Broom wanted

SgtColon

SgtColon

Well-Known Member
Joined
18 Jun 2010
Messages
114
Location
Nr Manchester / boat at Cap D'Agde, France
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Hello I’m looking for a good condition Broom 37 Crown or Broom 10/70. I just thought that this might be the time of year when some folks might be considering selling one but not yet decided or committed themselves to a broker. I’ve seen most of those currently advertised under £60,000 and to be fair they were disappointing, to be honest they were more fitting as garden furniture. I’m not expecting miracles with what has to be considered an elderly craft but something like me …. you know a few miles on the clock, a few signs of wear and tear, welcoming a little TLC but still capable of getting up to mischief.
My last boat has been sold … sob … and I need this next one ideally before April 2016 to take me across the channel and down through the rivers and canals of France to the Med. If it’s already the other side of the pond that’s fine too.
I remain open to be persuaded into another make but the features I like about the Broom are the deck layout (plenty of open space on the command deck, I don’t want a fly bridge), the ability to reduce height of the radar arch, etc., to negotiate the bridges, the island double berth, the ability to reach a minimum of say 18 knots but to cruise comfortably at about 12 knots so semi displacement, twin engines,
Please don’t hesitate to PM me,
Thanks for reading this
Graham Wilson
Read more at http://www.ybw.com/forums/showthrea...ep-me-off-to-the-sunshine#leagdi4bB7HZJJiD.99
 
Speak to Simon or Dominic at Bray Marine sales (Bray Marina) as I have seen a few really nice ones there lately!
 
Flynnbarr said:
Is the minimum of 18knots a typo?
They weren't the quickest of boats when new,now,hmmm!
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Unless the boat you buy has been repowered doubt that most have ever seen 18 knots,let alone now they have absorbed a few tonnes of water in the hull and with all the junk that Broom owners find it impossible to go boating without.:)
A wonderful boat but not a fast one.Also beware of the olde ancient engines...sooner or later the spares problem will surface and finding major bits such as heat exchangers and risers will be interesting.
Newer stuff such as the Perkins M135 are OK and Volvo spares are still around.
 
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oldgit said:
Unless the boat you buy has been repowered doubt that most have ever seen 18 knots,let alone now they have absorbed a few tonnes of water in the hull and with all the junk that Broom owners find it impossible to go boating without.:)
A wonderful boat but not a fast one.Also beware of the olde ancient engines...sooner or later the spares problem will surface and finding major bits such as heat exchangers and risers will be interesting.
Newer stuff such as the Perkins M135 are OK and Volvo spares are still around.
Click to expand...

If it'll cruise at 12 knots that will be fine. Ideally I would have liked a little extra but only for getting out of trouble. I have had some concerns about the availability of spares for some of the older Perkins engines especially in France, Thats one of the reasons I like the Broom 10/70 as many of them have Volvos
 
The last Crown sold at Bray Marina I believe was a late one with the Volvo engines.Called Desert Star and was up for 80k,looked lovely.

There is/was one on Boatshed that has been re engined.
 
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Have you contacted the Broom Owners Club? There is a 'for sale' section and there is certainly boat movement.
 
There's a good 10/70 at Newark and a lovely Crown in Suffolk, Howard Ford Marine, which has been modernised nicely but been for sale for some time. Don't pay anywhere near the asking price on these older Brooms. We offered 13k less on a 10/70 and it was accepted, before survey. It was a good one too. Go armed with comparisons.
 
The advice is appreciated, I did make what I thought was a fair and appropriate offer on the Newark 10/70 especially as I would have taken on the responsibility for the winterisation and winter storage but it was declined. I keep the hope that the owner may reconsider. It doesn't seem to take long before they look terribly neglected and deteriorate. The one you mention in Suffolk I have seen and was very sad. The photographs made it look so appealing. The boat for me has to be out there somewhere but I guess I'll just have to be patient.
 
L
SgtColon said:
The advice is appreciated, I did make what I thought was a fair and appropriate offer on the Newark 10/70 especially as I would have taken on the responsibility for the winterisation and winter storage but it was declined. I keep the hope that the owner may reconsider. It doesn't seem to take long before they look terribly neglected and deteriorate. The one you mention in Suffolk I have seen and was very sad. The photographs made it look so appealing. The boat for me has to be out there somewhere but I guess I'll just have to be patient.
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Oh no, that's a shame about Suffolk. Probably why it is still there. You just can't trust photos. I think Newark is a relatively new listing? My concern on that boat is the aftermarket teak decks. Looks like real wood and all the maintenance issues that go with it.
Did you look at the Crown at Penton Hook? It's honest and unmolested, looks well maintained engineering wise but it is looking dated inside. New curtains, carpets etc might do the trick...
 
An excellent time to go shopping.The days are fast drawing in and the temperatures dropping.A very wide choice of elderly boats that have been sitting around for ages failing to achieve anything like the very optimistic prices being dreamed about by both owners and brokers.
Marinas are full of them.
Have been searching for some time for a Princess 35 or Fairline Sedan 36, have made various offers that have been rejected as totally unacceptable.
Several of those boats have been up for sale for a least two or three years,even possibly much longer.Only one to my knowledge has now been sold.
There are nice boats out there,its just case of doing your footwork and trundling around boatyards until something leaps out at you. I use the word boatyards deliberately.
Anything sitting in a large corporate Thames marina and listed in the brokers office at the end of the pontoon is already probably locked into the overpriced Alice in Wonderland world known as The Thames. :)
Better value for money is probably found elsewhere in a small yard somewhere else in the land.
Finding them is the hard part. IMHO
 
Cashbuyer said:
L

Oh no, that's a shame about Suffolk. Probably why it is still there. You just can't trust photos. I think Newark is a relatively new listing? My concern on that boat is the aftermarket teak decks. Looks like real wood and all the maintenance issues that go with it.
Did you look at the Crown at Penton Hook? It's honest and unmolested, looks well maintained engineering wise but it is looking dated inside. New curtains, carpets etc might do the trick...
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Yes the one at Penton Hook (now sold apparently) was the first I ever viewed. Being the first was probably why I was so shocked. I wasn't prepared for the fact that I might have to pay a larg sum of money for an elderley boat and then have to thow thousands of pounds at it to renovate windows, wooden interior, furnishings, etc., As Old Git
implies above these boats spend months and sometimes years floating outside the brokers office quickly deterioratng fom the condition in which the original photographs were taken. Its a very dispiriting process getting excited about viewing what looks in the photos to be a lovely looking boat and then finding it to be a shed. I fail to understand the thought process of some owners and brokers. When I sold my last boat it was gleaming, I would have been ashamed for people to view it in any other condition. I've been viewing boats and finding old damp dirty socks stuffed under mattresses, some appear to have just been abandoned by the owners. In a car showroom all the cars are generally maintained in a washed and presentable condition but owners leave boats with brokers and nothing is done to keep them clean or even spider web free. It seems to me to be a good reason to avoid the brokers and hopefully make direct contact with an owner wishing to sell.
 
Many of the boats we have been to see would better have been described as projects.Most had worn,if not to say tatty interiors,that had not been updated and sometimes nor even cleaned for some considerable time.Mould and damp had also taken their toll,the number of boats with moss growing in the window channels etc,stained interior woodwork and stinky threadbear original carpets were also common.
Sticking a few flower vases,a few smellies and the odd throw cannot disguise a smelly floating tomb...and thats just the stuff you can see by walking aboard.
Engine rooms were usually worse.One of the P35s we went to see had obvious staining from just about every oil and water joint on both the engines..
The cooker surrounds were burnt and scorched.
It was only after going up to look at the boat memorably described as in "good condition" that was contacted by a well known forumite,who said it was was a absolute pile of s****e and had been standing on that brokers hard in East Anglia for years.
A Turbo 36 also in that area,was just very very tired....Who the hell buys these things ?
The search goes on.:)
 
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I do really like your ramblings on these subjects Old Git:encouragement:
How long have you been trying to sell/aiming to buy......ever thought it may be you:):)

Best advice on here for the OP is contact the Owners Club.
Best of anything never comes to open market but then you have to pay what the owner wants for it.....Not what you think it's worth cos you saw a Manky one on the end of a sales pontoon/spotted one on the internet in some far flung foreign port.
Good luck to the OP in his quest.I hope we get to see some pics of his new steed and adventures.
 
Flynnbarr said:
I do really like your ramblings on these subjects Old Git:encouragement:
How long have you been trying to sell/aiming to buy......ever thought it may be you:):)

Best advice on here for the OP is contact the Owners Club.
Best of anything never comes to open market but then you have to pay what the owner wants for it.....Not what you think it's worth cos you saw a Manky one on the end of a sales pontoon/spotted one on the internet in some far flung foreign port.
Good luck to the OP in his quest.I hope we get to see some pics of his new steed and adventures.
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Agree with this advice. When I found our Broom, it was exactly what I wanted in well above average condition. I paid over the odds for it, but it's made me happy every time I've used it and for me, that's priceless. Good luck in your search.
 
On behalf of the OP I've had a look on the BOC web site and there nothing of interest listed there currently. If anything comes up I'll let you know.
 
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