Looking for a floating two bedroom apartment with good sea views

westernman

westernman

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We are getting a bit lazy for hoisting the mainsail on our boat and are looking at going over to the dark side. So enough of living in a cave, we are now looking for a nice floating two bedroom apartment with good sea views.

We are not interested in going fast - everything of interest is close by. 8 knots without spilling the drinks is perfect.

However, my other half really wants a full width centre master bedroom of the kind which can be found on a two cabin Fairline Squadron 52. Believe me this point is probably very decisive. ;)

We are thinking of something in the range of 45-55ft.

I want shaft drive. I am very scared of out-drives and pod drives.

Something which we can use with flopper stoppers to stop the roll at some of the anchorages we often use. I guess that booms are not required, if we just size up to a big enough flopper stopper tied to a midships cleat.

A trawler type yacht would be good, but nice trawlers suitable for the Med (stern to mooring) seem to be rare and/or overpriced. Having a flybridge boat with two 600HP plus engines scares me because of the fuel consumption and maintenance costs.

Suggestions?
 
Hurricane

Hurricane

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westernman said:
We are getting a bit lazy for hoisting the mainsail on our boat and are looking at going over to the dark side. So enough of living in a cave, we are now looking for a nice floating two bedroom apartment with good sea views.

We are not interested in going fast - everything of interest is close by. 8 knots without spilling the drinks is perfect.

However, my other half really wants a full width centre master bedroom of the kind which can be found on a two cabin Fairline Squadron 52. Believe me this point is probably very decisive. ;)

We are thinking of something in the range of 45-55ft.

I want shaft drive. I am very scared of out-drives and pod drives.

Something which we can use with flopper stoppers to stop the roll at some of the anchorages we often use. I guess that booms are not required, if we just size up to a big enough flopper stopper tied to a midships cleat.

A trawler type yacht would be good, but nice trawlers suitable for the Med (stern to mooring) seem to be rare and/or overpriced. Having a flybridge boat with two 600HP plus engines scares me because of the fuel consumption and maintenance costs.

Suggestions?
Click to expand...
A few points here

First - it isn't "going over to the dark side" - it is more like "seeing the light"

Not interested in going fast - you wait - remember that last 25 miles on a crossing - it seems to go on forever and ever.
Just a tickle on the throttles and its all over in a flash!!!
Seriously though, you should find that closer to 10 knots will be as economical.
We cruise at either 10 knots or 25 knots - nothing usually in between.
And it depends on how much cruising you do - I firmly believe that running a planing boat at displacement speed (sub 10 knots) and then you have the option of getting out of trouble (weather etc) by running fast if you need it.
IMO, that makes the Squaddie 52 a better option than a more expensive Nordhaven or some trawler style boats.

Centre cabin
IIRC, the Squaddie's mid cabin isn't full beam but, importantly, it is big and in teh middle of the boat.
I agree with your "other half" - I'm not a great fan of the forward cabin as the main cabin.
Its all that "slap and tickle" you get in the forward cabin.
Aft cabins, IMO, are great for the same reason.

45 - 55 feet - great but depends on what/where you are going to use it.
Sounds like the Med - how about Sant Carles - on mainland Spain and popping over to the islands when it suits you?

Shaft as opposed to pods and out-drives - absolutely!!!

Flopper Stoppers.
Generally, speaking you don't see many motorboats with flopper stoppers.
If you do, they tend to be the trawler style boats.
More recent boats have zero speed stabilisers that they run at anchor but that generally means running the generator.
This leads to another point - most motorboats aren't set up like yachts for anchoring - they depend more on generators.
So there is a concept there that you need to get your head around.
I am a bit unique in that I don't have stabilisers and I have solar panels so we aren't to blame running our generator in those quiet anchorages.
And rather than flopper stoppers, I prefer to point the boat into any swell - either using a kedge anchor or tying back to the rocks.
Like this

DJI_0016e.resized.JPG
 
Megs20Burt!

Megs20Burt!

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Hurricane said:
A few points here

First - it isn't "going over to the dark side" - it is more like "seeing the light"

Not interested in going fast - you wait - remember that last 25 miles on a crossing - it seems to go on forever and ever.
Just a tickle on the throttles and its all over in a flash!!!
Seriously though, you should find that closer to 10 knots will be as economical.
We cruise at either 10 knots or 25 knots - nothing usually in between.
And it depends on how much cruising you do - I firmly believe that running a planing boat at displacement speed (sub 10 knots) and then you have the option of getting out of trouble (weather etc) by running fast if you need it.
IMO, that makes the Squaddie 52 a better option than a more expensive Nordhaven or some trawler style boats.

Centre cabin
IIRC, the Squaddie's mid cabin isn't full beam but, importantly, it is big and in teh middle of the boat.
I agree with your "other half" - I'm not a great fan of the forward cabin as the main cabin.
Its all that "slap and tickle" you get in the forward cabin.
Aft cabins, IMO, are great for the same reason.

45 - 55 feet - great but depends on what/where you are going to use it.
Sounds like the Med - how about Sant Carles - on mainland Spain and popping over to the islands when it suits you?

Shaft as opposed to pods and out-drives - absolutely!!!

Flopper Stoppers.
Generally, speaking you don't see many motorboats with flopper stoppers.
If you do, they tend to be the trawler style boats.
More recent boats have zero speed stabilisers that they run at anchor but that generally means running the generator.
This leads to another point - most motorboats aren't set up like yachts for anchoring - they depend more on generators.
So there is a concept there that you need to get your head around.
I am a bit unique in that I don't have stabilisers and I have solar panels so we aren't to blame running our generator in those quiet anchorages.
And rather than flopper stoppers, I prefer to point the boat into any swell - either using a kedge anchor or tying back to the rocks.
Like this

View attachment 113250
Click to expand...
fab Hurricane???
 
penfold

penfold

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25 Aug 2003
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On the Clyde
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Nice looking boat, terrible name; Fountaine Pajot Cumberland, Gibraltar.

266075_f3feaf6ee5dd7c369c093927629b8710.jpg
 
westernman

westernman

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Joined
23 Sep 2008
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Costa Brava
www.devalk.nl
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