Potential boater

[Col1963]

Hello

I'm considering buying a small boat to use on local canals or rivers, so I'm after some experienced pointers and advice on what to look for. I've seen what look like a few decent cabin cruisers on places like ebay and facebook marketplace for under £6000.
If anyone has any tips and advice for a newbie it would be greatly appreciated.

Many thanks
Col

 

[scozzy]

Welcome! you might be better placed with this on the motor boat forum ?

 

[chris-s]

Engine, pay a lot of attention to the condition of the engine, generally, that’s the most expensive bit to replace.

 

[johnalison]

Welcome! you might be better placed with this on the motor boat forum ?

I think the Thames forum might be better, from its description, but I can’t say that I have visited it. There is of course nothing wrong with posting here, but there might be some members with inland waterways interests who don’t look in here.

 

[ProDave]

Think about what waterways you want to use it on. Your choice will be dictated by the size restrictions on your waterways.

To me it would be a shame to have a boat so large it is limited to only some of the inland waterways, which would persuade me to look at a narrowboat so the entire inland network is available to you.

 

[Alicatt]

Welcome to the forums, check the bunks to see if you and anyone else joining you are of adequate size and are comfortable, but the engine is the motive power and the most expensive bit if it goes wrong, is there a service history and does it look well maintained.
storage space, we moved from a 7.5m river/canal boat to a much larger 11.6m cruiser, the 7.5m boat has better storage than the big boat!
Type of propulsion, single or twin engine? does it have a bow thruster? has the boat got a keel that will help keep it on a straight course?

And as ProDave above says above size restrictions and speed restrictions, can the boat go slow enough to keep within the speed limit? our big boat will just break the speed limit of 8km/h by about 0.2km/h on our local canal if I use both engines at tickover, and on one engine it drops to about 6km/h but she will burble along at 15km/h on the open water and has a top speed of 16knots