* biz wrote, On 3/6/2007 4:53 PM:
Jeff wrote:
* biz wrote, On 3/6/2007 4:14 PM:
I've got an unsecured loan from my bank at quite a reasonable fixed
rate 6.9%. I've got about 60% of the asking price in savings
actually, but I don't want to leave myself with no ready cash. But
then I'll need quite a bit to pay for the survey and haul-out, and
any hull-work that needs doing while it's on the hard.

So you're going to buy a boat you can't insure with money you don't
have? That makes sense.

Heh - I have found an insurer that's quoted me 400-500 quid. Got a
couple more leads to try too.

You should compare that to a comparably sized glass boat to see what
the premium is. Perhaps they are more forgiving on your side of the
pond; perhaps the wooden boat there are newer than here in the States.


You're assuming you can find a yard that would haul a wooden boat.
They won't at my yard, or most of the urban yard where space is
cheap. I don't even think they would haul to scrape the bottom, they
certainly wouldn't to replace planks.

It's currently owned by the owner of the marina. He's hauled it himself
in the past couple of months to paint the underside.

Uh, its easy for the yard owner to make an exception for himself. You
should ask around at nearby marinas to see if there is any issue in
your area.



With vintage glass boats being relatively cheap, why would you
consider a wooden boat? At least with a glass boat, if it passes the
basic hull survey, then it has a predictable value and you can fix up
medium size problems like a soft deck or old rigging or engine without
worrying that you're throwing good money after bad.

Yes, the economics of this are interesting. There's a magazine article
I haven't read but have seen referred to that tots up the cost including
initial outlay and ongoing maintenance and compares GRP to wood. Comes
out about even. Then it's a question of whether you're interested in
actually doing the work, year on year.

I have friends that have lived aboard, and followed a migratory
lifestyle for the last 27 years. They do a huge amount of maintenance
work on their boat, partly because they like to by mainly because they
can't afford to pay any one else. Their current boat is a 41 foot
glass boat, which they bought pretty cheap but has probably gone up in
value with all the work that's gone into it. I doubt very much
whether they could have done this with a wooden boat. In fact, their
first larger boat was wood, and they spent more time working on it
than sailing - when they decided to live aboard they sold it and moved
to glass.


I can't get a mortgage on a wood boat, and so have limited my budget to
GBP10k (not including survey 1.5k, 1st year's insurance 0.5k and
immediate work 2k). I could get a mortgage on a glass or steel boat
(even then I can only get a 75% mortgage, so unless I get a loan to make
up the rest this only extends my budget to around 12k).

500 pounds for insurance on a 10K hull? That's 5%. Does that include
hull insurance or just liability?


Another thing that keeps me awake at night is if wooden boats are hard
to sell.

Certainly your market is reduced.