What a shame

ylop said:
I’m certainly not disputing that we all have different approaches or suggesting others are not valid -
Click to expand...
Really? "Need your head read" isnt suggestive of invalidity? Kind of sounds like it .

OTOH, likely I myself would probably suggest that the cheque book approach of buying new and shiny was at least less meritorious than, say, the Tally-ho restoration, to take an extreme example.

It is an extreme example, though, and I suppose the new and shiny buyers are perhaps funding new developments in boats, which may, for all I know, unlike those in cars, be better.
 
ducked said:
Really? "Need your head read" isnt suggestive of invalidity? Kind of sounds like it .

OTOH, likely I myself would probably suggest that the cheque book approach of buying new and shiny was at least less meritorious than, say, the Tally-ho restoration, to take an extreme example.

It is an extreme example, though, and I suppose the new and shiny buyers are perhaps funding new developments in boats, which may, for all I know, unlike those in cars, be better.
Click to expand...
Tally Ho is not a good example for someone seeking to restore a modest 20 for or something boat.
 
Fr J Hackett said:
Tally Ho is not a good example for someone seeking to restore a modest 20 for or something boat.
Click to expand...
Obviously, but then I didn't use it as one.
I used it as a counter example to someone spending 140K on a shiny new boat.
And I said it was an extreme example
Twice
THINK I'm covered.
 
Last edited:
flaming said:
It's even simpler than that. In order for there to be old boats in the future, there has to be new boats now.
Click to expand...

If no one builds new boats this year there will still be old boats in the future. Likewise for 10, 20, 30 years

If they go on not building new boats indefinately there will eventually be no old boats, but it would take many generations, because boats last a very long time if maintained, when they stopped building new ones they wiould stop scrapping and keep renovating old ones (like cars in Cuba), and it would take an almost infinite time for the last boat to bite the dust.

So a bit too simplified. No wonder it was so popular.
 
Last edited:
Wansworth said:
I posted about a YouTube channel called Oslo the name of a little 21footer startingtob restored by two women
Click to expand...
Reminds me of the Stella I bought for restoration. It would have sunk in a few minutes, but I bought it because the engine was in perfect condition, so had some resale value. But most of all it had beautiful curtains, that really showed the female touch. I have not seen the Youtube channel you mention, But I bet the boat, if ever finished, will have a lovely carpet in the cabin & curtains to die for.
 
ducked said:
I doubt I'll again have a car in the UK, though I did run one until fairly recently in Taiwan and would probably get another (Toyota Zace favorite) here if I was staying. Low tech bangers no longer exist, on-street parking (and maintenance) outside my Edinburgh flat wouldnt be appropriate for the rare non-disposable classics they have become, I doubt I'd find a modern car maintainable, and, TBH, I'm probably getting too old and creaky for on-street maintenance in Scotland anyway. Jacking up a car on the horribly slippery and uneven traditional granite sets (square cobblestones) was always dangerous and doing it much into my 70's, perhaps in the winter, would feel like pushing my luck.

Whether I'm too old for boat revival in Scotland remains to be seen, but what I didn't fully appreciate was how absolutely atrociously random the bus service is from its location at Boness, an especially critical factor in miserable Scotland, where an hours wait, (quite normal, if it stops at all) could literally kill (me anyway, acclimatised to SE Asia for 20 years or so).

What a shame about Brexit, which, along with other embuggerances, blocked off some potential escape routes. Still, I can console myself with the reflection that it wasn't my fault, since I wasn't there.
Click to expand...

Been in the boatyard at Bo'ness several times, the boatyard dog liked playing our late collie.
Agreed the bus service is now carp, it caused my sister who lives in Bo'ness and worked in the national gallery of Scotland in Edinburgh to retire early.
Pity the old harbour was never restored.

For myself the only new boat I've had is the current one, a very small keel boat, deliberately designed and built by me for my ever increasing decrepitude. I was refurbishing hatch covers this morning, the boat is on the driveway for the winter.

I knew someone who used to travel to open dinghy events, he then would look at the resident decrepit dinghies, buy them if he could for peanuts, then break them up for the parts, which were generally worth more than the boat.
 
ducked said:
Really? "Need your head read" isnt suggestive of invalidity? Kind of sounds like it .
Click to expand...
if you are going to get pernickety probably best to read again what I wrote. I said need your head read IF you didn't at least CONSIDER the alternative. I'll stick by that - if you had a spare £140K and without considering newer boats decided the answer was to buy a wreck and pour money into it you are crazy. If you do have the money but decide you'll enjoy the challenge/work involved thats not crazy. Crazy is making decisions without considering the options.
 
would be interesting to know what new boat sales have been over the last 10-15 years and a way of measuring people leaving and or starting in boat ownership.
There has been a decline in members in the equine industry over the last 15 years,
If someone had £140,000 it might not buy them much in terms of a new boat. I suspect they would much rather buy a 30-50 year old boat and make gradual improvements and choose something much more sensible than waste £140,000 on a boat.

I suspect anyone who is to go out and spend £300,000 plus on a 40ft boat today is very much in the minority and has a fair bit more in reserve or they are bonkers.
I can’t see why the older well kept boat market is any more fragile than the new boat market. Why would it be,
Steveeasy
 
Last edited:
gaylord694 said:
It's such a shame that older boats which require tlc are actually a burden and not an asset........It looks like an old guy in the yard is now having to get a salvage company in to get rid of his grip/wooden coach roofed beautiful boat as it's beyond viable repair costs .....It's such a shame as there's some really valuable equipment on it such as a complete Aries self steering assembly and a two year old mast and rigging.......Another boat I dare say confined to the great boat graveyard
Click to expand...
I owned a 1960's wooden Folkboat for a decade or so, and as I became (ever) closer to 70 realised that I wasn't able to maintain the boat given the climate I live in. The boat came out of the water in late September, with the idea that she'd be afloat again in April. No chance, as in those months we'd 5 days where it'd been possible to do the work. Given my feeling for the boat, and knowing that there was no real possibilty of me maintaining her, I contacted some local 'wood' people, offering them 1500 kilos of mahogany for free, if they wanted it, and had a good outcome in mind. A couple of them wanted the wood for 'furniture'; nah, but one guy wanted the boat, for a boat. The boat is free by the way, as both of us want it treated with respect. The guy came several times to view the boat, and as a very skilled 'wood' guy, who has boat building/restoration experience, decided that he could do the job, AND convince his wife that it was wise, and committed to the task.
Great skills on show.
The boat wasn't a basket case, it had issues that required attention, but on her last sail with me, we came back from Cape Wrath to Inverness with problems, but was open to simple repairs that would've kept her 'chugging along' for years.
The deal is that the boat's free, however, when she's launched we 'chat' about the sails, the (iron) keel, the extra stuff that's in any boat, and settle on a price. That might be anathema to some; if it is, then don't do a deal with someone that you don't trust.
The boat has never been a "burden"; once the money's paid, it's gone, sailing and boats aren't investment opportunities.
 
Blueboatman said:
Of the four boats I’ve owned, two made a profit, one was a give away and one gave me a nervous breakdown..

And they were all massively fun and life affirming and life changing too.

In addition, if you were to take time off and have a sailing jolly and rent yer house out, then that- net- finance must count for something too..

Now I see so so many people walking around looking into a phone and unaware of every life’s detail playing out all around them, I just don’t think the entrepreneurial/ diy/ roll your sleeves up and have a go/ do something different/ live your own life culture is prevalent anymore. Hence all the coffees, mini luxury weekend breaks, film subscriptions, you tube patroon donations.. ya da ya da..
I feel old😳
Click to expand...
I don't see that with our kids, the youngest is in his mid 20's and he is doing a ground up restoration of a 1990 BMW 325iX which in Belgium qualifies as an oldtimer, he did enough to get it imported and on the road, once that was achieved he has stripped it down and is now putting it back together.
He bought a house, really a small holding that has a small orchard, he rents that out while still staying with us, the rental pays for the mortgage and a little left over, he is a mechanical/electrical technician with an engineering firm, nothing high flying. Oh and he uses youtube to get how-to videos if he does not know how to do it himself, he is dyslexic and struggles with the written word as does his older brother who runs his own company.

I could say almost exactly the same for the rest of the kids, not one of them lets the grass grow under their feet.

The eldest lad has a boat and takes it to Croatia in the summer.
 
ridgy said:
There are plenty of people who refuse to have second hand anything except houses and they are not necessarily that rich.
Click to expand...
Well it depends what rich is or isn’t.
Think the whole thing is being over analysed and based on nothing more than people’s perceptions.
First question. Are lots of new boats being sold each year and is the number increasing or decreasing year on year?
As for old boats what possible evidence is there the majority of boat buyers each year buy new?

I’d bet money the number of sales for old 50-30 years old boats 28-35 ish feet is 10 fold on new boat sales. All based on my assumptions.
The main reason participation is falling (another assumption of mine based on views here) is down to cost of living and change in recreational activity. You might find it far less if the huge number of old tubs did not exist.
New expensive large boats don’t exactly appeal to the new novice sailor do they unless your in the bubble then one can convince themselves otherwise.

Steveeasy
 
ridgy said:
There are plenty of people who refuse to have second hand anything except houses and they are not necessarily that rich.
Click to expand...
There is not much churn in the property market in the Limburg part of Belgium, they buy a plot of land with a house on it tear it down and build their own dream house, the saying here is that a Vlamming is born with a brick in his belly.
3 of the 5 kids have done this, the 4 one is making plans to, and the youngest is not quite ready to rebuild yet but it is the aim.
 
The Q said:
Pity the old harbour was never restored.
Click to expand...
I've been told the harboyr is contaminated. Actually, I was told it was "radioactive", which I'd guess isnt true, but perhaps dioxin, which can have a long half life.

Very nice harbour over the other side at Charleston in Fife, but derelict, and full of apparently mostly abandoned boats. Story is landowner wants to fill it in and develop as an upmarket housing estate, but its listed, so wasn't given planning permission, so its been closed and they are waiting for it to become dangerous. Not an entirely unfamiliar story.
 
There was proposal to build houses and flats all down the seaward side of the harbour, that would have included refurbishment of the harbour. The Bo'ness and Kinneil Railway were really worried about it as no doubt some one would have complained about the noise and also smokey smuts on white sails..
 
Looking at the original post, maybe it is a case of putting the good mast and other good bits onto a better hull which needs a mast, picking the best components from the two, before passing the old hull and parts not needed to a recycling company.

Wider situation is that there are probably enough serviceable boats around at reasonable prices that people don't need to be looking for neglected boats to restore unless they are special - nor to buy new ones.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.

Share this page

Top