Silver Motor Yachts

[GGtoo]

I am hopefully about to purchse a 40' Silver Motor Yacht. She is in good structural order but needs cosmetic work. I have little knowledge of wooden boats so would be grateful for some guidance, websites, books etc. I am a reasonably practcal bloke but am used to plastic sail boating up till now.

Mirelle seems to have some good knowledge to impart, reading previous posts.

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[Mirelle]

Flattery!

Silvers are to motor yachts what vintage Bentleys are to cars, of course. Beautifully built in the first place. John Bain who designed them wrote a book about motor yacht design and you might look out for a copy. I am no expert on them but there are people who are. In terms of general maintenance, of any wooden boat, the Laws of the Medes and the Persians are:

1. Have the boat surveyed before purchase by a specialist in wooden boats. He will probably exclude the engines from his survey - don't worry too much about that. if you were not mechanically competent you would not be buying a motor yacht. What you need is expert advice on the hull, decks and systems.

2. Be sure that you have a good quality winter cover. Otherwise fresh water will find its way in somewhere and you will have rot somewhere where you are not expecting it.

3. Be sure that you isolate all the electrics whenever you are not on board. Otherwise you will have electrolytic corrosion from stray currents somewhere where you are not expecting it.

4. Lay her up in a yard which handles a lot of wooden boats, make a friend of the manager and foreman and listen to their advice. Even if you keep her in a marina, lay her up in such a yard if you possibly can.

5. 40' Silvers have quite complex plumbing arrangements. I seem to remember a galley forward in the crew's quarters and a bathroom with bath aft. Given the age of the boat, I should think that a surveyor would want to be very sure that no fresh water leaks have occurred and passed un-noticed. Likewise the electrics could be a source of concern.

6. Some Silvers are teak, some are pitch pine, with teak decks.

7. Having said all that, these are very lovely boats. They commonly attract devoted owners who look after them.

8. I admire your taste!

Now, books, websites and such.

There is a wonderful American bi-monthly magazine called Wooden Boat; if you buy the collected back issues and read through them you will know all you need to know. They have a website at

http://www.woodenboat.com/

They also sell quite a library of specialist books and the £/$ relationship is about to make buying American books worth while again.

There are several good books on this side of the pond; however many are out of print and you may need to track them down on eg Abe Books. John Scarlett, the founder secretary of the OGA, wrote an excellent book, which starts with replacing the keel (!) Michael Verney's books are old fashioned but are also excellent.

 

[GGtoo]

Thanks Mirelle, all useful stuff.

She is pitch pine on oak with canvas covered decks. The heads is amidships with only WC and basin. Galley right aft.

Twin BMC disel engines a la London Taxi!!


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[milltech]

<<He will probably exclude the engines from his survey - don't worry too much about that. if you were not mechanically competent you would not be buying a motor yacht.<<

Well that's not true in my case, I was always in a state of controlled panic when I had a single engine, so new (to me) boat has twin Gardners and I will feel more comfortable with that.


<hr width=100% size=1>John
<A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.allgadgets.co.uk>http://www.allgadgets.co.uk</A>

 

[burgundyben]

As usual on here lots of useful advice from Mirelle, no more I can add, other than to confirm that you have good taste and to search the web for.... oh hand on a mo, I'll do you a link....<A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.silvermya.demon.co.uk/silverbain.html>http://www.silvermya.demon.co.uk/silverbain.html</A>

<hr width=100% size=1>Sod the Healey - I think I'll buy an E-Type.

 

[burgundyben]

just thought of something esle, send a pm to ccscott49, he owns a Silver motorsailor, smashing boat called Englander

<hr width=100% size=1>Sod the Healey - I think I'll buy an E-Type.