Death of a fine vessel?

[Guest]

Er a few hundred maybe, but that would be it! to all intents and purposes she is a wreck not unsalvageable, but never the less a wreck. I had more in mind of doing somebody a bit of a favour in "relieving her of her immediate distress" but that is as far as I would want to go.

Charlie.

 

[oldgit]

Re: Firewood more like.

For half that money you buy a nice warm dry comfortable boat that you could actually enjoy and go places. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[milltech]

Well realistically, in the scope of the eventual costs, if it was a question of £3k or £5k to liberate her it wouldn't be any big deal. There was a rumour he was asking £25k, don't know where I heard that, on the quay maybe.

 

[milltech]

Re: Firewood more like.

Well if you're not into wood that would be an opinion, but you don't get much these days for £150k, certainly nothing you could live on "as a gentleman", (ducks head).

 

[alb40]

People do ask silly money for old damaged or rotten boats.

Mines an old girl, but its in fair condition, so I think she was resonably priced.

Trouble is, as fred says, many boatyards and riversare littered with captain bodgit's attempts at saving old boats or making 'cheap' liveaboards. Good ones can be saved by good people, but ones that are too far gone are destin for a burnup, and should not be allowed to ever reach the hands of captian bodgit.

 

[Guest]

Sorry John,

really got to dissagree with you, what you are looking at is a hulk with rusted solid engines busted ribs and frames.

It really would never fetch anything like that kind of money, nor would be worth it, as someone has already pointed out, for 3-5k you get a nice dry boat that you can use straight away.

 

[oldgit]

Re: Firewood more like.

And all those iron fastenings weeping merrily away.Not copper sadly or she might be worth something for scrap.

 

[SteveE]

Count me in, I need to do rebuild something, wife wont let me do a car.. Wiggo after his Diesel course can rebuild the engines.. Just installed Microsoft Project and rearing to go...

PS I also want to prove Oldgit wrong...

 

[milltech]

[ QUOTE ]
for 3-5k you get a nice dry boat that you can use straight away.

[/ QUOTE ]

Do show me where! You know this is a serious bit of well constructed boat that's been abused and gone downhill and IS deserving of saving. Some are, some aren't, she's no classic but she is an example of a family cruiser built to very high standards by a very well respected yard.

If she were a Silver there'd be a queue, quality will be the same, just the same is known to a smaller group.

 

[Sixpence]

Hi John
Thanks for responding and can you tell how badly damaged she is

to others
There are groups of us around the country that spend time and money doing our best to save boats with a bit of character so please don't dismiss this out of hand . The latest attempt was to rescue one at West Mersea , and if you want to see ' too far gone ' take a trip and have a look at her . If people are willing to help with this sort of project then it can , and does suceed sometimes

 

[Victorious]

hmmm
Some pictures of inside would be interesting...

 

[Sixpence]

exactly , but I don't think we can expect anyone to start poking a camera through the windows of somebodys boat no matter what state it's in

 

[Guest]

John, I think you are looking at this in perhaps a different way from some of the rest of us?

Nobody is questioning your assesment of her build quality, what I at least, am questioning is her value as she lies right now.

Basically, she is worth next to nowt, because the tosser that owns her, has let her deteriate to bloody match wood!

Yes, in my opinion, she is worth saving, but she would need serious money to do it, and you would never get back what you would have spent to do it. It would have to be a labour of love, with the intent to keep and use her more or less to the end of your days, if you sold her you would perhaps get near what you put into her, but I have my doubts, the market for wooden boats is small, and getting smaller.

I have the feeling that like a lot of us, you love wooden boats, but the realities do have to be faced.

I think that the best we could do, would be to see to her immediate needs, in the hope that there is someone out that is willing to take her on, and has the where withaul to do it. We are talking megabucks here, that's the reality as I see it. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

Just have a look through the internet brokers sites, like Boats and Ouboards, Apollo Duck etc. You will see wooden boats (albeit not in the same class) but whole and ready to use, for just the kind of money that has been mentioned.

Cheers, Charlie.

 

[Forbsie]

[ QUOTE ]
The latest attempt was to rescue one at West Mersea

[/ QUOTE ]

Which boat was this, Dave? I'd really be interested to find out what has happenned to L'Esperance there.

 

[Victorious]

[ QUOTE ]
exactly , but I don't think we can expect anyone to start poking a camera through the windows of somebodys boat no matter what state it's in

[/ QUOTE ]

She looks like the owner would object? /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif

 

[steverow]

Oh dear what have we started??.

Lets go hypothetical for a moment.
If taken on, this would be a big big project.
By comparison we are just coming to the end of a complete internal refit of our Birchwood 35 and it has taken us four years of working nearly all available weekends and holidays, and the integrity of the hull was never a problem...and the engines only required top end rebuilds.
So it needs putting in context.
However, on the positive side there is absolutely no doubt that amongst us all we have more than the required amount of skills to do the job.
One problem that I could see immediately is the location of the vessel, being way out South West. The greatest concentrations of forumites are either South coast/Home Counties, East Coast/Thames or Midlands...for me getting down there on a Friday night from Warwick would be a four or five hour haul. Then there are accomodation issues for workers for the weekend.
So one requirement would be getting the vessel to a more central location so that the maximum number of forumites could work on her with the minimum travel time...
I dont see that raising money to do it would be that much of an issue, look how the forum rallied for Callum...
As for ownership, maybe it could be owned by the forum itself...if the forum could be considered such an entity.
It would be nice to have a vessel available to share, maybe it could be chartered to disabled groups...could be set up as a charity...could be used occasionaly by forumites who are between boats etc etc.
Possibilities are endless.
But it would be a crazy amount of work over a number of years...and as always the difficulty would be keeping the enthusiasm going over that period of time.
I know because even in my medium sized refit it has been difficult at times to keep ourselves motivated.

So probably getting well ahead of ourselves but just some possibilities... pros and cons etc.
Firstly as Milltech says someone would have to contact the owner, take a peek inside and see if it is remotely viable as a project.
Of course it doesn have to be this vessel..there may be others..but I have to say she does look nice.

Most importantly...shouldnt be afraid to say NO.


Steve.

 

[nyx2k]

Of course it doesn have to be this vessel..there may be others..but I have to say she does look nice.

maybe ipc could do the reseach and persuade owner to part with her as a basis for following the story of a group of relative strangers getting together to save an old boat. they could do a monthly or quarterly feature.

 

[Sixpence]

Steve , putting it in simpler terms , what you're saying is that it can be done but would require a lot of effort and money , the other forums I work on that don't have a sense of humour , manage to save some pretty damn good boats because of the stories and history behind them , and only raise the money through donations , and if you think of the running costs of an ex WWII MTB , it aint cheap , so I leave it open to peeps to decide what's worth saving , and wooden boats like this are worth it in my book

 

[Sixpence]

Forbsie , if you want a PM with the link let me know , or give me a ring and I'll tell you all about it , with more help she might have made it , but things were a bit pushed at the time so more willing and able workers are always needed

 

[BrendanS]

MTB's and other similar boats have a history and need saving. Not every wooden boat is worthy of saving.