Well my wife has

Her dad died earlier this year

he lived on a boat in Liverpool marina

but had been too ill to maintain it for the last year + & hadnt ived on it since last xmas

condition has deteriorated, value has gone from £55k 10 years ago when he bought it to £15k now at best (according to survey)

costing us £500 a month mooring fees, only going to deteriorate over winter too

Brother in law is in the navy- he captains a T45 destroyer but has no clue about this (he suggested towing it out & letting the lads use it for target practice )

so anyone want to buy a boat, could be amazing, but needs a lot of work (also its stuck in lockdown liverpool & we cant get to it!)

needs varnishing

when new

water has seeped in through top and down sides

also has this one as well we need to sell

any advice appreciated, whats the yachttrackworld equivalent?

(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)

Welcome to boat ownership.

yachtingtreackworld equivalents are sailinganarchy.com (the equivalent of pinkbike, but with more ranting about billionaire boat owners). And the Yachts and Yachting forum, somehow even more cliquey despite being the ‘sensible’ forum.

My relatively modest hole in the water that I pour money into:

Sell the boat, Sell your house. Buy another boat and live in it. Moorings are like gold dust aren’t they?

If it floats, flies or, err, something, then hire it.

I once (part) owned a boat. It sank in a storm one Xmas, we found it on its side half submerged. It kept costing us money for ages after that while we fought with the insurers. They won. Never again.

needs vanishing

FTFY etc. 🙂

It seems a shame to just let the asset sit there and rot, is there anyone local who you can pay to go and make the cabin watertight and any other repairs to weatherproof it over the winter?

Two best days in the life of a yacht owner?

Get it out of the water and find somewhere cheaper than £500 to store it, then sell in the spring. Condition of the engines will be key to a sale, what did the survey say? And what about the hull condition I assume it’s wood? Varnish is least of your problems.
The sailing boat is worth a couple of grand depending on condition. See if you can give it away to avoid mooring fees.

Sounds like a right character. Write up a screenplay of his life and when it sells for mega bucks do up the boat to sell/use? Sorry I have no useful suggestions.

whats the yachttrackworld equivalent?

Yachting and Boating World

Strongly recommend signing up and asking there. You will get excellent and expert advice.

https://forums.ybw.com/index.php

I suggest asking on the PBO section. Chances are, someone will know the boat(s)

Let us know how it goes.

A risk of stating the obvious, it looks like it either needs sorting properly ASAP or selling for whatever you can get. I have no idea about the value of it in good condition or as is.

Assuming it’s vaguely seaworthy, I imagine you’ll be able move it to a much cheaper mooring somewhere in N Wales? But even better – can you get it out of the water onto a hard standing over the winter? That’ll be a much better base for repairs and it won’t deteriorate so quickly.

Oldie but goldie.

Fill with expensive goods (or possibly not).
Insure for a vast sum of money.
Sail out to sea.
Scuttle it.
Collect insurance.

What could possibly go wrong?

I have an even less useful suggestion. Just stand on it and shout ‘I’m on a boat’

I know nothing about boats apart from that they look cool, but I do not want to own one. Two things come to mind:

i) Isn’t this what auctions are for?
ii) It would be a pity if you took it out of the harbour to check that everything was in order and disaster struck and it was lost at sea. Looks to me like it’s worth 55K, easily. You’d obviously want experienced crew if you did that to make sure nothing went wrong.

On a more sensible note, my dad used to do yacht repairs at a yard. The yard both made yachts of about that sort of size and style, and repaired them.

Rotten woodwork kept his boatyard alive. That, and delaminated glass hulls.

You have rotten wood.

Fire sale price and let some other sap experienced sailor take the problem project on.

He sounds like quite a character.

As above, get it out of the water, stored and inspected properly and get rid of the mooring.

It seems a shame to just let the asset sit there and rot

sounds suspiciously like a liability rather than an asset 😂
Probably described FIL too, although potentially also a bit of a legend 🧐

I have an even less useful suggestion. Just stand on it and shout ‘I’m on a boat’

Lonely Island style boat party!!! would be terrible if things got out of hand and there was a fire or something. It’s insured, right?

If it floats, flies or, err, something, then hire it.

Wings, wheels or tits is the polite version but doesn’t cover this case sadly.
As above, get rid of it now. It will only get worse and the chances of finding a buyer in a post Brexit wor;d are pretty slight.

Whatever you do, make sure it’s listed as a liability in the estate – you don’t want to be paying inheritance tax on money pit…

That’s a lovely looking boat – but boats can be very expensive…. especially wooden ones!

I’d be looking to get it out of the water and store it on the hard as it will be cheaper than sitting in a berth.
Quite a few web sites suitable for selling the boat but the £15k price tag sounds about right looking at the other Osbornes that have sold.
If the hull had been GRP the value would have probably been higher.

Thought about turning it into an AirB&B?

edit:

Condition of the engines will be key to a sale

If it was GRP then I’d agree, but TBH the cost involved in the repair of a wooden hull is potentially way more than the engines

FIL had a 42 footer in that very marina which he sold a couple of years back. It was taking ages to sell and he arranged for it to be hoisted out of the water as part of the brokerage arrangement as it was deteriorating without being used.

He did look at moving it to North Wales too, or up the fylde coast, to a cheaper mooring, but he had a bigger chance of selling it via whatever the company is at that marina. Took a while, but he was right.

Having dealt with my FILs far more modest estate recently, I’d recommend getting rid double quick, especially if think any other beneficiaries will be looking over your shoulder waiting for a pay day.

If it’s worth £15k, someone will buy it for £10k quickly (relative to how fast or slow boats usually sell).

How much is a decent one worth now? Is it economically viable to fix up and make profit?
Plenty of boat salesman out there who sell for a fee. But I imagine you’ll get bottom value

For the yacht there will be an owners club/association with a selling page. Just need to identify what it is! Albin Vega? Contessa 26? looks similar to those but I don’t think its either.

Probably worth getting them both out of the water and onto the hard (land) as quickly as you can as should be cheaper all round.

I’d seriously consider banging these on eBay just to get rid. Old boats really can cost you a fortune if you have to pay people to keep or do things to them.

Put it on Gumtree and then start a new thread listing the absurd swap or part-ex offers you get. It will keep us all entertained for a few days. Failing that what others have said regarding getting it out of the water and sold off as quickly as possible.

As an ex yacht owner, I agree with the sell it quick as fast as you can for whatever you can get.

Holding on to it may get you a better price, but by then it will have eaten up the difference in costs.

If you were a boat person though, it looks like a great boat to fix up and keep.

I would only own a boat now if I was going to live on it because the maintenance is a constant (no worse that looking after a house and big garden, but the deterioration is more obvious and dangerous).

EDIT: and I looked at the yacht, and thought, “Ooh, that looks ok”. Very quickly stamped down on that thought though. 🙂

Is it economically viable to fix up and make profit?

In general, unless you know what you are doing and can do most of the work yourself, you are better off just setting fire to a pile of money than trying to fix old junk in the hope of selling it at a profit.

Stick it on ebay. My experience is absolutely anything will sell on ebay if you can handle the stupid question Olympics that you are bound to get entered into by listing it.

Having seen my grandad try and sell a boat in a similar condition when he started losing his marbles, get it sold quick for whatever you can otherwise you’ll end up spending more money keeping it at the marina that you’ll ever make back in the sale.

ebay – starting at a low price, it will find its value.

Surprisingly boats (in general – no idea about this particular one) are currently selling well since all this cv19 stuff kicked off, no idea why, but they are.

If you can prove it runs fine (not just the engines idling in the marina – although thats better than nothing, but does the steering work, gearboxes fine, runs at max speed without overheating , does it have trim tabs – do they work? etc) and has no leaks below the waterline (I presume it doesnt, because its still above the water), then it might sell relatively easily.

I presume it hasnt moved in years though ? if so the hull is probably covered in a thick layer of weed which will make moving it problematic, if it does have a thick layer of growth on the hull dont try and go any where near full throttle or even cruising speed, as you’ll potentially damage the engines.

Good luck .

Sounds like the FIL might have appreciated a Viking Funeral?

I’d second the sell quick advice. My folks had a lovely old Nicholson 48 which they sailed well into their 80’s. It then spent a year in the marina, hardly used, then a year in the boatshed. It had become too much for then to handle and was costing about 7k per annum just to keep. Dad was convinced it was worth 75k and had it on the market at that, with not a sniff. After 2 years i convinced them to let me sell it, we changed broker and sold within 3 months for 55k, about 3 years ago.

ebay – starting at a low price, it will find its value.

This.

Any extra money you hope to make will be soaked up by the costs you have monthly.

Another saying is around “if you’re a billionaire and want to be a millionaire then get a plane or boat”. Many years of sailing dinghy ownership has shown me boats are just money pits. Cut your losses and sell for whatever you can ASAP. You should only buy or invest in appreciating assets. lease or rent depreciating assets – Warren Buffet’s rule.

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=sampson+boat+co+

If you can move it it’s cheaper to have it in the Albert Dock according to a friend who has a money pit boat. It’s Canal and Rivers Trust I think. Also a boat yard by Thurstaston on Wirral which would be cheaper still I imagine. Try local Sea Cadets to give away.
I lived and worked on a wooden boat for three years, do not attempt to do it up and sell if you wish to have a life or any money, they are a labour of love not quick profit. FIL sounded a proper boatman. I do miss boat life. Good luck.

If it does sink make sure it’s deep water, pesky divers can go quite far down for insurance companies and you won’t like prison.

Need more information on your FIL, he sounds great.

Flog the boat, yesterday. You will very quickly spend more than it is worth, it is a problem that will not go away and will get more costly by the week.

my MIL, his ex, his 2 gfs, the adult toys we had to dispose of on his boat !,

Rule number one of body disposal, don’t tell people on the interwebz you used a boat to get rid of your mother in law, girlfriends and ex wife.

Rule 1 of selling anything, don’t throw away all the objects of value and keep the dilapidated packaging.