Boat Moving Advice

[katie777]

We are just finalising the purchase of a new boat bought via a sealed bid auction (Colvic Northerner 27ft but with a ketch rig) . She is currently on the hard at Shotley Marina, she's in reasonable condition but needs some love. The state of is the engine is unknown although we suspect it well was well maintained until the last year or two. We'd like to get her back home to Woodbridge very soon and do the work on her here and I think I want to bring her by road , despite it being extremely expensive. With an untested engine, I don't really want to try to bring her under her own steam, and we don't really have the experience/confidence anyway... Are we missing anything though? Would a tug or a tow be a better option given how close we are? Any advice would be appreciated

 

[Major_Clanger]

Dependant on your level of experience - unless you really believe there to be a reason not to, then take her by sea. Check over obviously and renew fuel filters, drain tank and renew fuel - but aside from that a diesel engine needs very little. If it has compression and is given air and clean fuel then there's little reason for it to fail.

Checking her front to back and renewing odds and sods for the short passage will cost appreciably less than transport by road. They're all jobs you'd be doing at some point regardless.

 

[snowbird30ds]

Run it up to Ipswich a couple of times to make sure all is good and go by sea, it's only a short open water trip.

 

[Kurrawong_Kid]

Dependant on your level of experience - unless you really believe there to be a reason not to, then take her by sea. Check over obviously and renew fuel filters, drain tank and renew fuel - but aside from that a diesel engine needs very little. If it has compression and is given air and clean fuel then there's little reason for it to fail.

Checking her front to back and renewing odds and sods for the short passage will cost appreciably less than transport by road. They're all jobs you'd be doing at some point regardless.

+1. I would have thought a competent marine engineer could run and check over the engine and stern gear, change the filters and arrange to have the fuel “polished”. All needs to be done anyway as said above. Then suggest you deliver by sea, possibly hiring a local delivery skipper, but perhaps have a friend standing buy with their boat to give you a pluck should your engine suddenly fail!
There is another alternative! Do the work at Shotley!

 

[Pye_End]

If she is up on the side, and you want her to be up on the side at Woodbridge, then it might be worth checking the sums and seeing how much different the cost is - taking into account 2 lifts, and what will you want to do with the mast?

An engine up on the side for year or two isn't a worry in itself, but it would be worth drawing a bit of fuel from the bottom of the tank (half a jam jar), letting it settle for a few days, and seeing if it looks ok. Looking at the state of the engine oil etc. will tell you if this was changed just prior to lay-up. Would look at the usual suspects, including checking the impeller. A trial hour running (in gear) in the marina, and maybe out in the river will soon give you a good indication. It is not as though you are intending being offshore/long trip. As a sailing boat you should have 2 means of propulsion if there is any wind, so you do have options. Check VHF works.

 

[Debennut]

I agree with everything previously said. I can speak highly of the engineer at Shotley who, I am sur, would carry out the required work.
I could put you in touch with a chum who could accompany you to Woodbridge. Retired HHA pilot and yacht owner who is very familiar with the Deben. Alternatevely I will be going by road to Woodbridge on the 5th May to collect my own boat and bring her back to Shotley. It could work out quite well if we were to go round by sea if that date suits.
Hopefully it won't be too long before the new buoyage is in.

 

[katie777]

Thanks so much for your great advice. Yes, we really don't have the experience to move her ourselves (in my opinion at least- my husband is less risk averse or possibly less realistic depending on your perspective ). It really does work for us to do the yard work in Woodbridge, (the yard is practically a neighbour) so factoring in lift-ins and lift-outs and a skipper, it doesn't seem too crazy to pay for road transport (okay, maybe still a bit crazy- the masts add ££). We will keep looking at other options. All the advice re. engines will be helpful which ever way round we do things. Many thanks and I'll keep you posted

 

[Marmalade]

You mention lack of experience / confidence...
1. If that lack of experience includes crossing the Deben bar - definitely have an experienced friend with you
2. Ask Shotley to drop her in a week early and check that she's watertight and run up the engine on a berth
3. Check other systems - steering / sails / vhf / nav lights / anchor / sea cocks etc.

I see from your last post that you're leaning towards road transport however...

 

[ashtead]

I guess one consideration might be if you need to take the mast down anyway to look to see if you need to replace lights eg bulbs or units ,wiring ,tracks on mast etc ,wind instruments or whatever is up there. I appreciate this might not need repair but have you considered age of rigging and if it needs replacing? I would be thinking about what jobs you might be able to get done if the mast was down by way of an upside to craning it off. I assume you would not have in mast reefing but that might need an inspection if you do. If you worried about the engine you might check if any version of Seastart up there you can join. I have limited engine knowledge but most issues seem to be caused by dirt in tank/fuel once it’s running of course.

 

[Tranona]

Having just moved a boat by road my advice would be not to do it unless as already suggested you need to drop the masts anyway - which you may well need to do to get insurance unless the rigging was replaced recently. 2 masts and a lift both ways will cost more than the truck - somewhere between £800-1000. Presumably you have had a survey before submitting your bid as to get anything other than third party you will need one. Do not underestimate the cost of meeting survey and insurance company requirements on an old boat that needs a bit of TLC - re-rigging 2 masts takes you into the £3k price range even doing some of the basic work yourself.

If you don't need to drop the masts to replace the rigging then spend the money on a decent engineer and a professional skipper to help you bring it round, after carrying out all the checks suggested earlier.

You can really only make this decision after considering the totality of what you need to do to the boat to get it in a usable seaworthy condition. I went through exactly this process buying the boat I have now. I sat down with the surveyor and worked through everything that needed doing and even though the boat had been in regular use right up until I bought it we came to the conclusion that the most sensible thing to do was to truck it from Wales to Poole rather than spend time and money just making it safe enough to sail knowing that many things needed permanent "fixing" anyway. However your distance is shorter and eminently doable with help in a day rather than a 300 mile round the SW coast for me!

 

[xyachtdave]

Sounds like an easy trip home for the OP following the advice above. Test sailing around the Orwell in light airs first and picking a decent weather day with a HW early afternoon, should be easy and safe.

The deliveries I’ve been involved in with my mates have followed a different but familiar pattern….

Mate buys the cheapest example of the boat he wants for sale anywhere in the world

It’s been unused/rotting/ for at least 5 years.

Doesn’t bother with a survey due to enthusiasm, buyers desire and budget constraints.

He’s time poor and can only bring boat home next weekend when the weather is due to be shocking from the wrong direction.

Boat launched, leave in shocking weather, lots don’t work and everything that did work for a while breaks.

Find out the ‘provisions’ he was supplying was one sausage roll he bought in a petrol station at 4am on the way to the boat.

And he didn’t bring any charts because of the amazing chart plotter….which only had a chip of the Solent in it.

Avoid the mistakes above and it’ll be fine!

 

[Keith 66]

If going to sea with an untried boat always check the state of the fuel in the tank. Even more so if the boat has been sitting unused for some time. Engine failures due to fuel problems is probably the biggest cause of call outs by the lifeboat.
A boat can be on inland waters for years, goes to sea & the fuel starts sloshing round the tank, rust sludge diesel bug etc, the fuel filters get blocked the engine conks out. Worst boat i ever saw like this was a 40 foot motor yacht, I had the lovely job of cleaning its 60 gallon fuel tank out. I bailed about 20 gallons of thick rusty sludge out of the bottom of it. It was a miracle the engines ran at all.