oldgregg

My initial thoughts are that it's a Leisure battery, which is not designed for engine starting.

It is, yeah. Haines use the mould tools under license.

Yeah one of the Diamonds was not brilliant inside and all of the boats needed upholstery etc. I'd have happily taken Gainsborough off their hands, though.

I'm not sure about the Opals, but the others have all sold.

I love the Shed Database!

Totally agree. We've been mulling over the Canal du Midi for years and LeBoat's pricing is just laughable because you know you're going to have one of those "did we seriously spend three grand hiring this shed?" moments with whatever boat of theirs you've booked when you actually get aboard. LocaBoat have a fleet of odd-looking boats, but their fleet is - so I'm told by people who know about these things - much better-maintained.

Yep, that's about the size of it... Such a shame, and sad to no longer see the new builds tied up by the railway bridge in Wroxham awaiting river trials.

No indeed, LeBoat's fleet are not well-presented. Some small yards do it really well, though. Aqua Narrowboats for example have a beautiful fleet of sponsored hireboats that are built to a decent spec, kept for four years, tidied up at the end and the owner gets a good boat for a good price.

Yeah, sponsored boats basically. Connoisseur's fleet kind of always was done that way. Basically, you buy the boat, we rent if for you and at the end of the agreement you either flog it or keep what's left. If you're a large-scale investor it can make sense, and equally some small operators do it very well with youngish boats that are kept for a fixed period and then the owner gets a good boat out of it at essentially a substantial discount. As an individual dealing with a large business like that I think you know who is getting the better deal.

You've got to admire their ambition. How about one of these sh*tboxes for 45K? My personal favourite is the almost 20 year old Caprice priced at 85K and resplendant in white with rust stains from the fixings on the rubbing strakes. Where do I sign?

It became available as that, yeah, but they were I think designed for LeBoat / Crown. A huge number were built in the 90's.

I bet a Crown Classique is pleasant with only 35hp #completehandful

I believe they are indeed a well-known local company who do that kind of work. A quick search sees that name come up quite a lot on various fora in relation to it. There were also a few comments about the position of the van, I think they recognise where is a good place to park it....

I would you know.... As others have said, you can normally see the rear through the aft cabin anyway. I'm all for technology on boats but sometimes it's just not necessary. The head out of the roof method gives you a better awareness of your surroundings, too. Also Grendel's method of having someone on the stern shouting the distance to the bank works well when I'm on bigger boats with the lads.

You shouldn't really need a rear view camera on Bolero? It's 28ft and has a sliding canopy... Open the roof and put your head out. Works better than any reversing camera I've used...

The similarity is because they were all built for the same customer to go into the same hirefleet. But actually, yeah that does like quite conventional for a Darragh fitout! On larger boats they have a trademark sunken galley to the side of the saloon, allowing a larger side cabin forward where Aquafibre / Broom designs typically have the galley. It probably takes a boat geek like me to spot the real detail differences. The door handles and air vents in the hull immediately tell me when a 29 isn't a Broom build and then I start spotting other stuff such as handrail positioning. Nice boats, though. I'd have one!

There were at least three builders of those 'Broom' sedans for LeBoat, based on the ones I've seen. Broom themselves did some, Darragh did some (the fitout of which is visibly different, and a bit odd like most of their fitouts) and I've seen some with a Shannon Yachtfitters build plaque. The Shannon ones look similar to a Broom fitout but there are some visible differences. I suspect they may have been at least partially fitted out by Shannon based on being sent a kit by Broom as some of the joinery is very similar to what Broom do - Either that or they were subcontracted.

50 is just a marketing term. It's roughly 48hp so near enough as far as most engine manufacturer's marketing teams are concerned.... If it's in the AF / Broom 29 Sedan in the OP's avatar then I assume it's probably one of the older models rather than the N4.50. I'm not sure they're that different, really, though.

I'd probably add though that some of that cost might well have been down to concerns around access and installation. With the transmission mated to the engine, it's not the easiest thing to get in/out of a Diamond 43. Broom will have had greater knowledge of those things, particularly since Tom was involved in the build programme on the Commodores. Which begs the question of what price could Broom have installed a Nanni for if they'd have wanted to?

Ah, well that changes things somewhat. I know we had a quote from Broom for the Nanni option and the price was silly.

Exactly... Easy to overprice something you don't want to do.

I think basically anything with four or fewer cylinders is, yes - Although it may be slightly more complex now.

I'm sure the fact that Brooms were main agents for Volvo and didn't really want to sell anything else had nothing to do with it....

Different strokes for different folks I guess. I know people who don't like to hire the same boat twice even if it's really good - I think I'm a little bit like that too but equally I have my favourites as well which I've hired multiple times. I guess in the general sense of selling holidays though (ie probably 90% of the market) I would imagine it works well keeping things simple.

Ooooh! Did you have a 306 as well then? Lovely car to drive and look at, but mine went wrong in just about every way you could think of.