How to buy a second hand narrowboat.
Article with thanks to David Summers There is a thriving market in second hand
boats, which have a much longer life than second hand cars. A second hand
boat may not always meet your exact requirements like a custom built one,
but not everyone can afford new and one distinct advantage is that it will
be instantly available.
You can buy a boat privately or through sales
agents – known as brokers ( who sell on behalf of the owner on a commission
basis which is typically 5-7% of the sale price). Private sales are often
advertised in the monthly Canal magazines available in W H Smiths and
increasingly on the internet. Brokers also advertise in the magazines and
can be found up and down the country.
I myself spent many an hour over a 12 month
period looking at a few web sites but without doubt the best of these is
Appolloduck.com
Don’t be daunted by the fact that Appolloduck may have
2-3000 boats for sale. This web site allows you to insert “filters” say for
price, length of boat, style of boat (trad, semi – trad or cruiser), private
sale or brokerage or both. Using a combination of filters together, the
2-3000 can be reduced to a hundred or so to look at in detail. Using this
site over a 12 month period gave me a good “feel” for the price of boats in
the category and age I was interested in.
So how do you decide on what you want? A good
place to start is to ask yourself what use will you make of the boat and how
many will be on it the majority of the time. If you only intend using it for
a few weekends and maybe two weeks in the summer you could probably make do
with a smaller boat. If however, like me the intention was to be on the boat
for 6 months or so of the year then the extra space of the larger boat would
be welcome. My ideal size was 57feet long as this size boat can travel
anywhere on the canal network. On some parts of the network, boats larger
(they can go up to 70feet) than 57 feet cannot fit in the locks – so they
don’t have the whole network to travel on.
The price you wish to pay is another important
consideration, however if you have £40,000 available say then look at boats
up to about £50,000 and negotiate hard to stay within your upper limit. It
is somewhat easier to negotiate with private vendors especially if you have
the cash. It is important to ensure however that the person selling the boat
(and relieving you of £40,000 say) does actually own the boat. Be aware that
there is no national register for inland boats – so be very, very careful to
verify ownership. If you have any doubts then walk away. Remember if the
deal seems too good to be true – then it probably is and could well be a
stolen boat.
You will need to do some research into the
style of boat (trad, semi trad or cruiser stern) that suits you and as there
are various internal layout configurations, I personally made this high on
my list of considerations. Top of my list was a “Pullman
dinette” which enables 4 people to sit properly at a table for meals as well
as dropping down to make a second double bed as and when needed. Another
“ideal” was for a bath with shower over as my partner wasn’t keen on just a
shower and most boats are only fitted with a shower. I think internal layout
is an important consideration and ranks equally with the price band you can
afford.
It should also be mentioned that in addition
to buying the boat you should have money available to cover the Licence fee
to British Waterways (around £700 a year), boat insurance and the cost of a
mooring (typically around £2000 a year). Also rather like a car needs an MOT
after a certain age, a boat needs a Boat Safety Certificate every 4 years –
so ideally ensure it has a valid certificate when you buy, otherwise you may
be involved in considerable expense getting your new purchase through the
Safety Certificate.
