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Practical & Realistic Advice for a Complete Beginner


Cyax Rex

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I really hope that this post doesn't infuriate any existing forum members due to me obviously knowing very little about the boating world. Right now, however, I am starting to plan/map our ideas for living aboard my first boat in 2018 (April ideally). Also, I am in a pretty unique situation. This being the case, any practical and friendly advice would be greatly appreciated. Anyway, here goes:

First off I am a born and bred UK citizen but currently, I live in Malta. In fact, I haven't lived in England for 13-years. I do plan, however, to return next April and after doing so, I will have a 30-day window to hopefully find a half decent boat to liveaboard.

Yes, I already know how insane this sounds. My big problem is that I will be staying with family in the County Durham area (a long way from any boat brokerages) and I work online and can't really take much time off work for long periods. Also, I am going to be on a very minimal budget of 10K -15K. 

Because I work freelance and have no credit score due to 13 years now hopping around the world without even so much as a contract phone, I highly doubt that I will qualify for any kind of financing. As for why I want to liveaboard and why I will be in such a rush to do it, the truth is that I simply can't settle in one location for too long as I get very itchy feet. Also, because I work from home, the liveaboard life really appeals to me. 

Anyway, I'm right at the very beginning of the planning process so please excuse what probably sounds like huge naivety. 

Now, personally, I would love a 30-35ft narrow boat but the more I look into this, there are a huge variety of potential problems. I would be fine with a working (and well serviced) engine, a hull which will pass certification to say it's water worthy, and an electrical system which I could rely on to charge batteries and give me a days worth of laptop life. Give me that and I will take a narrow boat where everything else, interior etc, needs putting together myself as I go. 

What I definitely don't want to do, however, is buy a boat which right off the mark is going to need new plating (though blacking is fine). The only problem is that this isn't something which I am going to discover until I get a full survey done. - In this case, I'm looking more and more at a GRP hull and something like this:

http://www.moonsbridgemarina.co.uk/boat_sales/7/excalibur

My thinking is that by going this route, I wouldn't have to worry as much about hull problems. Also, whichever route I take, I would be expecting to be looking at 400 a month for ongoing maintenance & upkeep. My only problem with a GRP hull, is that I would be looking at a petrol outboard, no chance of installing a solid fuel stove and apparently, they can't stand the knocks of the occasional out of control narrowboat.

So, even though this has likely been asked a thousand times before, is a GRP hull that prone to damage? Also, like with a narrowboat, is there any way to run the engine to charge the domestic battery system when power is low? 

Lastly, if I went the narrow boat route and bought a 10K boat with a Boat safety Certificate valid for a year or so after the date of purchase, would this better protect me from the risk of buying a boat with a hull in poor condition?

As for what my boats purpose would be, I really would be continuously cruising.  Every week I would be in a new location providing that a given location is serviced by 3G mobile data. That said, 2018 would ultimately be a test to see whether I take to the life of a liveaboard as well as I hope to.  

Thank you all in advance for any help.

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4 hours ago, Cyax Rex said:

I really hope that this post doesn't infuriate any existing forum members due to me obviously knowing very little about the boating world.

Welcome to the forum. Don't worry about infuriating existing members - most of us started out knowing little (or less) about the world of boating.

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An outboard will have a hared or impossible time trying to keep the domestic batteries charged for a livaboard. Their charging output is usually very low. Petrol outlets are not very common bankside on the cut so it will probably mean carrying fuel from filling stations.

Not much roof space for solar charging.

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5 hours ago, Cyax Rex said:

Lastly, if I went the narrow boat route and bought a 10K boat with a Boat safety Certificate valid for a year or so after the date of purchase, would this better protect me from the risk of buying a boat with a hull in poor condition?

No. The boat safety scheme test doesn't assess hull condition. 

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4 hours ago, Cyax Rex said:

My only problem with a GRP hull, is that I would be looking at a petrol outboard

Why ?

 

A member here has a VERY nice 27 foot GRP boat for sale WITH a diesel inboard (the same as a narrowboat) at a price of £4500, leaving you plenty of cash to 'personalise it' as you wish.

 

For anyone starting out on a low budget I would always recommend a GRP boat - you get so much more for your money.

A cheap steel NB is cheap for a reason and normally because it needs so much spending on it  (maybe on 'stuff' that the surveyor misses and you later find it was not such a 'good buy').

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7 minutes ago, Alan de Enfield said:

Why ?

 

A member here has a VERY nice 27 foot GRP boat for sale WITH a diesel inboard (the same as a narrowboat) at a price of £4500, leaving you plenty of cash to 'personalise it' as you wish.

 

For anyone starting out on a low budget I would always recommend a GRP boat - you get so much more for your money.

A cheap steel NB is cheap for a reason and normally because it needs so much spending on it  (maybe on 'stuff' that the surveyor misses and you later find it was not such a 'good buy').

spot on !!

 

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Your thinking appears sound on the face of it but have you considered what it might be like in the depths of a hard British winter?

Narrow beam GRP boats were never designed to be used in really cold weather. Those built for river/sea use are often much better in terms of heating and insulation and I'm sure you could find a decent wide beam grp boat within your budget that would be suitable to live on, but then you wouldn't be able to travel the narrow canals. 

TBH though your main problem is finding a suitable boat in a 30 day slot.  With that sort of pressure there's every chance you'll be starting this venture on the back foot and any sane person would advise you to have a rethink and see if there is any way you can extend your search period, even if it eats into your restricted budget,  it will be better in the long run. 

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8 minutes ago, Murflynn said:

I lived and worked there during Mintoff's dictatorship and I hated the place.  My son is a native Maltese and he don't like the place either.

I am too young for Mr Mintoffs era I first went there in the 70s and loved it, I have been several times since I love the fact its quite worn and scruffy looking.

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8 minutes ago, mrsmelly said:

I am too young for Mr Mintoffs era I first went there in the 70s and loved it, I have been several times since I love the fact its quite worn and scruffy looking.

Ahem,

can I interest you in another boat?

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I live on a 32ft narrowbeam GRP boat, and all of the problems you mention are not necessarily so. Mine has an inboard diesel engine; from my boat hunting experience it tends to be that ones with outboards are because they've gone for the easier cheaper option of an outboard when the inboard engine has needed to be replaced. You do still get plenty of second hand boats with inboard engines though. I also have a solid fuel stove (and have seen lots of GRP boats that also have them).

How durable they are with regard to bumps etc really depends on the make and GRP itself. Some older GRP boats in particular can be tough as old boots because they tended to make the GRP pretty thick-I bump mine about a fair bit; mostly it just bounces. Even where you do need to take a bit of care, especially with things like locks etc, it's not going to sink because you bump about a bit.

You can certainly get a lot more for your money with a GRP boat; there's no way I'd have got a half decent steel narrowboat for anything near what I paid for my boat. It would be a good idea still to get the hull checked out-GRP does not guarantee that if it's floating you have no problems, in particular GRP can have issues with osmosis.

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Your timetable is ambitious but I don't think it's impossible if you're well organised. The key would be to establish your criteria as quickly as possible so that you can home in on the sort of boats you need and not waste time looking outside of that. As has been said, you'd be lucky to find a decent steel hull boat within your budget, so it becomes a question of what your GRP boat needs to have.

In your shoes I think I'd be looking for one with an inboard diesel engine so you can hope to charge your batteries, preferably insulated although that will only really become a big issue in 5 months' time, and preferably narrow beam so that you can go anywhere. Basically something like the boat Alan de Enfield suggested.

You have the advantage that you're very flexible about location. If you buy up north you may well get better value, and if you mostly cruise up north it'll be easier to find moorings and avoid trouble over your pattern of movement, and a lot of boating and other costs may be cheaper too. London and other hotspots are for people who really have to be there, or don't know how much nicer it is to be boating elsewhere.

If you get to about August and start feeling that maybe with hindsight you really want a bigger, better or just different boat, perhaps by then you'll have saved up enough from this online job of yours to afford to upgrade, without having lost much on your cheap boat. Or you might consider the option of keeping your GRP boat in a marina for the winter months?

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