Our search for our next boat - Trawler Yacht style semi displacement

TheCoach

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Following on from our earlier thread about owning an older style trawler yacht we have decided we need something that can cover the ground just a little bit quicker so our search has moved on.

Our "use case" will be day trips and longer cruises either exploring the South coast England or West coast Scotland. We will mainly be a two person crew but frequently I will be single crewing if I go out for a days fishing or similar. We will want the ability to stay on board overnight comfortably and cook onboard etc.

We "think" our basic requirements in our next boat are:
- walk around decks
- side access from the helm to deckside (to aid single crewing)
- somewhere between 30' - 40'
- ability to cruise at ~ 13kn or more
- Mrs TC really likes at cabins :)
- Seadog Charlie really likes high bulwarks/rails to stop him jumping OBo_O

Budget is upto £100k

Have started looking at things like Corvette, Hardy 36 (struggle within budget), Aquastar in the older age bracket to get under budget but also looked at stuff like Quicksilver Active 905 weekender in newer stuff. Big trade off between price vs age vs seakeeping ability perhaps?

Also love the Targa's and Sargo's but way over budget unfortunately :cry:

So, any advise, suggestion, recommendations, merits/demerits of the above, additions etc. I have experience with Rib's and have PB2 and Day Skipper so know roughly which way is North but this is our first venture into a hard boat so any advice is welcome.

We plan to research over the next few months, possibly with the idea of getting something on the water late this year, or if its an older boat on the hard so we can do any work needed for a launch next spring but, as this year has shown, no plan survives first contact with the (virus) enemy:rolleyes: so timings are "flexible"

If its useful/entertaining? I hope to keep the thread updated as a kind of travelogue of our boat buying journey - so here starts the voyage?‍♂️

Cheers,

TheCoach
 

lynallbel

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Wife has been looking at the hardy 36, nice but kind of dated inside and not in a good way.
I like them a lot, quite a few for sale at the minute, wont be long before they are under a 100k.
 

Sticky Fingers

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Hum.. We love a 'find me a boat' challenge. I'll avoid the obvious trap of recommending what I already have as it meets none of your criteria whatsoever.

Trader 445
Nimbus, various
Rodman 10.40
Starfisher 10.60
....
 

TheCoach

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@lynallbel yes the Hardy interiors I have seen look a bit out of date, but not with the same style that the older teak laden trawler yachts have. Having said that I am sure some creativity with fabrics etc could make them look a lot sharper.

@Scala hope to keep you entertained ;) I enjoyed following your recent journey also. I have struggled to find any Trader or Nimbus in the price range (<£100k). I did look at the Rodman/Starfisher when we first started looking as we were more in the "fast fisher with a bit extra comfort mode" so they are on the radar. I have been seduced though by the extra comfort the trawler yachts seem to offer albeit without the performance of the fishing style boats. The idea of even living aboard for a couple of weeks as a "holiday home" sounds quite appealing which I think(?) would be achievable in a trawler but less so in a fisher?

Cheers,

TC
 

Sticky Fingers

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@Scala hope to keep you entertained ;) I enjoyed following your recent journey also. I have struggled to find any Trader or Nimbus in the price range (<£100k). I did look at the Rodman/Starfisher when we first started looking as we were more in the "fast fisher with a bit extra comfort mode" so they are on the radar. I have been seduced though by the extra comfort the trawler yachts seem to offer albeit without the performance of the fishing style boats. The idea of even living aboard for a couple of weeks as a "holiday home" sounds quite appealing which I think(?) would be achievable in a trawler but less so in a fisher?

Cheers,

TC
OK,

If you like the trad trawler looks, how about this. A Fisher Trawler 38. Looks fab in a trad sort of way, just had a refit.

Used Fisher Trawler 38 Power Boat For Sale | Boat Ref 29581 | Ancasta

1596294593759.png
 

lynallbel

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TheCoach

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Someones spent a lot of time and money on that - looks exceptional for a '79 boat. Bit outside my parameters though as a full displacement on Lehmans so restricted on speed and also probs older than I am happy with.:)

Cheers,

TC
 

TheCoach

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Thanks @Flynnbarr that looks seriously nice, albeit somewhat over budget. Had not come across Sabrelines before, am discovering some boats I have never heard of !

Cheers

TC
 

Greg2

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Wife has been looking at the hardy 36, nice but kind of dated inside and not in a good way.
I like them a lot, quite a few for sale at the minute, wont be long before they are under a 100k.

I guess it is all a matter of personal taste but having just bought one of the three Hardy 36 for sale I don’t see any issue with the interior - I like teak and the quality you get with an older boat and wouldn’t swap it for the current Ikea like offerings, but as I said, all a matter of personal taste.

This is our sixth boat, so not our first rodeo, and so far we really like it - a good job seeing as we parted with a not inconsiderable number of spondulicks to get it! ?

A very well built heavy semi-displacement cruiser that is an absolute dream to work ropes and fenders and so far it seems to handle very well. Rolls a bit, but it does have round bilges aft. It gives a sense that it will deal with pretty much anything and it has very liveable accommodation. We are only the second weekend in but so far so good.

Worth saying that they were built locally to us and we knew the MD, who sadly passed too soon, so we are very familiar with the build quality and I have had one in my sights for many years. A 42 would be the ultimate but they are beyond the budget and in any event a bit too big for our needs.
 

Greg2

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Just spent half an hour researching Sabrelines - that is a really nice boat:),

Used Sabreline 36 Power Boat For Sale | Boat Ref 35727 | Ancasta

£120k for a '98 boat when they were only circa £200k new from what I can see..... :unsure:

At a lower price that would be a serious contender(y)

Cheers,

TC

Boat prices are a strange thing. We have been boating for twenty odd years and for a long time it wasn’t unreasonable to expect used prices to remain fairly static in terms of number of £‘s, but as time went on inflation effectively reduced values a bit. In some cases boats were selling for more £’s than they cost new!

Another factor is to look at new prices and bearing in mind that leisure boats don’t tend to ‘wear out’ a used boat can be a very good option. Prices have hardened this year due to demand but what will happen over the next few years is anyone’s guess!
 

Bouba

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TheCoach

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I guess it is all a matter of personal taste but having just bought one of the three Hardy 36 for sale I don’t see any issue with the interior - I like teak and the quality you get with an older boat and wouldn’t swap it for the current Ikea like offerings, but as I said, all a matter of personal taste.

I hear what your saying, this change of direction to include trawler yachts as well as the planing hulled walk arounds like Sargo, Quicksilver Activ etc came about as we were on hols up in Dunoon last few weeks and one night I showed Mrs TC the pics of the C-Kip for sale in Holy Loch. Even though the pics were awful she absolutely loved the heavy teak treatment and the rear cabin. I think the only thing a bit ofputting with some of the boats I have seen advertised has been the red velvet upholstery :unsure: - but again that is a matter of taste :) and I am guessing upholstery would be one of the cheapest things to replace.

Ref one of your other posts if your South Coast cruise brings you as far as Kent do ping me as I would be more than happy to help restock your wine locker and have a look at the new boat(y)

Cheers

TC
 

TheCoach

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Another factor is to look at new prices and bearing in mind that leisure boats don’t tend to ‘wear out’ a used boat can be a very good option. Prices have hardened this year due to demand but what will happen over the next few years is anyone’s guess!

One of the attractions of a slightly older boat is that they seems to hold value very well so takes "some" of the risk out of buying what for us would be a very expensive boato_O - all things are relative :)

There is a bit of me (the harbinger of doom) that thinks once the summer is over economic life is going to get a lot harder before it gets easier so whilst if we find the exact right boat we will buy now, we are also happy to bide our time and wait for the right one. But lets not start that debate and take this right off topic!

So, back to boats - anyone got any experience with Aquastar's? Maybe Ocean Star/Ocean Ranger 33/38?

Cheers,

TC
 

Greg2

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Ref one of your other posts if your South Coast cruise brings you as far as Kent do ping me as I would be more than happy to help restock your wine locker and have a look at the new boat(y)

Cheers

TC

We may be taking her to the East Coast by sea so a stopover in Kent may well be a possibility(y)
.
 
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