A Practical Yacht

mikeelawson

mikeelawson

Active Member
Joined
20 Apr 2005
Messages
49
www.valeway.com
In 2006 I am looking to to buy a yacht but would like to seek guidance / options from a wider audience in relation to my / my wife's wish list:

- Budget of between £50 and 70k
- 34 Foot long
- Age 2001 to 2005
- Wheel
- Slab reefing
- The build quality of a Halberg but bot the price!
- Better quality than a Bavaria
- Light and airy enough for the family to use (like a Bavaria or Beneteau)
- Fast enough for me to race very occasionally
- To be used all year round
- Travel down to the Med (In my dreams)

I am struggling of thinking of options to meet all of this criteria. Tried a Bavaria, was concerned about build, tried a Halberg was concerned about price. There must be something in between?

Mike
mike.lawson@valeway.com
 
Re: A Practical Yacht......

Plenty of Jeanneaus around fit the bill ...... aim for one slightly above and knock him down .... buyers market.
 
Top end of your budget for the year you want, but what about a Maxi 1000?

Or if you could live with a tiller an Etap 34S.
 
Trouble with buying (say) a 5 year old Benny at that price range is that you would still suffer a fair bit of depreciation and the quality wouldnt really be much different to dozens of other boats like Bavaria, Hanse, Dufour, Jeanneau. IMHO the boat market (rather like the car market) is splitting into 2 quality camps. Just like you have German and Jap cars at the top of the quality range, you have Swedish boats. Like you have French cars at the bottom of the quality range, you have French boats and German boats. You used to have the likes of Westerly and Moody in between, but no longer. New boat buyers either want a lot of boat for the money, or they have the money and tend to go for the quality

I suggest you look at older Swedish boats like the HR 352. Wont depreciate, built like a tank, but doesnt in all honesty fit your occasional race scenario. Or an older Maxi which is a bit more racy. Or a Malo.
 
They've just dropped one in the lake, complete with "Huzar.co.uk" down the side, so I guess it's racing in the Frostbite Series. (a leap of logic there)

Looks very, very nice. I wonder how it'll go.
 
Had exactly the same requirements. Decided after much searching (and a few sails where it was possible to demo or charter) to drop the wheel requirement and went for the Etap 34. Ticks all the other boxes. Lovely sail IMHO.
 
There are boats in between. Have a look at a second hand Maxi 1000. More racy than a Hallberg but then again what isn't ? Or an X boat. If a more sedate boating lifestyle appeals try a Malo 34. All have superb build quality and despite the first 2 being more performance orientated, excellent sailing manners for cruising.
 
Just a thought, but when we were looking we had pretty much the same criteria (except a couple of feet shorter) and, like yourself, intially discounted the Halbergs on price.

Then, as we started to look a bit harderit became clear that the older HR's (mid to late 1990's) were generally in better nick than other younger marques in the same price range.

In the end we settled on a 9 year old HR 31 and, so far, have been delighted.

Mark
 
Three years ago I bought a three year old Jeanneau Sun Odyssey 34 owners version ..After adding all my own extras came to top end of your budget.Perfect for my needs (myself and one crew plus occasional extra in saloon).
The double berths are not very satisfactory fort wo to SLEEP in.
Try chartering a few different models and brands to get best information.Good luck with your search.See you in the Med.
 
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