to me (pending survey, of course). Having looked at quite a few boats now, I think she has one of the better sets of features at her price point. In particular the electrics (500W panels, 4x batteries, inverter) are appealing to us as we need power to work from home. Beta Marine 1305 35hp engine with 1900 hours on it and a calorifier. Diesel heating system and morso stove. I'm not intimately familiar with boat equipment but from my research it all sounds good.

 

3 hours ago, Halsey said:

very London focussed


Just to confirm, when you guys say "London focussed" are you talking about the style of the interior (modern rather than traditional)? Or what about this boat makes it more suited for London than elsewhere?

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1 minute ago, ivan&alice said:

Just to confirm, when you guys say "London focussed" are you talking about the style of the interior (modern rather than traditional)? Or what about this boat makes it more suited for London than elsewhere?

It is generally used to cover "bottom of the market" boats (or those at the end of their life) and refers to all of these house 'make-over' programmes where a quick coat of white emulsion and a few rolls of turf 'make a house saleable.

 

There are so many 'wannabe boat /home owners' in London unable to afford bricks & mortar, that some of the more unscrupulous sellers have done the the same with 'boat wrecks'. (but normally without the turf)

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