Re: Bavarias - reply to all.

On Thu, 20 Oct 2005 17:12:22 +0100, "Duncan Heenan"
<duncanheenan@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

>
>"PyroJames" <drpyrojames@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
>news:6oafl116kfp7k07hd8c62rdl8ha6v2qeg9@xxxxxxxxxx
>> On Thu, 20 Oct 2005 15:22:43 +0100, "Duncan Heenan"
>> <duncanheenan@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

>>>
>>>And you'd probably have to spend about £75k pa on maintenace too.
>>>
>>
>> And what makes you qualified to make a comment like that?
>
>Qualified? Well a bit perhaps.
>As a Chartered Accountant, with KPMG (then Peat, Marwick, Mitchell) I was
>auditor to Port Hamble, Mercury Yacht Harbour (then part of the Rank
>Organisation), and Fairey Marine (which has since become Hamble Point
>Marina), in the 1970's. I saw the economics of boat ownership, marina
>operation and boatyard operation up close. Later, working for the venture
>capital organisation 3i (then ICFC), in Southampton we actually owned shares
>in a number of boating enterprises, (including Westerly), and evaluated
>dozens every year [...tune of Howard's Way fades in and out again...]. I
>admit I haven't ever owned a wooden classic boat, but that's because I've
>seen from the boatyard point of view what it costs to keep them in good
>shape (you should have seen what it cost Ted Heath to run the wooden Morning
>Cloud in 1974/5/6!!). I have however owned 3 GRP boats, having brought one
>in to code to help establish a sailing school with it.
>OK, so £75k pa may be an exaggeration for effect, but I think the point is
>valid that old, wooden boats cost a hell of a lot to keep in good order,
>both in time and money.
>Does that help?

I guess it helps in perpetuating the myth that a wooden boat cost the
earth to run. I spend about 3k year on average, which includes all the
cost that you would have witha glass boat too. Slipping a/f engine
servicing etc. The only extra cost for timber, are those of looking
after the timber, and if you do look after it, it will probably
outlast you plastic boat by many decades. I think the problem occurs
when someone buys a wooden boat because it is cheap and then fails to
spend the necessary money keeping it up to scratch. Ignore a plastic
boat for a couple of years and nothing is likely to degrade, do the
same for a timber one and you will start to have problems. However,
if you spend the extra 500-1000 pounds a year on it, it'll keep going
long after your GRP has succumbed to osmosis.

I admit you have to put in the time yourself though, if you are going
to pay someone else to do everything, then you will need very deep
pockets indeed.
PyroJames.
Anything burns if you soak it in liquid oxygen first.
.

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