Hail to the Hive!

We have been living on Canal narrowboats now for 4 years and have coped fairly well with living on boats that many would consider too small for full time living aboard but lately we have been feeling the need to hopefully speed up a move to a bigger boat. It always boils down to finances. There is also the dilemma that we would have to be decanted for a while if we were to sell the boat we are living on currently in order to leverage the funds for the next leap. Most of the boats we saw that would be ideal were just a touch too much financially to be realistic.

We recently went to view a boat that was up for sale for £27500 and it had potential. We gleaned from the broker and also from the guy that showed us around the boat, that there were more than a few issues with it. Fuel tank requiring attention , if not replacing, a bit of pit welding required on the hull ( just the same as our current boat had) and a multitude of other sins.

Upon viewing we realised the scale of the task at hand and I casually mentioned to @millycf1976 that I didn’t think I would bid more than £20000 for her and later when we chatted to the guy showing us around he said he didn’t think it was worth more than £20k and I smiled and told him I had said as much to my wife.

There were many pros and cons with her but we also realised that with all that would need to be done we couldn’t live on her at the same time which would have presented another problem too.

I also learned from the guy showing us around the boat that the owner had recently bought a nearly new all bells and whistles narrowboat for over £100000 which I made a mental note of.
So we left and chalked it down to experience as it is always good to view and see whats out there and get ideas. But i decided to keep an eye on it online to see what transpired.

A couple of weeks later I saw on the Boat Brokers website that the boat had had an offer on it and was awaiting survey report. I said to @millycf1976 that when they get that report and find out what we know they will pull out of that sale and sure enough a week or so later that is exactly what happened and the price was reduced to £19950. Hmmm interesting I thought.

I was running it all through my mind a few nights later and decided ( after a few cheeky beers) to e mail the broker and put a stupidly low bid on the boat to test the water if you’ll pardon the pun. I figured the owner may be getting tired of it hanging around his neck and just want to be rid of it and leverage some funds seeing as how he’d just shelled out over £100k on his nice shiny new floating home. SO I put in an offer of £12500. I fully expected it to be rejected and sure enough the following morning that was exactly what happened.

But then like a fisherman feeling a bite on the bait at the end of his line I got another e mail a few hours later saying that they had spoken with the owner again and he asked if I would go to £15000? Hmm I thought he really has had enough, or maybe he needs the money for something else.

I waited until the following morning as that e mail had come in quite late in the working day and I mulled it over in my mind overnight. Then I responded ststing that £12500 was my firm offer as I truly felt with all the work that needs to be done and probably more it reflects what I felt the value of that boat was, at least to me.

The boat did have so much potential. She just needed some love and some money spent on her but the end result would be a boat that was big enough and layed out as we wanted it to be.

Later that day I received another e mail saying that the owner had accepted the offer as long as it was a quick sale. SOLD!!!!

I paid my deposit and went over the next day to sign paperwork etc and all of a sudden the reality that we now owned 2 narrowboats!!!! Eeeek. @millycf1976 really is the Admiral of the Fleet 🤣.

So tomorrow I am going to pick her up and begin to move her to where we will be getting the work done on her. I am both excited and nervous in equal measure.

The beauty of this is we already have Narrowboat Cygnet to live on while we get the work done on the new vessel. It will take easily 12 to 18 months to get the work done and it will have to be done in stages and when funds are available and people `i know available to help me out with it.

This will be our 3rd boat which literally make me laugh out loud when i think about it. Crazy really but as the broker said to me. You know boats and can see the potential in this one and at £12500 I said I can afford to open up Pandoras Box.

Exciting times indeed 🙂

And I am under no illusion as to how much hard work this will be both in working to finance it but to actually get this job done. But the reward is our dream boat at a ridiculously low price so it really will be worth the effort in the long run. Am I mad? perhaps, a little crazy is god. Sometimes you just got to go for it as things don’t just happen by themselves.

Watch this space for updates as this is going to be an interesting journey for sure.

Excited I am 😃