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Re the yacht. Might be a Morgan Giles 30? Built mid 60s to mid 90s.
Quick search shows there is an owners club https://mg30.org.uk/
A 1989 example that has had a full refurbishment and lots of replacement/updated parts is on sale for £20k. Refurb & refit apparently cost the owner £130k. https://yachts.apolloduck.co.uk/boat/morgan-giles-30/649172
If I was in the market for one and wanted to actually do some sailing I know where my money would be going. Hopefully there will be someone out there who wants a project boat and has the space and time to do the work required themselves as would be a shame for her to end up like so many others rotting away up a creak somewhere. Abandoned boats are a growing problem across the country.
wobbliscott
Full Member
You should only buy or invest in appreciating assets. lease or rent depreciating assets – Warren Buffet’s rule.
And yet the Muppet keeps buying Airline stocks when they're high and selling when they're low.
Hoik ot out the water trailer it far from the sea. Dump it in a field. Tada! Quirky glamping site, watch the money roll in.
If you are just wanting shot for zero cash try the facebook group "Sitting there rotting in a boatyard". Used both by people spotting wrecks worth salvaging and people like you wanting shot...as long as it's free. Seems pretty active.
You should only buy or invest in appreciating assets. lease or rent depreciating assets – Warren Buffet’s rule.
And yet the Muppet keeps buying Airline stocks when they’re high and selling when they’re low.
To be fair to him, Warren Buffet has done alright for himself. He doesn’t quite deserve a “muppet” tag!
Bring
Out
Another
Thousand
I really want to hear more about your FIL, he sounds ace.
the adult toys we had to dispose of
The plastic carrier bag you use to lob them in the recycling centre needs to be strong enough for the job. You don't want to be scrabbling around on the floor gathering up the contents when the bag fails like a friend found out when disposing of his dad's gay porn stash.
I'll never want to own a boat even if I won the Euro lottery. Our large weed harvester boat cost about £20k a couple of years ago to repair before it went back in the water, this year it was only £9k, and thank god it's up for renewal and should have a new one next year.
Just had a quick google for an image of one and came across this, This was our new one about 10 years ago and they still want 90,000 euros. The picture of it on the lorry is of it being delivered new. I drove this one for about 4 years.
Here's a pic of our current one taken a couple of years ago.
Have you checked behind every panel for packages wrapped in plastic and parcel tape!!?
I know you’re joking but a girl I worked with inherited her dads home after he had an unexpected heart attack.
She found nearly £60k under the carpets.
Its a nice looking boat and getting rid now would be sensible and whatever you make out of it is a/ not going to cost mooring anymore b/ liability issues c/ another tick off the list.
We had boats in the family and the old man used to say it was like setting fire to cash in a waste bin , but we had great times and must admit to looking at boats myself, but not 50ft of boat !!
The right boat can be great, but the ops does not look like the right boat for a lot of people.
I'm onto my 3rd boat over the last 20 years, and it's great. it's not true about the best days being the day you buy it and the day you sell it.
they are not cheap to run, but there is a scale of 'not as expensive as I thought' through to 'how much!'
What do you give a man you hate? A boat
What do you give a man you really hate? A wooden boat
Just had a quick google for an image of one and came across this, This was our new one about 10 years ago and they still want 90,000 euros. The picture of it on the lorry is of it being delivered new. I drove this one for about 4 years.
OK - I need to know. What the hell is a weed harvester? It does not look as interesting as the title suggests. And what do you do with weed (the boring kind, not the interesting kind) that justifies a machine of that value?
Or is it about removing the weed and clearing the waterway rather than what you do with the weed per se?
Apolloduck might be worth a go as well.
If no takers with it on the water, ask the yard about sticking it up on the hard standing - and also see if PBO, YBW etc forums have suggestions for other hard standings. A berth will cost a bit more than sticking it on dry land for a bit.
You may well find someone adventurous or simple enough to take the Osborne on - or drunk enough to buy the plastic 4KSB (see SailingAnarchy for glossary on that).
At the moment they're both costing a packet and fixing up the Osborne will be costly and painful in so many ways that you can't even begin to imagine. I'd price to sell and consider it a lucky escape.
Oh wow, I'd happily live in that boat. Liverpool though... not a chance. Can you deliver?
I can't add much other than this is a good thread I hope it runs on till you find a solution, your fil sounds like a story waiting to be told. Your bil is a skimmer.
Convert it's basically a floating mower. We mainly cut the main river for our Waterways team to help keep it navigable for boaters. It cuts the weed with a reciprocating blade and the weed goes up the front conveyor bed onto a back conveyor bed. The weed is dumped on the river bank to rot down which doesn't take long. A lot of the top-end of our river is SSSI so has to be placed in certain areas.
This what the front looks like when emptying the weed.
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We also cut a lot of the backwaters for flood defence with smaller Conver boats where the Berky is too big to go up. These just cut the weed then we use the Berky to collect the cut weed.
Conver weed boat

Love a Gentleman's yacht thread. Was he a "gentleman"? I've got a very Terry Thomas image of him. Great idea about a viking funeral. Someone on here will lend you a wetsuit if you don't want to use the rubber dingy on the foredeck for the return from the last voyage of the Good Ship Joyce Julia Were they the GFs? Saves on many costs and creates a business opportunity if you open it up to others. Anyway £15k is very optimistic if you look at what has been sold recently or up for sale at the moment.
(this is just one of the many aspects of his life we are dealing with, my MIL, his ex, his 2 gfs, the adult toys we had to dispose of on his boat !, he also has a lockup with a load of red diesel a jetski and 1000 other things we need to sort through- also costing us £100 a month)
as the posts above - what a boss! - more info please.
Some friends of mine had an old relative die and leave them his 'estate', which consisted of the usual things like road bikes,tv's, hifi equipment etc. They also found a massive porn stash consisting of books, dvd's, video, magazines etc. They were going to just bin the lot, but then one of them decided to see if it might be worth selling on ebay, They're about 50% of the way through the pile of porn and have made about £3k on ebay from it so far.
So if this chap is similar - dont throw the porn out, get it sold, there's money in second hand grot
The danger is... There might be more than money in the grot.
Item condition... Used.
This is a brilliant thread.
Love the idea of a boat but just varnishing the wooden trim on a GRP dinghy was enough to put me off proper wooden boats for life.
They’re about 50% of the way through the pile of porn and have made about £3k on ebay from it so far.
Think I'd get myself a new eBay account and PO Box before setting forth and selling someone else's grot😉 The buyer feedback section must make for some interesting reading too.
Sorry can't be arsed to read the whole thread as mildly put off by TINAS lovely BLAZE pic on page 1.
If no-one has mentioned it then Apollo Duck seems to be the boating Auto Trader.
There are loads of Facebook groups. I'm a dinghy sailor so I'd tend towards something like the excellent Dinghy and Boat Advice group but that's probably not right for a bigger motor boat.
Think I’d get myself a new eBay account and PO Box before setting forth and selling someone else’s grot😉 The buyer feedback section must make for some interesting reading too.
They've gone through about 3 ebay accounts so far... It appears that selling grot is against ebay t&c's but you can sell a fair amount before they detect it and you get shut down.
andrewreay
Love the idea of a boat but just varnishing the wooden trim on a GRP dinghy was enough to put me off proper wooden boats for life.
During a less sane period of my life, I commissioned the build of a wooden gaff rig ketch.
The sane thing I did was to specify no varnished surfaces - except the masts and booms. Every bit of wood that went into the boat was soaked in Everdure - a thinned out epoxy, and we used epoxy paints on top of that. It still looked good 10 years later and for a wooden boat it was very low maintenance. The next owner sailed it across the Pacific to the USA from Oz (where I used to live).
@NewRetroTom predigital age, so in a box somewhere with the other black and white pics. 🙂
But seeing as you like interesting boats here's some pics of pearling luggers I took when I was in the Torres Straits over 45 years ago. (Mouldy slides converted to digital). There's a few if you click through that album.
I was thinking of buying one.
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Well we still own both boats
Still costing us money, the marina have been less than helpful, I think they were happy to take out money, with no use of the facilities!
https://www.boatshed.com/osborne_50-boat-277111.html
And apologies to @noone for not getting back sooner
https://www.boatshed.com/halcyon_27-boat-277114.html
Seems to be working for me?
It is probably the disaster that is skim links preventing them from working. I never click a link anymore. They work if copy/pasted
If you can drag the boats over to Meols, it looks like the council will dispose of them for free!
Well we still own both boats
Price is too high.
Apologies for brusqueness and brevity, but there it is.
Its a niche boat that. Its way too big for weekend type use. You are looking for someone that wants to live on a boat, and fix one up at the same time. It would be hard to sell at the best of times.
I have some experience with the various mariners of the north west and there is no real cheaper option. The mariners of North Wales are more desirable as they are where people go on holiday and keep small pleasure boats. Its also very tidal all around the north west to the extent you cant get in / out of most of them for half of the time. Getting it out of the water is worth looking at. The cheaper ongoing cost off set by the cost of pulling it out, there are also more places that could do that than actual mariners.
The mariners of North Wales are more desirable as they are where people go on holiday and keep small pleasure
*rubs thighs*
just a minor point, but you have to register to see more than the cover photo...that's not going to help your cause
Lovely boat. You should though spend a bit of time sprucing it up, especially the deck areas. Spend a weekend or two sanding and varnishing.
You''d probably do more to your house if you were selling that, so maybe the same should apply to the boat. Certainly isnt going to cost much.
*rubs thighs*
and verily there was much lolz amongst those who spelled accurately
Keeping it will cost a fortune. It was a nice boat once. I would tidy it up, maybe do the woodwork and sell it.
In my opinion, UK yachting anywhere other than the south coast is a pain, due to climate, prevailing wind and sandbars.
If you want to keep it, be prepared for basically a part-time job, it's like having an allotment.
Update
Someone bought the boat
£8k cash!!
He was apparently looking for a project for himself & his grandkids
Hes having it taken down to his lake!, where he will restore it to use as a guest house 🤯
Welcome to boats - it’s a whole other world
You should have left some of the grumble in it for them to find during the work
Good result I'd say 👍🏻😁
Back of the net! Spose when you don't need to do the engine and all the shipshapey stuff the rest seems a lot less daunting. (Assuming it's just going to float there)
Want to buy a boat?