First boat - Thames Near Marlow

[james S]

Hi all

I'm looking for a boat to use on the Thames near Marlow with my young family. Our initial thoughts were to get an old river boat like a Freeman, but once I looked into the mooring and other annual costs it didn't seem worth it for the 10 times a year or so we'd get to use it.

So thoughts moved onto getting a small sports boat we could trailer - something like a Bayliner 185, which would avoid mooring costs and wouldn't cost anything when its not in the water. Actually we'd probably leave in in from June - September to make things a bit easier

I'd be keen to hear people's thoughts on the praticality of launch / recovery of a boat like this (we have a 4x4) and any suggestions for boats which are equally suited to the job.

There is a 185 in the classifieds fom a chap near Avon, but I can't get a reply from the number or email.

Thanks

[blindswelledrat]

I would highly recommend hiring one a few times first!

It's going to be a pretty expensive hobby, and given that there is a strict 5 mph limit- you can't actually get very far in a day so each time you go you see the same bit of river going past reaaalllyyy slowly. Im not knocking it- it's brilliant- but if you ended up going every weekend to get hte most out of your boat you'd get bored quickly
The net result is that you are highly likely to go to all the expense and only go 7 or 8 times a year.
Plenty of places between Marlow and Windsor you can hire one (crappy ones-but it doesnt really matter) and see if it is worth the big investment

[james S]

Thanks Tom,

We do this a bit, used to use Kris Cruises, but lately a bigger boat from Maidenhead
but its never possible to just get up and go, which is what we are hoping to do.

I'd hoped that in buying a small boat which I could keep at home I'd eliminate the worst of the costs, accepting though I'd be tying money up that will spend most of its life just sitting on the drive!

[blindswelledrat]

Fair enough, Ive hired them from there too.
Will be a great thing to do I reckon, Im jealous.

TO answer your question, Im pretty sure you can just pay to launch them at Temple Marina

http://www.boatlaunch.co.uk/default.aspx?page=disp...
Which is just above Marlow and a really nice section of the river.
Although I cant remember why Im sure you can pay to launch them there.
Im not being much help but its a start.

[louiebaby]

I rowed in Henley for a couple of years. If I scoop a cool £117,000,000 on the Euromillions, a pad near there and a slipper would be on my list:



For what you describe, something you can pull out at the end of the weekend sounds sensible. You can drop it in at different points on different weekends, instead of having to trundle along at 5mph, as someone else has mentioned.

Dunno what you should get though. The only boats I know much about are 25 foot long and a foot wide...

[Simpo Two]

james S said:

I'm looking for a boat to use on the Thames near Marlow with my young family. Our initial thoughts were to get an old river boat like a Freeman, but once I looked into the mooring and other annual costs it didn't seem worth it for the 10 times a year or so we'd get to use it.

So thoughts moved onto getting a small sports boat we could trailer - something like a Bayliner 185, which would avoid mooring costs and wouldn't cost anything when its not in the water. Actually we'd probably leave in in from June - September to make things a bit easier.

After a quick Google Images a Bayliner is just a day boat. Launch, zoom round in circles whilst hoping it doesn't rain, then go home and park it in the drive to annoy the neighbours.

By contrast a cabin cruiser is something you can have a long weekend/holiday on; quite a different kettle of fish. Probably much more of an adventure for a young family too. But then I'm biased as I have a Freeman!

I don't know marina fees for the Thames but in the Fens a Freeman 23 would be £550-£1100 depending on how spangly you want the marina. Whichever way you go, you'll need a licence as well. £288 on the Fens; don't know the Thames rates. How about the Kennett & Avon?

[james S]

Thanks all.

Mooring on the Thames for the Freeman 26 was 2200 - 2700. Add in 300 plus for the licence plus regular anti-fouling and the safety cert made it nearly 4k a year once we'd chucked a service in.

Boat on a trailer and the costs ought to tumble (I hope!)

[Simpo Two]

Wowee, there's certainly a premium for the Thames!

Well, antifoul you can do yourself and is only every 2-3 years, same for a service (most boat owners seem to like doing it themselves), and the BSS is once every 4 years. Had you considered a cheaper waterway within striking distance? I find that having the boat 1+ hour away makes it more of an occasion, more of a break from the rat-race. You could also save 10% by looking at Freeman 24s, if you don't mind the angular styling.

[bluesatin]

Nice 25 ft boat up for sale at Harleyford if interested!

[Nickyboy]

If you do opt for something small then there's a small slipway on St Peters St

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=q&source=s_q&a...

It would only suit a small boat tho

[james S]

Thanks chaps.

25 ft is a bit big for towing! I've been to Harleyford a number of times - which boat is it out of interest?
James

[bluesatin]

hint is my ph name!

[james S]

Thanks Guy - I'll have a look next time I'm there.

By the way I think we met a couple of years ago when I was getting rid omy my stripped out 944t?

I'm in Lane End

[JakesterUK]

Simpo Two said:

After a quick Google Images a Bayliner is just a day boat. Launch, zoom round in circles whilst hoping it doesn't rain, then go home and park it in the drive to annoy the neighbours.

By contrast a cabin cruiser is something you can have a long weekend/holiday on; quite a different kettle of fish. Probably much more of an adventure for a young family too. But then I'm biased as I have a Freeman!

I don't know marina fees for the Thames but in the Fens a Freeman 23 would be £550-£1100 depending on how spangly you want the marina. Whichever way you go, you'll need a licence as well. £288 on the Fens; don't know the Thames rates. How about the Kennett & Avon?

I'm in the fens myself between Denver and Ely and have been toying with the idea of something small to use at weekends with the boys as we often seem to end up at either marina when its sunny.

[Simpo Two]

JakesterUK said:

I'm in the fens myself between Denver and Ely and have been toying with the idea of something small to use at weekends with the boys as we often seem to end up at either marina when its sunny.

I must say that cruising into Ely by river on a sunny day is truly delightful. The biggest broker on the system is Jones in St Ives; well worth a visit as they have a big line of boats for sale you can inspect.

Back to the OP - this 23 turned up: http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&am...

The Nanni diesel is desirable and so are the re-fettled windows though the deck treatment is 'wrong'! However it's about 10% smaller than the 26 you saw so might be a slight squash; then again it's just trailerable - they weigh about two tons I hear.

[bluesatin]

Hi James,

This is not a pitch to sell my boat but please think about trailering especially if you are going to use it on the thames. By the time you have got the boat to the water, found either Marlow or Cookham slip free, launched the boat, found somewhere to leave the car and trailer then actually used the boat the day/weekend will be gone. Moorings are expensive (unless you convince a riverside owner to use theirs) but you can just jump in and go.

[james S]

Thanks Guy - good advice.

The way we have worked it out is to to leave it in the water from June to September with a deal that lets us use their slip occasionally outside these months. The thought of relying on public slipways and then having to park a land rover with trailer doesn't bear thinking about

What is your boat by the way, if its anything like your taste is cars its likely to be interesting!

[rhinochopig]

James how old is the family? You could have a lot of fun recreating the 3 men in a boat experience - some epic pubs and some camping or B&B in an old clinker built rowing / sail boat. Think swallows and amazons if you're not familiar with Montmorency et al.

[Simpo Two]

rhinochopig said:

James how old is the family? You could have a lot of fun recreating the 3 men in a boat experience - some epic pubs and some camping or B&B in an old clinker built rowing / sail boat. Think swallows and amazons if you're not familiar with Montmorency et al.

You can find it at www.classicbookshelf.com/library/jerome_k_jerome/t...

'It cast a gloom over the boat, there being no mustard. We ate our beef in silence. Existence seemed hollow and uninteresting. We thought of the happy days of childhood, and sighed. We brightened up a bit, however, over the appletart, and, when George drew out a tin of pineapple from the bottom of the hamper, and rolled it into the middle of the boat, we felt that life was worth living after all.

We are very fond of pineapple, all three of us. We looked at the picture on the tin; we thought of the juice. We smiled at one another, and Harris got a spoon ready.

Then we looked for the knife to open the tin with. We turned out everything in the hamper. We turned out the bags. We pulled up the boards at the bottom of the boat. We took everything out on to the bank and shook it. There was no tin-opener to be found. Then Harris tried to open the tin with a pocket-knife, and broke the knife and cut himself badly; and George tried a pair of scissors, and the scissors flew up, and nearly put his eye out. While they were dressing their wounds, I tried to make a hole in the thing with the spiky end of the hitcher, and the hitcher slipped and jerked me out between the boat and the bank into two feet of muddy water, and the tin rolled over, uninjured, and broke a teacup.

Then we all got mad. We took that tin out on the bank, and Harris went up into a field and got a big sharp stone, and I went back into the boat and brought out the mast, and George held the tin and Harris held the sharp end of his stone against the top of it, and I took the mast and poised it high up in the air, and gathered up all my strength and brought it down.

It was George's straw hat that saved his life that day. He keeps that hat now (what is left of it), and, of a winter's evening, when the pipes are lit and the boys are telling stretchers about the dangers they have passed through, George brings it down and shows it round, and the stirring tale is told anew, with fresh exaggerations every time. Harris got off with merely a flesh wound. After that, I took the tin off myself, and hammered at it with the mast till I was worn out and sick at heart, whereupon Harris took it in hand. We beat it out flat; we beat it back square; we battered it into every form known to geometry - but we could not make a hole in it. Then George went at it, and knocked it into a shape, so strange, so weird, so unearthly in its wild hideousness, that he got frightened and threw away the mast.

Then we all three sat round it on the grass and looked at it. There was one great dent across the top that had the appearance of a mocking grin, and it drove us furious, so that Harris rushed at the thing, and caught it up, and flung it far into the middle of the river, and as it sank we hurled our curses at it, and we got into the boat and rowed away from the spot, and never paused till we reached Maidenhead.'

[james S]

Kids are 7 and 6, so a bit young for 3 men in a boat type adventure. Good thought nonetheless