Newbroom
Well-Known Member
I had been boating most of my adult life until 12 years ago when I sold my Trader 575 which I had purchased new. After cruising extensively on her all over Northern Europe and the Med even doing the occasional trip from Gib to North Africa. and practically living on board for two of those years Parental duties to ageing parents curtailed our nomad lifestyle and we had to return to reality. I couldn't at the time bring my self to buy a smaller boat and go back to being a weekend sailor. After being used to the sheer volume of the interior of the Trader made everything we looked at seem rather limited.
Spent a couple of years doing boat delivery work out to or back from the med and a bit of instructing work. But gradually lost the urge to own a boat. Then spent 12 years trying to fill a void in my life with other activities while able to be close to Lynns parent. Tried flying motor-homing restoring classic cars motorcycling nothing gave me the same satisfaction that owning a boat did.
A year ago I suggested to Lynn lets try and find another boat but keep it on the river so we are only a short distance from South London and her now bed ridden mum.
With some doubts from Lynn about that I would soon get bored on the river and our own ages beginning to slow us down a bit (mid 60s) we started narrowing the choice down and was looking for either a Broom 37 Princess 41 or a Fairline T36.
Price was an important factor but so was soundness of hull and engines. Always being practical and having a background in commercial vehicle engineering most work I can do myself.
After looking at many different boats and amazed at the poor condition of so many of them and how people cant be bothered to clean them before presenting them for sale. We began to despair at finding anything decent in our price range. Visiting Chichester marina on numerous occasions looking at boat I noticed a T36 with a gleaming hull and freshly anti-fouled sitting on the hard for nearly a year. I made a few enquiries and discovered that she was for sale but not through a broker. A few phone calls to the owner and I discovered that he was in similar position to what I had been in before, him family ties and other interests had stopped him using the boat and she had been on the hard for over 3 years.
Peter the previous owner had spent a fortune on her with many upgrades during his ownership. These included electronic controls, bow thruster, new nav pack including radar, new canopies, new upholstery and carpets plus much much more. He told me he would accept an offer in our price range for a prompt deal. As he was still paying both an engineer and a ship wright to maintain the boat he would cut his losses and accepted an offer we had expected him to reject out of hand.
A survey was quickly arranged and came up with very little except the sort of thing you would expect on a boat stood for that amount of time. Couple of sea cocks stiff, fire extinguishers out of date life-raft needing a service gas locker needing attention and the concluding remarks how sound she was.
I wanted an independent marine engineer to do a mechanical survey as the machinery and the Volvo 306s could of suffered more than the hull by not being used. Recommendations on the forum kept bringing Volvo Pauls name up.
Paul being so much in demand a date for sea trials coulnt be made till February a whole month after the hull survey. Then a catalouge of bad weather and illness forced the trials back and back until last Thursday when we finally got out.
The engines ran fine, good oil pressure, steady temperature etc etc. On the WOT runs the port engine would make its full revs and then die away losing two hundred revs.
Paul was all over the engines while they were running and found some surprising omissions considering the engines where being looked after by another engineer. The air filters were black, the racor filters looked very dirty.And one heat exchanger was leaking. On returning to the mooring Paul pulled one of thee Racors off and it was completely choked. She had a very bad case of the dreaded diesel bug.
A long chat with the owner and Paul and a bit of re negotiation to assist with the tank cleaning and we completed the deal the same day. What I hadn't realized was that Peter had most of the defects on the hull survey rectified before the sea trials and also put new engine batteries on and had his engineer and ship wright go through the boat and correct a lot of minor faults even putting new fuel tank gauge senders in. All work I was expecting to do. Bills for another £1500 spent by him
So I now have a boat which I cant use at the moment but the tanks are booked in to be done by ExpressLube the week after next (Chris who owns the company was also a Trader owner and we go back quite a few years) I know the thoroughness of his work and I am confident we will have no more trouble on that front. Paul is booked in the week after to do the engine service and in the meanwhile I am updating the safety equipment for our trip round to the Thames where we have berth booked at Windsor marina.
Is it the right boat for the Thames probably not have we got a good boat and value for money yes in every aspect. Have I got a smile back on my face.
Oh yes
Will try and post some photos later, now added but dont know how to rotate the images Dave
Dave
Spent a couple of years doing boat delivery work out to or back from the med and a bit of instructing work. But gradually lost the urge to own a boat. Then spent 12 years trying to fill a void in my life with other activities while able to be close to Lynns parent. Tried flying motor-homing restoring classic cars motorcycling nothing gave me the same satisfaction that owning a boat did.
A year ago I suggested to Lynn lets try and find another boat but keep it on the river so we are only a short distance from South London and her now bed ridden mum.
With some doubts from Lynn about that I would soon get bored on the river and our own ages beginning to slow us down a bit (mid 60s) we started narrowing the choice down and was looking for either a Broom 37 Princess 41 or a Fairline T36.
Price was an important factor but so was soundness of hull and engines. Always being practical and having a background in commercial vehicle engineering most work I can do myself.
After looking at many different boats and amazed at the poor condition of so many of them and how people cant be bothered to clean them before presenting them for sale. We began to despair at finding anything decent in our price range. Visiting Chichester marina on numerous occasions looking at boat I noticed a T36 with a gleaming hull and freshly anti-fouled sitting on the hard for nearly a year. I made a few enquiries and discovered that she was for sale but not through a broker. A few phone calls to the owner and I discovered that he was in similar position to what I had been in before, him family ties and other interests had stopped him using the boat and she had been on the hard for over 3 years.
Peter the previous owner had spent a fortune on her with many upgrades during his ownership. These included electronic controls, bow thruster, new nav pack including radar, new canopies, new upholstery and carpets plus much much more. He told me he would accept an offer in our price range for a prompt deal. As he was still paying both an engineer and a ship wright to maintain the boat he would cut his losses and accepted an offer we had expected him to reject out of hand.
A survey was quickly arranged and came up with very little except the sort of thing you would expect on a boat stood for that amount of time. Couple of sea cocks stiff, fire extinguishers out of date life-raft needing a service gas locker needing attention and the concluding remarks how sound she was.
I wanted an independent marine engineer to do a mechanical survey as the machinery and the Volvo 306s could of suffered more than the hull by not being used. Recommendations on the forum kept bringing Volvo Pauls name up.
Paul being so much in demand a date for sea trials coulnt be made till February a whole month after the hull survey. Then a catalouge of bad weather and illness forced the trials back and back until last Thursday when we finally got out.
The engines ran fine, good oil pressure, steady temperature etc etc. On the WOT runs the port engine would make its full revs and then die away losing two hundred revs.
Paul was all over the engines while they were running and found some surprising omissions considering the engines where being looked after by another engineer. The air filters were black, the racor filters looked very dirty.And one heat exchanger was leaking. On returning to the mooring Paul pulled one of thee Racors off and it was completely choked. She had a very bad case of the dreaded diesel bug.
A long chat with the owner and Paul and a bit of re negotiation to assist with the tank cleaning and we completed the deal the same day. What I hadn't realized was that Peter had most of the defects on the hull survey rectified before the sea trials and also put new engine batteries on and had his engineer and ship wright go through the boat and correct a lot of minor faults even putting new fuel tank gauge senders in. All work I was expecting to do. Bills for another £1500 spent by him
So I now have a boat which I cant use at the moment but the tanks are booked in to be done by ExpressLube the week after next (Chris who owns the company was also a Trader owner and we go back quite a few years) I know the thoroughness of his work and I am confident we will have no more trouble on that front. Paul is booked in the week after to do the engine service and in the meanwhile I am updating the safety equipment for our trip round to the Thames where we have berth booked at Windsor marina.
Is it the right boat for the Thames probably not have we got a good boat and value for money yes in every aspect. Have I got a smile back on my face.
Oh yes
Will try and post some photos later, now added but dont know how to rotate the images Dave
Dave
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