WDB
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Post by WDB on Jul 17, 2017 6:55:03 GMT
I found a new way to appal MrsB1 yesterday. Out of curiosity I strolled along to the closing stages of the Trad Boat Festival, just outside town. Boy 1 and I have admired some of these boats, and their beautiful fittings and woodwork, at the moorings around the bridge, and I was curious to see some closer-to.
I also, of course, wondered how feasible it might be to have one of our own, given that we live so close to the river but make so little use of it. The answer, it turns out, depends on what you mean by 'feasible'. A few thousand buys you an attractive but modest wooden tub that might just hold four and their sandwiches. A few more thousand - the price of, say, a nearly-new Mercedes estate car - gets you five decent seats with room for a hamper, and sometimes a modern, silent electric motor, as well as mahogany and Lloyd Loom chairs. And then you can pay Bentley money and - well...
I reckon the right boat would depreciate very little, so our costs would be for mooring, insurance, registration and maintenance; cursory research suggests £2-2.5k a year, depending mostly on length. And then we could putter quietly up- or downstream, watch the birds, pause for lunch, walk a bit and putter back. It looks like fun, and our changing circumstances mean we can afford a bit of that. And if we don't take to it, we won't have lost much.
So I showed some pictures and adverts at home, and you can imagine the rest. Oh well.
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Post by tyrednexited on Jul 17, 2017 7:44:04 GMT
....the way you started out, I thought you were going to propose commuting "up to town" by boat.........
;-)
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WDB
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Post by WDB on Jul 17, 2017 8:14:01 GMT
I did consider (sort of) something like that ten years ago, when I started my previous job and both ends of my commute were 200m from a branch of the Grand Union Canal - only about 80 miles apart. I reckoned I might use a canal boat as a weeknight pied à terre - or rather, à l'eau - then drive it home after work on Friday. At the statutory 4mph I'd have been home in time for lunch on Saturday, and could then set off again after lunch on Sunday to be back at my desk in time for a full day on Monday. Simple!
For reasons that escape me now, I stuck to the Volvo-and-M40 method for three years, then relocated to where we are now.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jul 17, 2017 10:51:26 GMT
Take away the water and how long before the conversation switches to caravans and motorhomes?
At least with a motorhome headroom is less of an issue in the back.
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WDB
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Post by WDB on Jul 17, 2017 11:13:32 GMT
I promise you there'll be nothing that requires a chemical toilet. (Nor, for that matter, that requires any fetishistic leatherwear. 😛)
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jul 17, 2017 12:38:25 GMT
The boots had to go back, not waterproof.
False advertising, the first and last time I get involved in offload mid-summer sales marketing.
Back to filing that spam under b, for bin.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jul 17, 2017 18:30:05 GMT
Errr..... Buy the Mercedes. The boat is a hobby, the Merc is a necessity 😉
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WDB
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Post by WDB on Jul 17, 2017 21:04:39 GMT
It's not an either-or. Different, independent budgets. The car will happen first. Probably.
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Post by Hofmeister on Jul 18, 2017 17:29:57 GMT
Buy a boat, the fastest way to turn a large fortune into a small fortune. You can, more or less, get a car that satisfies all your urges and meets all the various requirements you want and places you go.
There is no such boat. It will, by design be limited in one or other of all things water.
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WDB
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Post by WDB on Jul 18, 2017 21:22:40 GMT
Shame on you all for being such a miserable bunch! A car is a car, and none the worse for that, and I'll still be buying one soonish, mostly with my ex-employer's money. But a modern car needs a properly epic journey to feel like it's giving you an adventure. There'd be no danger of mistaking a day out in this for just another trundle to the office: www.peterfreebody.com/brokerage-detail.php?boat=111(Yes, I know that one is asking new-Mercedes money. It is pretty, though. I mean, really pretty.) |
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jul 18, 2017 22:00:41 GMT
Looks a bit low at the rear.....won't it take in water? BTW - I am a total landlubber  Very pretty though. Just can't see myself in it up the Manchester Ship Canal or the Rivers Irwell and Mersey.... |
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Post by tyrednexited on Jul 18, 2017 22:14:19 GMT
Just can't see myself in it up the Manchester Ship Canal or the Rivers Irwell and Mersey.... .....it would dissolve! ;-) |
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Rob
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Post by Rob on Jul 18, 2017 23:23:34 GMT
There is no way that boat cost as much as £46k to build in 2006. How's it still £46k over ten years later?
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Rob
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Post by Rob on Jul 18, 2017 23:25:18 GMT
Okay it's £47k. I could find someone to build that for less I'm sure. Fixed costs aside like engines, wood, etc. but £47k for a second hand boat? Please. :-)
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WDB
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Post by WDB on Jul 19, 2017 5:25:43 GMT
There is no way that boat cost as much as £46k to build in 2006. ...which is presumably why its builder is still in business ten years later. 😉 The high residual values are part of my calculation. Yes, costs of maintenance, insurance, and (especially) mooring will be significant, but because a boat has a much longer useful life than, say, a car, depreciation should not be a major cost. Even a new boat might not cost much more than the VAT component. And they make them cheaper oop North: www.marineclassics.co.uk/electric-slipper-launch.htmlThere are several boat yards, builders, restorers and brokers along this stretch of Thames, so I can see myself talking to a few and getting to understand what's involved. |
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