A Rust Bucket with Intentions - Rebuilding a 1980s Steel Trawler into a 60-Foot Liveaboard Coastal Cruiser

The Boat

The vessel at the centre of this project is a steel trawler-type liveaboard, built in the early 1980s — most likely 1983 — and originally intended for coastal working life rather than leisure. Her early years appear to have been spent on the River Severn and the Bristol Channel, operating as a practical, inhabited vessel rather than a cruiser in the modern sense.

She was built at 48 feet in length, with a steel hull throughout. No attempt appears to have been made to save weight or impress anyone.

Condition on Acquisition

At the time I acquired her, the boat was ashore at Sirius Marine boatyard, Stourport-on-Severn. She was, in plain terms, a very neglected rust bucket.

There were numerous leaks. Corrosion was obvious. Much of the interior was obscured by the previous owner’s extensive and untidy accumulation of possessions, which made meaningful inspection difficult until an initial strip-out could be carried out.

"She was, in plain terms, a very neglected rust bucket"

What was visible suggested a boat that had once been extremely solid. A professional survey of the accessible structure supported that impression, particularly in the hull plating, which was found to be in surprisingly good condition for her age and appearance.

That early optimism was not entirely misplaced — but it was incomplete.

As the interior was stripped back properly, missing and compromised framework became apparent in areas that could not reasonably have been assessed beforehand. As is often the case, the real problems only revealed themselves once work began in earnest.

What She Is Becoming

The intention is to convert the boat into a 60-foot liveaboard coastal cruiser, capable of extended time aboard in UK waters and robust enough to serve a secondary role as a dive vessel.

She is being designed to function primarily as a family boat, with sufficient space, strength and systems capacity to accommodate occasional guests and, when required, to support small dive groups or clubs. That requirement has informed decisions around layout, access, deck strength and future systems planning.

This is not a lightweight conversion, nor is it intended to be.

Constraints and Approach

This is an open-ended retirement project, undertaken with family members who share similar practical skills and a willingness to learn what they don’t yet know.

The budget philosophy is simple. It, essentially, boils down to : "If I can find it and lift it, then I can probably fix it."

Coming from a professional construction background, the project relies heavily on DIY labour, with expenditure focused primarily on materials rather than outsourced work. Steel, timber and systems components are often more affordable than expected when labour is your own — though time, as ever, is the real cost.

The boat remains in the UK, and all decisions are made with local waters, conditions and regulations firmly in mind.

A Note on Expectations

At first glance, the boat appeared extremely solid. In many important respects, she is. In others, she was quietly waiting to argue.

This page describes what the boat is and what she is intended to become. The process of getting from one to the other — including the misjudgements, revisions and occasional wrong turns — is documented elsewhere, in the order it actually happened.

That story begins with the first day I stood beside her on the hard and thought, with some confidence, that I understood what I was looking at.

I did not.

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