Advice and opinions

[chrismb]

Hi - I'm completely new to this but have set my heart on buying a boat. I currently go sea fishing on a friends boat and after carrying his auxillary down to his boat constantly and desperately waiting for him to let me have a go I've decided to just go for it and buy one early next year. I intend to do a level 2 powerboat course/vhf and maybe navigation course before I touch my own boat. I live in Hove East Sussex and will at first just use it to do small coastal trips and then with abit of experience intend to do trips to France. I've been reading every magazine bit of info possible and looking on this forum for a while. The question is I'm thinking of getting a fairline sprint. Is this suitable? I've noticed 'Solent' has a sprint' so his opinions would be a great help. Are there any other boats I should consider around the £16,000 mark. Also, with the current cost of petrol and red diesel soon to go, would it be worth doing an LPG conversion as Brighton Marina where I intend to berth it (although I've just checked out the rates oh dear..) has LPG and I've noticed alot of marinas, harbours along the south coast have. Are the conversions any good. Any advice is most gratefully received. Thanks.

<hr width=100% size=1>I Know i'm going to be skint

 

[Rob H 37]

You could talk to On Board Power sea school at Northney marina, Chichester (only half an hour away for you) for your training - I used him for some own boat training (they also have training boats) and also the VHF and he was very good.

Fuel seems a bit of a lottery at the moment from a cost effectiveness perspective, buy Diesel is much safer!!!

I was in the same position a year ago and am now enjoying my first season - just go and see as many boats as you can (My mind changed several times through the process!) and get stuck in.

Don’t know the sprint but if you want to go over the channel you'll need a couple of engines


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[DavidJ]

Really would not advise doing the channel in anything less than 30ft which really blows the marina fee budget (I assume). So think of trailoring which restricts you to 24ft or so with a powerful 4X4 or 20ft with a family car. Personally I would forget conversions and the like, for the number of hours you are likely to do, the saving will be minimal. There is a boat selling website called boatsandoutboards, others will correct me if I'm wrong. Most of the stuff you will see will be petrol.
Most people will sell their first boat after a couple of years so don't worry about getting the perfect boat first time around because it doesn't exist anyway.
happy hunting

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[BrendanS]

Have a chat with Solitaire. He has a Fairline Sprint, and converted to LPG, then after problems replaced with Diesel.

It will be fine for cross channel as long as you pick a decent weather window, Boats of this size do the crossing all the time, with care. You'd be well adviced to cross in the company of one or more boats however.

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[Dave_Snelson]

Chris - your initial approach to this seems good. You will no doubt change your mind many times as you see more and more boats. I have a twin engined boat with LPG conversion and it is great - but before you dive in, think about the conversion costs at £3000 (I bought mine converted already). You can buy a lot of petrol for that money.

Have you thought about a sports fisher type boat like Oqueteau? For £16k you can get a very good second hand one with outboard petrol or inboard diesel. They come well equipped with a small cabin, an enclosed wheel house, some have a sea toilet or potty and some basic facilities for cooking and the like. They are good stable sea boats (and go reasonably quick for watersports) and whilst you should never put to sea in rough conditions, I reckon one of these would cross the channel easily. I once crossed the channel back in 1983 in a Fletcher 139 (13ft 9 inches) with 50HP Merc outboard - but don't tell the rest of the forumites or they will shout at me for being stupid! (No change there then!)

Cheers
Dave

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[Alistairr]

YOU DID WHAT!!!!!!!!

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[Solitaire]

If you want to chat in deatail about Fairline Sprints PM me. As Brendan metioned I converted to LPG B4 I reengined to a diesel. Loads of data on that too!

<hr width=100% size=1>Boating is <A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.powerboattraininguk.co.uk>Serious Fun</A>

 

[Dave_Snelson]

Full tank + 2 jerries. 1968 silver-band Merc 50 4 cyl 750cc. What a blisteringly good engine that was...

Fletcher 139 with girl friend. Old pair of car seats in boat, no radio, no mobile phone (not invented), we did have life jackets, no auxilliary motor, no instruments at all - saw lots of big ships and managed to dodge them all. It was a flat calm day and sunny, which was odd because the previous day had been windy, cold and way to choppy to even launch. Just there and back without stopping!

I wouldn't tell my kids about this little venture...

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[PaulF]

Yep, I expect it was great fun. Maybe we would all be a bit more circumspect now, basically as we are older!

I enjoy reading about the exploits of our fellow forumites, be they brand new to boating or whether it has been a life long pastime.
I also had a very old 60's 50HP Merc, absolutely hammered it, ski-ing an stuff, on an old Yarecraft Sea Swallow. but it was always maintained properly and it NEVER let me down in 4 years.

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[chrismb]

All. Thanks for your help. Dave, I can't go for a sports fisher, has to look good - the wife you see. It was the only way I could sell it to her, the fact that we will be completely skint for a few years.
Solitaire - Will mail you for info about the sprint. Thanks.

<hr width=100% size=1>I Know i'm going to be skint