To buy or not to buy this

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Little yogi

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Hi

I've been looking at a Seaaster river cruiser, built in 1980 shes had work done on the electrics ,engine is serviced , starts fisrt time and she was of the
water last year for antifouling , I don't know much about her history, and she needs a new interior fit out , new galley carpets curtains etc , which I can do myself , question is should I buy such an old boat.
Mainly concerned about get spares particularly the engine, which is a BMC on shaft drive , hours are unrecorded, heard its getting hard now to source engine parts for BMC , I guess if the worst happens its a new engine, don't want to buy a money pit, were meeting the owner at the weekend is they anything I should be looking at or asking.

Be grateful of your thoughts
 
Last edited:
I guess it’s a Seamaster 813? Good boats as I recall from my river beating days back in the 90’s. Inevitably with a boat of that vintage there will be challenges to face with the engineering, structure and interior. But that’s what 30+ year old boats are about, part of the scene. If you’re practically minded and fancy the challenge then go in with your eyes open_____lots of fun to be had. Alternatively stump up £100k for a new boat and just relax.......you pays yer money and takes yer choice!
 
Diesel or petrol? If diesel, as long as it starts well from cold and doesn't smoke significantly once warmed up, it's probably good for years. Actually, the same probably applies to petrol, but I'm biased agin petrol on boats, mainly because of their thirst.
 
I have a 1.5 bmc, and have no problem getting parts, in fact did a full rebuild less than 2 years ago.
As mentioned ASAP are good for spares, as are Calcutt Boats, who I have found to be very helpful - they provide spares to the canal barge sector, where many barges still have bmc engines.
As also mentioned many parts can be sourced from MGOC as earlier MGA engines have a lot in common.
 
Little yogi said:
Hi

I've been looking at a Seaaster river cruiser, built in 1980 shes had work done on the electrics ,engine is serviced , starts fisrt time and she was of the
water last year for antifouling , I don't know much about her history, and she needs a new interior fit out , new galley carpets curtains etc , which I can do myself , question is should I buy such an old boat.
Mainly concerned about get spares particularly the engine, which is a BMC on shaft drive , hours are unrecorded, heard its getting hard now to source engine parts for BMC , I guess if the worst happens its a new engine, don't want to buy a money pit, were meeting the owner at the weekend is they anything I should be looking at or asking.

Be grateful of your thoughts
Click to expand...
I had a boat with a BMC (Thornycroft) Engine and one of the reasons I sold it was the difficulty getting engine spares.
I should explain that one of the reasons I bought the boat was that in the 1980's I had a garage and these BMC Diesels were engines which we worked on all the time. And before that in the 1970's I bought and sold a lot of Austin J4 Vans which had the 1500 cc engine. And they were reliable, mind you when I sold one I always gave the buyer a can of Easy Start saying "You may need this"
Leaping forward 35 years I assumed that as you can get anything for an MGB that parts for these BMC Diesels would be available.
(although the engine I had was the 2500 cc BMC )
I had intended to buy a second engine, and recondition it. I still had a mooring in Brittany and wanted to sail it there.
After finding that I could not get an engine to recondition I looked at improving the one I had. The compression were good. One part I wanted as a spare was a Water Pump. Could not find one anywhere. OK I could get the one I had reconditioned but I wanted a spare. Aparrently ASAP once did water pumps but stopped. The one in my boat looked original, ie 30 years old.
Anyway I sold the boat.
 
Spares for the 1.5 and 1.8 diesels are very easy to aquire at sensible prices.
The larger BMC diesels like 2.4 and 2. 5 are more of a problem, especially for marinizing parts. The big 6 cylinder ones are hard, tractor spares places may help.
Land Rover based 2.25 and 2.5 are still easy for parts.
 
Assuming the hull and deck are GRP the age of the boat may not matter so much. (If it is not GRP don't buy it.) It should last for ever with maintenance. A boat is a boat and specific spares for hull are unlikely to be a problem. However as said spares for the engine may be very specific so need to be researched. ol'will
 
William_H said:
Assuming the hull and deck are GRP the age of the boat may not matter so much. (If it is not GRP don't buy it.) It should last for ever with maintenance. A boat is a boat and specific spares for hull are unlikely to be a problem. However as said spares for the engine may be very specific so need to be researched. ol'will
Click to expand...
The Hull and deck are GRP and as others have said obtaining engine spares is possible, there are a lot of farms near me, and most farmers are driving 40 plus year old tractors so getting spares for them can't be a problem
 
Little yogi said:
The Hull and deck are GRP and as others have said obtaining engine spares is possible, there are a lot of farms near me, and most farmers are driving 40 plus year old tractors so getting spares for them can't be a problem
Click to expand...

Is there a link to photos of the boat?
 
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