By mid '92 our adventure looked very promising but the time had come to make a
"Go/No-Go" Decision
We knew very little about the used narrow boat market so immediately started getting a feel for what was out there and how much people were asking.
This is how we went about it:-
I developed a computer program to record and track boats for sale. The data base included boat name, length, year, style and structure, berths, shell and fit out builder(s), engine/transmission, electrical/gas systems and cabin/toilet fittings. I found the Narrow Boat Register (Sawley Marina) specification sheets helpful in designing the file layout. The data base also allowed for up to five price changes.
We gathered as much information as possible from the magazines on every boat in the 45' to 62' range; with special attention to those that met the criteria based on our preliminary assumptions. In a few cases we made contact with the seller to get additional information.
In early '92 we wrote to a number of the brokerages/marinas, provided them with our requirements and asked them to periodically send us detailed specifications of their listings. Overall we got good responses, Tim Langer of Canal Craft was just getting started and we were impressed the quality of the material received from him; Sawley Marina's Narrow Boat Register also sent us meaningful and timely information, as did Cowroast.
From our data base we were able to compare asking prices to various boat configurations and, more interestingly, see how prices dropped as given boats remained on the market.
By mid '92 our adventure looked very promising but the time had come to make a
"Go/No-Go" Decision
Preface ...or...
Assumptions.
