Buying a Boat

Buying a boat, any boat can be fraught with dangers. By its very nature it will be susceptible to damp and water damage both inside and out.

Buying a boat

To add to that there are mechanical problems like engines, pumps, tanks, pipes and electrical devices. Most of these items do not like water so to mix the two is a real problem, especially if they have not been checked or serviced properly. 

Even a fair new second hand boat (even new ones) can have problems, such as none conformity to various boat regulations like the Boat Safety Scheme. So what do you do, the answer is obvious, get a survey done on the boat. For a modest sum you potentially save yourself thousands of pounds, and a lot of heart ache and extra unforeseen work. 

I had this very problem with Valiant No7, the manufactures had made mistakes which required fixing. Simple things like grommets to stop chaffing, no sea cocks on low water outlets etc. A survey will also check the thickness of steel plates and look for any big problems. 

The moral of this story is be it new or old GET A SURVEY DONE.

When buying a boat you must consider what you want to do on the boat. Here are few of the questions:-

1) Is the boat for living on or for recreation?
2) How many will it sleep?
3) What areas of the waterways do I want to travel
4) What sort of layout do you want
5) How many extras do you need
6) Can I afford it?
7) Were can i moor it?

These types of question will lead you into looking for that special boat of your dreams.

To give you an idea of what my wife and i wanted, we decided to live aboard and do a lot of cruising.  To be able to travel about 90% of the system. The boat was to sleep only two with a possible double for visitors. We like the reverse layout and the bedroom at the front. So this equated to a 60 ft Narrowboat with that layout. We were lucky as we had a disposable income, so we were able to afford a fair new boat.  Being a newish boat really helps as there is very little to do from the fitting out or changes. We also were able when we bought the boat to get reasoanble moorings.

Do lots of research too, Your boat might be a wide beam, but beware you have to book passage through most of the tunnels as no other craft can pass. Berthing fees are more, and your travel restricted to wide canals and rivers. You may only want a day boat. Then look where you are going to keep the boat and consider how far you will cruise and when.

You need to research moorings. These are not cheap, but are regulated by the length and type of your boat. The longer it is the harder it is to get a mooring. Some second hand boats are sold with moorings. DO NOT allow this to pursued you into a sale, it is the boat design and fitness that matters.

There are many ways to buy and sell your boat using a broker is one of them. However you can get more for your boat by selling privately. This way you get more money back from your sale.

We have teamed up with a very reasonably priced UK, yes; UK auction site that allows you to buy and sell anything. We advise you advertise as a Buy Now, not an Auction. However they have a really nice area to buy and sell narrow boats. They have only just started out, in late 2015 so things are going only one way bigger and better.

The company is called here is the link for the Boats Sales section.

Buy Purple Buy Sell BrowseThe prices for selling are good too. FREE to list, with the Auction and Buy Now features  with a finishing fee of just 1% with a top charge of £250 if you sell your boat via  either of these two options. However you can just Advertise your boat, car or what ever in the Classified Adverts for just £9.99 for 150 days. 

They also give you £5.00 credit to start off when you register. We suggest you see the listing fee page for more information. 

Why not give them a try. You can also sell other products on the site too, they have an area for everything you can think of. Prehaps you want to sell narrow boat products or just get rid of some of your unwanted goods, just like Ebay, but a much much cheaper.