| Ten Bob Note | ||
Buying Ten Bob Note Following our 'eventful' holiday on a hire boat at the end of October of 2005, we were hooked on canal boating and wanted our own boat. We spent hours talking over what we wanted from a boat, the layout, the equipment, size, style, etc etc. We put together a list of what we were looking for then started out on the search, the search being based mostly on finding brokers on the web and contacting them (or searching their web sites) with our requirements. It took us the best part of 6 weeks to find a boat that matched our requirements (well, almost matched, I think the only way to get exactly what we wanted would have been to commission a new build). During our search, we went to see many boats and learnt many things from looking at what other people had done. We refined our requirements along the way. We found that buying a boat is a bit like buying a house in so much as some of the descriptions could have been written by an estate agent (no offence to estate agents). On a few occasions, the boat that we went to see didn't look much like the boat that was advertised by the broker and we left disappointed. Anyway, to cut yet another long story short, we eventually were guided to a boat being sold by abnb at Crick (abnb). Paul at abnb showed us around the boat and almost as soon as we entered, we both knew that it was for us. It was the middle of December and a cold wet day. The boat was freezing inside and not exactly welcoming. Even under these conditions, we liked all that we saw. I will describe the boat on the next page. I made an offer of £5k under the asking price for no other reason than to chance my arm as I did not know enough to put an accurate value on the boat myself. Paul looked at me and suggested that I had no chance with this offer but I asked him to put the offer to the owner anyway. Later the same day, the owner came back and said that they would shave £500 off and that was the lowest they would accept and that they were in no great hurry to sell the boat. We increased our offer and it was accepted. The next step was to get the boat surveyed and also to get a new BSS certificate as it was due a BSS survey in May of 06 when it would become 4 years old. Although Paul could not recommend a surveyor for professional reasons, he mentioned that he had never heard any bad reports about Trevor Whitling, a local marine surveyor. Later in the day, I contacted Trevor and he managed to fit the boat in for the full survey on the 12th December. 12th December came and we met Trevor in the dry dock at Crick marina for the survey. Trevor explained everything he was doing and why. I learnt a great deal about narrow boats and the boat we were buying by listening to everything that Trevor had to say during the survey. I don't think that there was any part of the boat that Trevor didn't inspect. At the end of the survey, Trevor informed me that apart from needing 2 screws to secure the cooker to the woodwork and that it would need blacking in the not too distant future, the boat was, in his opinion, a good buy and that to build a new boat to the same specification today would cost in excess of £100k. The survey also included the BSS inspection and Trevor issued a BSS certificate as part of the package. We wanted to spend Xmas on the boat and it was quite a push getting the money transferred and cleared into the abnb account in time to pick the boat up un the 19th December, the last working day for abnb as they were closing for Xmas. In the end, everything turned out well and on the 19th December the boat was officially ours and we arrived at Crick just after lunch time to pick her up. |
||
| Previous Page -|- Boating Home Page | ||
Material Copyright © 2007 Ernie Williams |