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Aqualine boats


fergyguy

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The Aqualines are very well put together boats, superbly neat electrics and you get a lot of kit for your money.

The only downside that I have seen and heard about is the paint jobs, quite a few people have had problems just a few years after build, spraying in Polish winter temperatures is probably not a good idea.

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I would stick with a UK builder, you can visit whilst its being built the kit used is from UK sourced companies so if spares are needed you can ask where they came from.

As an aside why move production to Poland? to reduce costs are those reductions passed on to you? all questions you have to ask.

As a final point if when the boat arrives things are wrong how are they going to be sorted when the builders are in another country

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I would stick with a UK builder, you can visit whilst its being built the kit used is from UK sourced companies so if spares are needed you can ask where they came from.

As an aside why move production to Poland? to reduce costs are those reductions passed on to you? all questions you have to ask.

As a final point if when the boat arrives things are wrong how are they going to be sorted when the builders are in another country

 

 

Aqualine quality control is (or used to be) superb.

 

When I did PDIs at Thames and Kennet Marina sales, we could bank on the Aqualines never having anything wrong we could spot or find, and the inspections and tests were very thorough.

 

Polar opposite from the Liverpool Boats they also sold. One could spend a day just finding and listing out the faults, never mind fixing them!!

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I'm sure i have read on here issues regarding paint on Aquiline or am i getting them confused with another company? i just like the whole look and style of the wb they do although mrs fergyguy would prefer the galley to have a return side on it to make it less part of the saloon area but again I'm guessing that could be specified as a requirement pre build.


i was told that Collingwood boats are a bit hit and miss when it comes to design and finish so would be interested in hearing from owners of their boats what they think.

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Collingwood are the phoenix company that arose from the ashes of the Liverpool Boats debacle, I think. Or was that another company? Aintree Boats perhaps? I don't want to diss either of them inappropriately but I think one should tread carefully with them. I think there is a connection between all three.

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Superbly built boats, but rather odd looking bow shape.

 

The Aqualines are very well put together boats, superbly neat electrics and you get a lot of kit for your money.

The only downside that I have seen and heard about is the paint jobs, quite a few people have had problems just a few years after build, spraying in Polish winter temperatures is probably not a good idea.

 

I would agree whole-heartedly with both these posts. I haven't looked closely at the widebeam versions but the bow on the narrowboat is frankly fugly in my opinion. The rest of the boat ticked so many other boxes that we chose to ignore it!

The electrics are indeed superb; the wiring is a work of art. The woodwork has been much admired by those who know about such things and the surveyor who did our survey was very complimentary about the steelwork.

Sadly, I have to agree about the paintwork. It's a red boat unfortunately, the worst choice (not ours - we bought the boat second-hand) and despite our best efforts in polishing and waxing, it's now looking extremely shabby.

I wouldn't hesitate to recommend this manufacturer.

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Collingwood are the phoenix company that arose from the ashes of the Liverpool Boats debacle, I think. Or was that another company? Aintree Boats perhaps? I don't want to diss either of them inappropriately but I think one should tread carefully with them. I think there is a connection between all three.

As I've told you at least half a dozen times, Mike, Collingwood is what replaced Liverpool Boats; Aintree is what happened when a cstomer rescued Skater Marine. There is no connection between Collingwood and Aintree. I have a lot of time for the guys at Aintree.

 

But the Aqualines are Polish, not Collingwood, aren't they?

They started off Polish, then for a while production was moved to the Midland Canal Centre at Stenson, and then it went back to Poland. I think the consensus is that the Polish ones are a lot better -- and if it's a used one you're looking at, make sure you find out where it was built.

Edited by adam1uk
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I've seen several Aqualine boats and they are very well built, electrics are the best I've seen. I thought the name 'Aqualine' was a model name used by New and Used Boat Co, so they may have used several builders over the years. I know the early ones were Polish and Midland Canal Centre certainly built one a couple of years ago.

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I have no personal experience with Aqualine, but have met 2 owners of their WB boats, both were bought new and both have had major issues with getting them to fix problems which occurred shortly after the inital launch. One was to do with the quality of the internal fitout and something to do with the brackets the engine sits on, and problems with the quality of the paint job; the other boat also had issues with the quality of their paint work and I "think" problems with their throttle control or some such.

 

In neither case were the owners upset that there were snagging issues, it was the problems they encountered with the builder to have the problems corrected.

 

I can give you the name of one of the owners if you PM me.

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I would echo what folk have said above and if you can get yourself to Crick and have a look at one.

 

We have had ours for 18 months or so from new. We had a few snags as you'd expect and all have been resolved in a timely fashion. All the snags we're minor issues and not things major.

 

Our observations are:

 

The internal fit out is solid with a lot of solid wood being used.

The appliances are all branded and not cheap brands being used.

They have some lovely wood working touches.

The paintwork seems to be fairing ok but ours was a summer build.

We've received nothing but favourable comments from people in the trade we've had to do work on her.

Something is right with steelwork as she handles really well 58 X 10 WB.

We had builder of bespoke boats service the engine. And we were told that they recommend Aqualine as alternate boat builder.

 

Feel free to PM if you have any questions.

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