I can’t comment on the pros and cons but Black Prince seem to sell theirs off at around 4 years old. There’s a lot of them on the system so presumably there are plenty of boaters who can comment on them.

Certainly they are all built by reputable builders and, being hire boats, will have been regularly serviced.

Regards

Pete

I mention Black Prince as, unlike other hire companies, they typically sell their boats off at 4 years old.

Having hired from Alvechurch on many occasions I know their boats are well built but once they’ve served their time in the ABC fleet many of them are leased to other hire companies before coming back to Alvechurch to be sold off. I’ve seen many ex Anglo Welsh boats around, particularly the distinctive Harborough Marine boats. I would think that you need to look carefully at how old the engine and gearbox is. 10000 hours is considered the norm for one so if approaching this figure it may become expensive earlier than you thought.

As for after sales service, I would you get virtually non. It is rather like a house. You get it surveyed and make an offer based on that. If things go wrong, unless it has been deliberately mis-represented, then you are on your own.

The other consideration with an ex-hireboat is that they are fitted out to cater for holiday makers. That is as many berths as possible with the minimum of storage space. Whilst a pump-out toilet is the norm these are normally of the dump through type as and so might not be acceptable for long term liveaboard. Bathroom and kitchen sizes are not particularly big. Our bathroom is 9ft x 6ft with a full size 900mm shower and a ‘proper’ height toilet.

Have a look at http://noproblem.org.uk/blog/ I know this an ex-Black Prince and if you scroll back a few years you should find their account of converting it to their usage. You could always email them to ask questions.

Regards

Pete