How long will the engine last?

One of the questions we are often asked by prospective owners is how long an engine can be expected to last.  There's no simple answer - apart from the proverbial 'piece of string.'  It's a sensible question, though, as a new owner does not really want to be immediately confronted with the need to replace the engine, particularly if the syndicate has not built up a fund to pay for it.

Because we hold details of 240 shared ownership narrowboats on the inland waterways of the UK, we can get some information from our database.  We know that at least 53 of those boats have had an engine replacement, and the chart below plots the number of engines that have been replaced against the number of years since the boat was launched. 

About half the replacements were made between 10 and 14 years into the life of the boats.  The very long 'lives' to the right of the chart should be treated with some caution, as there may have been more than one replacement in that time - our database only holds the most recent replacement date. 

We also have information about the numbers of various makes of engine used as replacements, and these are listed here:  

Engine make	Number
Barrus/Shire	4
Beta Marine	22
BMC	5
Canaline	6
Gardner	1
Isuzu	5
Mermaid	1
Nanni	7
Thorneycroft	2

Some makes of engine have not been available for the whole period for which we have replacement data.  These numbers simply reflect the choices made by owners and should not be taken as endorsement or otherwise of any particular make of engine by boatshare4u.co.uk.