Jump to content

The inevitable "thoughts on this boat" thread


magictime

Featured Posts

We've been window-shopping online for a liveaboard boat for all of 48 hours and I'm already (1) going slightly loopy and (2) realising that compromise is inevitable and so it's always going to be a question of weighing pros against cons.

The boat I keep coming back to at the minute is this one:

http://narrowboats.apolloduck.co.uk/boat.phtml?id=498481

Obviously it's knocking on a bit (early 90s) and as such I'd rather the price was a bit lower than the £43,000 advertised. But I believe Doug Moore boats have a reputation for quality, I find it very attractive inside and out, and it has a lot of features I like.

But... unlike most of the boats we've seen in the same price range, it has no central heating, just an 'oil stove' that isn't even near the centre of the boat - it's right at the front, in the saloon, a very long way from the bedroom and bathroom. So I'm wondering how expensive a job it might be to add either central heating throughout the boat, or at least some sort of heater towards the stern? 

Oh, and what is an 'oil stove' anyway? Is this something different from a diesel stove? What are the pros and cons?

Any other thoughts would be welcome too, of course.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Nice looking boat but £8k overpriced, given its age. I would offer £35k subject to survey and increase the offer if rejected. Don't forget GHBS will only return  your deposit if major faults exceeding 5% of the boats value are found.

An oil stove is a diesel drip stove. Common makes are Lockmaster, Bubble and Kabola.

I have a Kabola Old Dutch, and once I got it working properly, I have found it to be economical (0.25 litres per hour), warm (able to hold the boat at 25°C in freezing weather on its lowest setting) and quick to light and turn off (not always the case with a solid fuel stove).

Cons are finding anyone to service them (they are easy to maintain once you pluck up the courage to fiddle with them) and a chimney that smells of diesel rather than coal.

I think Kabola have stopped making them now.

Edited by cuthound
Premature posting.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 minutes ago, cuthound said:

Nice looking boat but £8k overpriced, given its age. I would offer £35k subject to survey and increase the offer if rejected. Don't forget GHBS will only return  your deposit if major faults exceeding 5% of the boats value are found.

An oil stove is a diesel drip stove. Common makes are Lock master and Kabola.

I have a Kabola Old Dutch, and once I got it working properly, I have found it to be economical (0.25 litres per hour), warm (able to hold the boat at 25°C in freezing weather on its lowest setting) and quckntonlight and turn off (not always the case with a solid fuel stove).

Thanks, that's worth knowing about the broker and encouraging about the stove! Should it be sufficient to heat the whole boat then, do you think, even though it's right down one end?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 minute ago, magictime said:

Thanks, that's worth knowing about the broker and encouraging about the stove! Should it be sufficient to heat the whole boat then, do you think, even though it's right down one end?

Yes,

 

Mines in the port front corner and heats all of the boat up given enough time (the bedroom & corridor at the back takes a few hours to get warm, the rest is warm in minutes of lighting it).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks. Incidentally, I'm just looking at GHBS's small print and if I understand it correctly, you can't really make an offer 'subject to survey' (i.e. in the expectation of a further £100 reduction for every £100 of work needed), because every £100 knocked off the asking price prior to the survey is treated as £100 you already have available to do any work.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

7 minutes ago, Machpoint005 said:

A nice boat crying out for a solid fuel stove!

...and a couple of radiators, preferably not heated by the stove; I do not live aboard, but if I did I would ensure that I had two separate modes of heating, in case one failed in the bleak midwinter.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

33 minutes ago, magictime said:

Thanks all. Just spoke to GHBS and it's sold anyway. Oh well.

That's something that has been happening for over 3 years now. Boats sell quickly, but the adverts take longer to be updated. 

I went around several brokers, ABNB, Rugby, Braunston,  GHBS etc, and gave them details of what I was interested in, so they could let me know as soon as something that might be suitable came in.

The strategy worked well, because GHBS contacted me about DQ before she was advertised. I was the first person to see her.

I offered £10k below asking,  which was rejected, then offered £5k more, which was accepted. The surveyor found a supposedly faulty Combi unit, which got another couple of kilter knocked of the agreed price.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

15 minutes ago, cuthound said:

I offered £10k below asking,  which was rejected, then offered £5k more, which was accepted. The surveyor found a supposedly faulty Combi unit, which got another couple of kilter knocked of the agreed price.

That's odd. According to their Ts and Cs, you wouldn't have received any further reduction because the £5k already agreed would have (more than) covered the work. Would you have lost your deposit if you'd walked away? If not I guess they were in no position to dictate terms, small print or no small print.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Doug Moore boats seem very highly regarded and command a substantial premium over other boats of comparible spec, so not necessarily overpriced. 

Ive never understood why this should be though. The few I've seen have seemed pretty pedestrian. 

Edited by Mike the Boilerman
Link to comment
Share on other sites

17 hours ago, magictime said:

According to their Ts and Cs, you wouldn't have received any further reduction because the £5k already agreed would have (more than) covered the work

The selling price would remain negotiable between the vendor and the buyer, notwithstanding, although the brokers might still calculate their commission on the higher figure.  

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Window shopping for a boat? I was about 9 years old the last time I went window shopping for a boat. It was a toy shop window, a wonderful toy shop, called Ajax in Ilford. The window was full of toys, even a working model railway which could be set in motion by putting a penny in the slot outside. At a certain run up to Christmas they had on display the big and beautiful Triang clockwork model of the ocean liner ''Pretoria Castle'' in that window.  These ships were mainly on the London Tilbury to Cape Town South Africa run which is where the old saying ''Port out, Starboard home'' came from. Passengers clamoured for portside cabins on the way out and starboard cabins on the way back to London because one got regular glimpses of the coast all the way round but nothing but boring ocean on the opposite side.  I haunted that shop window, gloating over that ship for weeks, my nose prints covered the window and my breath fogged it up.    I never did get that beautiful ship in the end, I changed my mind at the last minute plumping for the oo gauge railway Triang Princess Elizabeth loco instead.  :)

They both cost 39/6d.

Edited by bizzard
Link to comment
Share on other sites

6 minutes ago, rusty69 said:

When I was a wee lad,  Zodiac toys was the place. (not Ilford though) 

When I was a lad we used to dream of toys...........they were for wealthy people. We lived in a shoe box at the side of the road.

  • Haha 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 minutes ago, mrsmelly said:

When I was a lad we used to dream of toys...........they were for wealthy people. We lived in a shoe box at the side of the road.

Ah, what a sad tale. Did you not have any conkers, marbles or even a hoop and stick? 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

43 minutes ago, Nightwatch said:

Why??

Because the price is agreed between the buyer and the vendor, or between the buyer and the broker, the latter having consulted the vendor. It is ultimately always the vendor's decision to sell at any particular price.

Think about it for a moment. If this were not so, a broker would always be open to a claim from a vendor for compensation, because the price obtained by a broker on his behalf was too low.  

Link to comment
Share on other sites

4 hours ago, Machpoint005 said:

Because the price is agreed between the buyer and the vendor, or between the buyer and the broker, the latter having consulted the vendor. It is ultimately always the vendor's decision to sell at any particular price.

Think about it for a moment. If this were not so, a broker would always be open to a claim from a vendor for compensation, because the price obtained by a broker on his behalf was too low.  

So how, based on this, can the broker claim commission on a mythical higher price?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 8/23/2017 at 18:43, Mike the Boilerman said:

Doug Moore boats seem very highly regarded and command a substantial premium over other boats of comparible spec, so not necessarily overpriced. 

Ive never understood why this should be though. The few I've seen have seemed pretty pedestrian. 

Doug Moore's signature is continuous cabin sheer which is very subtle on some boats but sets them apart from the arrow straight offerings of many modern day builders.

But it took him some time to perfect his craft, also I'm not convinced that his boats are as nice below the water as they are above.  So I'm not sure they should demand a significant premium per se.

And, an awful lot of them seem to have BMC 1.8's, enough said.    

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 24/08/2017 at 12:06, mrsmelly said:

When I was a lad we used to dream of toys...........they were for wealthy people. We lived in a shoe box at the side of the road.

A shoebox?

You were lucky, we lived in a paper bag on the central reservation of the dual carriageway.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 25/08/2017 at 23:18, Lily Rose said:

A shoebox?

You were lucky, we lived in a paper bag on the central reservation of the dual carriageway.

 

Someone less gallant than moi might be inclined to suggest this particular joke has, on here, been hammered to death many times over and worn a bit thin.

:rolleyes:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 26/08/2017 at 00:07, cereal tiller said:

It is Python,everlasting and never Dull.

 

Frankly I disagree. Most of Python was tedious and dull. Punctuated however with flashes of brilliance of which the 'living in a paper bag in the middle of the road' sketch happens to be a good example. Endlessly repeating it on here could however, be perceived as tedious and dull by some...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue.