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The Boat Shop Leighton Buzzard


Motters79

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Hey guys,

Just been to see a 60ft Conmac cruiser stern for sale at The Boat Shop in Leighton Buzzard.

The boat needs a full replate, which they are undertaking prior to sale. Just wondered if any one had used these for overplating work and had any comment on the general standard of the work? They're very friendly and seem to know what they're talking about. The boat seems pretty decent apart from the thin metal. It was 8/6/4 originally, but has wasted to 5 in places on the bottom with deep pitting. Some Muppet let the anodes disappear and never replaced them! 

Thanks for in advance for any input!

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From memory you would do well to search the forum for old posts about overplated boats sold from this yard.  I'm sure there aws at laest one real dodo, but it was some yeras back.

I have no personal knowledge, only what the grapevine says, but even so, anywhere that takes potential sinkers, overplates them, and then uses a surveyor of their choice before sale does require a lot of faith on behalf of the buyer - far more faith than I would be prepared to show!

If you are serious about one of their boats, I think you should insist that it is surveyed after the overplating by someone having no association with the yard, and independently recommended to you.  (My choice would be Trevor Whitling.)

Not relating to that yard, but I know of cases where Trevor has refused to do a survey because he knows the boat in question, and knows the person commissioning the survey would be wasting their money.  I like a surveyor who can be that honest!

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1 hour ago, alan_fincher said:

Further Information.

Assuming this business is still the province of Loretta Hardie and her son, I would strongly urge you to read this old thread to form your own view before committing to anything with them

Thanks Alan, that's just the sort of information I was hoping to unearth. I knew someone would have had some experience with them. It would seem it's even more necessary than usual to keep ones wits about you when dealing with this type of outfit. I must say though, Stuart seemed a genuine guy and put no pressure on me whatsoever. I did take ages poking about inside and out and asked a lot of questions, but he seemed to have time for me. 

Excellent advice though! I'm going to speak to them tomorrow and sound them out about having my own surveyor check their work out prior to painting. If they're awkward about it then I'll steer clear, otherwise I'll make sure to get my own surveyor on it before I hand over any money.

It's a 1997 60 foot cruiser stern. They're asking 30k for it, fully overplated with 6 and 4mm plate and 2 pack epoxied and new anodes. Providing their workmanship is good I'd say it's a bargain. It has a very clean sweet running Kubota 4 pot, Webasto central heating and an interior I can live with and bring up to my standards fairly easily. I'll also make sure everything inside works before money is exchanged!

I'll also ask him outright where the boat came from. Should be interesting.

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Can’t comment on overplating but I do know someone that bought a cheap but sound boat from there to live aboard and do up and he’s happy with it. I would be nervous about paying that much for an overplated boat that was probably bought as is for closer to £10k.

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27 minutes ago, Motters79 said:

It's a 1997 60 foot cruiser stern. They're asking 30k for it, fully overplated with 6 and 4mm plate and 2 pack epoxied and new anodes.

And that opens another can of worms that I'll mention, but then withdraw from the inevitable debate that will follow.

Some claim that insurers will not comprehensively insure anything where plate thickness is measured at less than 4mm.  As you can't count any original steel as part of the thickness of an over-plate, anywhere they have used only 4mm steel, then you are already at this claimed 4mm insurance minimum.  So as soon as there is any erosion or pitting of that, theoretically it's not comprehensively insurable again.....

But after that, I'm staying out of that.

1997 makes it only 20 years old, so it is likely it was built with 10mm and 6mm sides.  When I sold a similar aged boat 3 years ago, almost non of the 10mm and 6mm was missing.  This boat must have been very poorly looked after to need a full overplate already, I would say.

Edited by alan_fincher
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1 hour ago, alan_fincher said:

And that opens another can of worms 

This is the problem when you ask for advice on forums ;-)

Actually I may have  remembered what he said wrongly. I'm gonna have to double check maybe he said 6mm all over. 

Its a good point though. I wrongly assumed the orginal steel would  count in future surveys. I guess this means an over plated boat has a shorter shelf life from the point it's is over plated than a new full thickness hull. Depends of course how it's cared for from then on. 

I hate big money decisions! There's just not enough y boats for sale out there that meet my budget and layout requirements :-(

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1 hour ago, Motters79 said:

It would seem it's even more necessary than usual to keep ones wits about you when dealing with this type of outfit. I must say though, Stuart seemed a genuine guy and put no pressure on me whatsoever. I did take ages poking about inside and out and asked a lot of questions, but he seemed to have time for me. 

Excellent advice though! I'm going to speak to them tomorrow and sound them out about having my own surveyor check their work out prior to painting. If they're awkward about it then I'll steer clear, otherwise I'll make sure to get my own surveyor on it before I hand over any money.

 

I picked up a boat from there a few weeks ago and spent several hours hanging about waiting for the crane to turn up. The boat had just had a new bow thruster tube welded in- the old one was badly pitted and had been cut out. Stuart I found to be ,as you said,  knowledgeable and very competent. He'd done a bloody good job -I had a good look at both that and other jobs there in progress. Loretta was great and made me very welcome, picked me up from the Train station and made me a cuppa too-so an enjoyable few hours .

I dont think you will have to worry about anyone getting awkward though and sure they will have no issues with whichever surveyor you choose.

Good luck with it all..

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22 hours ago, alan_fincher said:

Some claim that insurers will not comprehensively insure anything where plate thickness is measured at less than 4mm.  As you can't count any original steel as part of the thickness of an over-plate, anywhere they have used only 4mm steel, then you are already at this claimed 4mm insurance minimum.  So as soon as there is any erosion or pitting of that, theoretically it's not comprehensively insurable again.....

That mean all Springer's are uninsurable??

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59 minutes ago, Barry Henshaw said:

That mean all Springer's are uninsurable??

No, some were built with steel thicker than 4.5mm (3/16th) it depended on what steel Sam could get hold of at the time.

You can get 3rd party insurance for any thickness, it is just 'fully-comp' that is difficult to obtain.

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I bought my boat from Stu about 18 months ago. Coming up to my second winter aboard now and am still totally in love with my boat. 

Stu was really helpful, I ended up staying at the yard for a while after buying the boat and Stu helped with any issues and a few changes to the boat. He was also happy to answer (or at least tolerant of) my almost weekly newbie boating questions for the next 12 months! He's a good dude.

Good luck :)

Edited by Frances
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On 29/11/2017 at 20:06, alan_fincher said:

Further Information.

Assuming this business is still the province of Loretta Hardie and her son, I would strongly urge you to read this old thread to form your own view before committing to anything with them

My father was a good friend of Loretta and Stewart and when he passed away they helped me with his boats, craning them out of the water, storing them and eventually helping me sell them. For this they charged me nothing. 

They have since helped me greatly with my own boat which wouldn't of been possible without their help.

Opinions are like arseholes, everyone has one and most stink. I can only give you my own personal experience of them not rumors or hearsay.

Hope that helps

  • Greenie 1
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