What's the story at Burnham

DavidofMersea said:
You are not a visionary entrepreneur. At £12,000 + righting of £7,500, this could be made into a mud berthed houseboat -- A cheap home. A beach hut in Mersea will cost you more than that
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Oh, David, you're such an optimist. How much do you think it would cost to get the mud out of the interior, clean it up, remove all the existing ruined structure/fittings, rebuild the interior, etc? And that's without doing anything to the hull which might leak like a sieve.
 
pvb said:
Oh, David, you're such an optimist. How much do you think it would cost to get the mud out of the interior, clean it up, remove all the existing ruined structure/fittings, rebuild the interior, etc? And that's without doing anything to the hull which might leak like a sieve.
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Yes I am an optimist and I am also a realist. Apart from rebuilding the interior that could be a DIY job. If the boat was to be used as a house boat, there would be no need to rebuild the interior. As for the hull, this boat was floating until recently and there is no reason to think that it would not float now. If it were to go into a mud berth, it would not matter if it leaked and the lower floor was abandoned. There was a similar boat in Mersea for over 50 years without a bottom.

If the hull is sound, which it might not be, it may well be economical to renovate it to its former glory

I see the bidding is now up to £13,300.
 
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DavidofMersea said:
Yes I am an optimist and I am also a realist. Apart from rebuilding the interior that could be a DIY job. If the boat was to be used as a house boat, there would be no need to rebuild the interior. As for the hull, this boat was floating until recently and there is no reason to think that it would not float now. If it were to go into a mud berth, it would not matter if it leaked and the lower floor was abandoned. There was a similar boat in Mersea for over 50 years without a bottom.

If the hull is sound, which it might not be, it may well be economical to renovate it to its former glory

I see the bidding is now up to £13,300.
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The vessel has been on it's side for around 9 months... Not "recently" if you're looking to refurb the inside...
 
Normalfornorfolk said:
I still has to get to said mud berth on it's own bottom...
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It was floating last Spring. It may have rusted through a bit since then, but it cannot be leaking much yet, and a good bilge pump should be able to pump out quicker than it comes in, and keep it floating until it reaches a mud berth .... if in fact it is leaking at all. The bidding reached £19,100
 
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Tomahawk said:
Bidding closed at £19000!!!
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Yes, Somebody got a real bargain there!
Just needs a new deck, hull, interior fit out, electrical & mechanical refit, coat of paint and salvaging, and a new berth, be good as new.
Oops, nearly forgot, the new owner will need to budget for a new tap washer as well. Apparently a leaky tap cause the sinking!
 
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Dan Tribe said:
Yes, Somebody got a real bargain there!
Just needs a new deck, hull, interior fit out, electrical & mechanical refit, coat of paint and salvaging, and a new berth, be good as new.
Oops, nearly forgot, the new owner will need to budget for a new tap washer as well. Apparently a leaky tap cause the sinking!
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I'm kicking myself that I didn't bid.
 
Guise said:
And then I saw this http://watersideboatsales.com/boats-for-sale/1946-houseboat-ex-mod-admiralty-ammunition-barge-gosport-hampshire-6420360/

Maybe it's not so high a price to pay. I had no idea a houseboat had such value. Spend £50k on a conversion and still a tidy profit, if profit is what you are after.

Whatever the goal I hope the brave buyer is successful and we have been spared another sad hulk on the riverbank.
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There is a lovely houseboat for sale in Burnham right now for 450k.

A very different kettle of fish though.

She's in excellent condition, is beautifully fitted out, and has a secure (ie renewable) mooring

And if the ebay boat can be salvaged, moved, repaired and sorted out for anywhere near 50k .......I'll eat my hat.

I'm not particularly risk averse, but she's way off my limit.

I hope I'm wrong.

Edit: Changing tack

Your final comment was thought provoking!

I quite like seeing old hulks: I find them moving, rather than sad.

Everyday, I run miles and miles along the seawall.

Whether I head east or west from Burnham, the foreshore is littered with the remains of once proud little ships.

I find them very evocative, thinking of the joy they brought, of the men who built them, of the men who worked them, of all their various skills and knowledge, of their possible life stories and so on.

But then ..... I quite like running round grave yards, too.

Anyway, thanks for the pleasant daydream!
 
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Dan Tribe said:
Oops, nearly forgot, the new owner will need to budget for a new tap washer as well. Apparently a leaky tap cause the sinking!
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That may be the story the owner is telling. I heard that the boat got blown sideways on to the edge of its mud berth at high tide, then fell over off the little mud bank when the tide went out, then flooded when the tide came back in because there are big holes in the deck.
 
pvb said:
That may be the story the owner is telling. I heard that the boat got blown sideways on to the edge of its mud berth at high tide, then fell over off the little mud bank when the tide went out, then flooded when the tide came back in because there are big holes in the deck.
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That ties in with my own recollection.
 
My understanding was that the electricity supply was lost during storm Doris a few days before the sinking. Loss of the bilge pump caused her to fill over a few tides so she became unstable and rolled. All the mooring lines appeared intact on the morning after so hard to see how she moved out of the berth. The truth is probably a combination of these rumours.
 
‘Llys Helig’ means ‘The Court of Helig’. Helig ap Glannog was a legendary C6th North Wales figure – whose land was inundated by the sea!
 
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NealB said:
I really do hope that you're right, David, and that she'll fairly soon be back afloat, showing off her timelessly elegant lines.

I see her every day (I live about 200 yards along the quay from her), and she is, as you might expect, currently one of the hottest topics of local conversation.
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Keep us posted on developments Neal
 
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