Advice on Bristol Channel boating

[oldmanofthehills]

You wont go anywhere far against the strong currents near Portishead in an aux cruiser. Its a long way from Lundy or Ilfracombe and you still have to push against some tide beyond Foreland to make it without a lay over. I prefer 28hp on my 31 foot Westerly and 24hp on my chubby LM27 but could manage with a bit less on a sleeker boat. The westerly has bilge keels and the LM has legs though you can dry out in Ilfracombe without legs etc if you lie against the wall. However if all wall spaces taken you then have to moor out in the exposed channel and maybe forgo the pub?

 

[Travellingwithtoby]

You wont go anywhere far against the strong currents near Portishead in an aux cruiser. Its a long way from Lundy or Ilfracombe and you still have to push against some tide beyond Foreland to make it without a lay over. I prefer 28hp on my 31 foot Westerly and 24hp on my chubby LM27 but could manage with a bit less on a sleeker boat. The westerly has bilge keels and the LM has legs though you can dry out in Ilfracombe without legs etc if you lie against the wall. However if all wall spaces taken you then have to moor out in the exposed channel and maybe forgo the pub?

That clears that up for me then!

So come and go with favorable tides out of portishead, and the narrows my choices down to a seadog 30 and possibly the samphire29

 

[oldmanofthehills]

I considered a Seadog 30 myself but seemed a bit elderly in design

 

[Travellingwithtoby]

I considered a Seadog 30 myself but seemed a bit elderly in design

Would you mind elaborating on elderly by design? I feel old boats are of a bygone era where seaworthyness was an automatic, now it seems boats are getting lighter and thinner?


The one in question I am awaiting a reply from the broker, I will start a separate thread on it, its ketch rigged, and the masts have tabernacles the rear mast post seems to have moved away from the aft cabin... I know they suffer with bulkhead separating issues so it could be that....

Seadog 30

Its image 35 that concerns me will start a thread shortly

 

[oldmanofthehills]

Would you mind elaborating on elderly by design? I feel old boats are of a bygone era where seaworthyness was an automatic, now it seems boats are getting lighter and thinner?


The one in question I am awaiting a reply from the broker, I will start a separate thread on it, its ketch rigged, and the masts have tabernacles the rear mast post seems to have moved away from the aft cabin... I know they suffer with bulkhead separating issues so it could be that....

Seadog 30

Its image 35 that concerns me will start a thread shortly

The basic design is surely sound and good for heavy weather but accomodation is archaic in form. Workable enough for a solo sailor but not such as to please my Navigator. The one I looked at was in Emsworth and I was mostly attracted to it because of the more enclosed steering position and clear feasibility of adding full pilothouse, rather than the small doghouse I had added to the the Pentlands. So I bought an LM.

I quite agree that earlier designs had hulls that were over engineered which makes them slower but more robust than Bavarias etc

In any boat I bought I would be also concerned at age of engine, sail rigging and all instruments unless they had been replaced in the last 10 or at worst 15 years. (New engine is £6000, Sails maybe £2.5K, Rigging about £2k)

The example you showed seemed very battered, with clear lack of varnishing, derusting etc. You could sort that out but more seriously the the oil leaks on engine are hardly encouraging.

The advert also seems to indicate its a long keel

Bearing in mind that my Westerly Pentland with virtually new rigging sails and engine is going for about 10K (PM me if interested), the £5k they are asking may be no bargain by the time you refurbish the essentials.

 

[Travellingwithtoby]

The basic design is surely sound and good for heavy weather but accomodation is archaic in form. Workable enough for a solo sailor but not such as to please my Navigator. The one I looked at was in Emsworth and I was mostly attracted to it because of the more enclosed steering position and clear feasibility of adding full pilothouse, rather than the small doghouse I had added to the the Pentlands. So I bought an LM.

I quite agree that earlier designs had hulls that were over engineered which makes them slower but more robust than Bavarias etc

In any boat I bought I would be also concerned at age of engine, sail rigging and all instruments unless they had been replaced in the last 10 or at worst 15 years. (New engine is £6000, Sails maybe £2.5K, Rigging about £2k)

The example you showed seemed very battered, with clear lack of varnishing, derusting etc. You could sort that out but more seriously the the oil leaks on engine are hardly encouraging.

The advert also seems to indicate its a long keel

Bearing in mind that my Westerly Pentland with virtually new rigging sails and engine is going for about 10K (PM me if interested), the £5k they are asking may be no bargain by the time you refurbish the essentials.

PM sent!

 

[38mess]

That clears that up for me then!

So come and go with favorable tides out of portishead, and the narrows my choices down to a seadog 30 and possibly the samphire29

All my sailing boats have been older vintage. Nice thick hulls over engineered etc. But what hi have learned about a Tabernacle mounted masts is to make sure the cabin roof and bulkhead below are sound. The Tabernacle is usually positioned over a bulkhead and these invariably over the years have started to fail. It's possible to beef them up with some sort of steel or aluminum cross member, but to get the correct tension on the mast shrouds the cabin roof and bulkhead below needs to be sound.
My last boat, a lovely long keeler from the sixties had a delamination problem with the bulkhead and I couldn't get any tension on the mast, so I introduced an Aluminum pole under the deck head down to the keel, it meant I couldn't shut the toilet door properly but at least the shrouds had resistance when I tightened them.

 

[rotrax]

You wont go anywhere far against the strong currents near Portishead in an aux cruiser. Its a long way from Lundy or Ilfracombe and you still have to push against some tide beyond Foreland to make it without a lay over. I prefer 28hp on my 31 foot Westerly and 24hp on my chubby LM27 but could manage with a bit less on a sleeker boat. The westerly has bilge keels and the LM has legs though you can dry out in Ilfracombe without legs etc if you lie against the wall. However if all wall spaces taken you then have to moor out in the exposed channel and maybe forgo the pub?

Spent five nights at anchor in the centre of Ilfracombe's Outer Harbour - no space on the walls and we were long keel.

Have photo's of being in the centre of the harbour at high tide and with the stern almost touching the rocks at low tide - IIRC about 30 foot tides at the time we were there. No problems with shelter though, Harbour was safe enough. It was blowing at least F7 all the time. The Lundy boat remained tied up too.

Anchor was a 40 lb genuine Bruce with all chain rode for those who like such facts......................................

 

[Travellingwithtoby]

Spent five nights at anchor in the centre of Ilfracombe's Outer Harbour - no space on the walls and we were long keel.

Have photo's of being in the centre of the harbour at high tide and with the stern almost touching the rocks at low tide - IIRC about 30 foot tides at the time we were there. No problems with shelter though, Harbour was safe enough. It was blowing at least F7 all the time. The Lundy boat remained tied up too.

Anchor was a 40 lb genuine Bruce with all chain rode for those who like such facts......................................

Thanks that's not a bad shout from what I can see on google maps!

Will add it to my little list of places to escape bad weather!

 

[rotrax]

Thanks that's not a bad shout from what I can see on google maps!

Will add it to my little list of places to escape bad weather!

Still got and use the recycling bag the Harbourmaster gave us. The sailing club let us use the washing machine and showers as well as the bar when it was open.

Good pasties too!

 

[Travellingwithtoby]

Well you can't grumble at that!

And good pasties, well I might just go their instead of BC hahahha

I am definitely looking forward to being on the water!

Would you be so kind as to upload a few of those photos? Would be greatly appreciated

 

[rotrax]

Well you can't grumble at that!

And good pasties, well I might just go their instead of BC hahahha

I am definitely looking forward to being on the water!

Would you be so kind as to upload a few of those photos? Would be greatly appreciated

Sorry, two reasons cant help with 'photo's - we are currently in NZ and memory stick is in UK. Also, never uploaded anything on here and probably will not in future.

Have a good season !

 

[Birdseye]

And how easy are weekend jaunts to interesting places (with pubs!)?

Thanks in advance for any thoughts...

Hi Manic. Have you bought the boat or given up on the idea. If you havent bought but havent given uop then the answer to your question depends on the boat. If its a fin then the answer is that there are few places you can go. If its a bilge then there are more and pleasanter. But its still not the south coast with lots of easy attractive places to go.

 

[jwilson]

Sorry to jump on someone else's posts, but I am looking at BC and portishead around the 30ft either bulge fin or full keels , advice noted about bilge keels, as far as a decent motor a seem to see a lot of what I would call underpowered 10hp boats I'm guessing this would be a problem in and out of portishead with the tidal streams?

On a 30 ft sailing yacht no size of engine - even 40 hp - will let you ignore tides in the upper Bristol Channel. The tides will though let you go a long way on one tide even with low (or no) power.