Advice wanted

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Tom Price

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Am looking at so-called river and estuary cruisers like Birchwoods and Seamasters with more accommodation than my present boat. Are they capable of going cross-Channel? Obviously something underpowered for the Broads won't do, and at the other end of the spectrum twin turbochargers would be wasted on French waterways, but compared with my old Mitchell they look like greenhouses afloat! All suggestions welcome within a budget of £40k.
 
A colleague of mine took his Birchwood 33 cross-channel several times and ultimately decided to keep her in France. He took her through the French waterways and now keeps her on the Canal Du Midi.
 
A friend of mine runs a Seamaster 30 with two Thorneycrosft 50HPs and has taken her to Ramsgate and Burnham quite happily. We were due to cross the Channel a bit back but gave up a few miles out, crew dscomfort rather than boat trouble. He is a very experienced boater, I was the one who bottled it on our nominally far more seaworthy Coronet!

Your budget will stretch further than a 30 odd year old Seamaster. Not sure about P35s but you are certainly into Princess 33 territory. I'd also have a serious look at any Fairline 32s you can see, a fellow club member took his to Holland and Belgium many times before he traded up.
 
Ramage said:
A colleague of mine took his Birchwood 33 cross-channel several times and ultimately decided to keep her in France. He took her through the French waterways and now keeps her on the Canal Du Midi.
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I too had a Birchwood 33 (the flybridge version in my case) some time back and took it cross channel many times. Also up the Seine to Paris, all along the Normany coast, thro' Belgium to Brussels and all over Holland. All in all, a great boat and even one in fine fettle should leave the OP with some change out of £40K.
 
Thanks . . .

. . for suggestions so far - please keep them coming.
iF I may complicate the debate: one school of thought reckons that twin screws are NOT a good idea on inland waterways e.g. when mooring alongside. A friend of mine twisted a P-bracket on the Upper Seine and bailed non-stop for several days before finding a yard to be lifted ashore.
What think you?
 
Tom Price said:
. . for suggestions so far - please keep them coming.
iF I may complicate the debate: one school of thought reckons that twin screws are NOT a good idea on inland waterways e.g. when mooring alongside. A friend of mine twisted a P-bracket on the Upper Seine and bailed non-stop for several days before finding a yard to be lifted ashore.
What think you?
Click to expand...

Another suggestion that I know of, where many have made the trip easily and comfortably is....BROOM 30..

Easy to handle for a couple, there are many around with single diesel (either small Perkins 4-108 or larger 4-236) and well within budget.
 
Now you have opened a can of worms..... No problems here with my shaft driven boat on the Thames... I personally prefer the relative simplicity of shaft drive rather than the complication (and high servicing costs) of outdrives.

The outdrive fans will no doubt be along in a minute to refute my opinion (once they have fixed their gearboxes!)

:)
 
Tom Price said:
. . for suggestions so far - please keep them coming.
iF I may complicate the debate: one school of thought reckons that twin screws are NOT a good idea on inland waterways e.g. when mooring alongside. A friend of mine twisted a P-bracket on the Upper Seine and bailed non-stop for several days before finding a yard to be lifted ashore.
What think you?
Click to expand...
The idea of a single screw being better has some merit in that a) its in the middle of the boat and therefore further out from the shallows (and bank-side debris) and b) it would normally have a substantial skeg protecting both the shaft and the prop. itself. So yes, in this context, one screw is better than two :o. Having said that, during the years we spent boating on the European inland waterways, we had both twin and single engined boats and had no problems with either. You just need be be a bit more careful. And if you intend going backwards and forwards, rather than leaving the boat over there, then twins are the obvious answer.

ps and of course, you don't need the power of two engines on most inland waterways!!
 
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For EU or UK?

If you want to use it in EU perhaps buying in EU?
You then get a boat better suited to inland without the complication of it having to traverse the channel.
Many excellent EU websites, Dutch and French.
Pheran is a good source of websites.
 
Buying abroad

That's what Grehan did; after taking his Southerly sloop down to the Med and back he now lives on a more suitable penichette for most of the year.
Have you read his updated and informative website Tagweb? Ace!!

But not for me. After many years of rag 'n stick, crossing the Channel is still an adventure - as is fighting in the Solent on a fine weekend!
Besides. I might still invade your patch and target Lechlade one summer . .
 
So no flybridge then!

Another criterion is my mudberth costing a quarter of the deep-water marina next door.
How many of those recommendations will take the ground without damage?
 
The Broom 30 has more space than any other 30 footer I have seen, but would need a decent day to cross the Blue Yonder!

Even down at St Kats she rolls around a bit, and although I'm sure it's safe, and one certainly gets used to it, I wouldn't like to be on a high sea on the rather vulnerable feeling flybridge.

Perfect for the river though...

As Apollo said, plenty do the crossing though!
 
Tom Price said:
That's what Grehan did; after taking his Southerly sloop down to the Med and back he now lives on a more suitable penichette for most of the year.
Have you read his updated and informative website Tagweb? Ace!!
Click to expand...
Merci beaucoup, but she's not a penichette! She's a river cruiser. She was made by Vetus (Very Expensive Total Utter Sh . . ., I know :) ) for Vetus' own long-term (a year at a time) rental fleet. Like our Southerly (we her had for 8 years, lived aboard for 5), she's unusual; not everyone's cup of tea. Like our Southerly we think she's . . er . . Ace!!
grehan_hauterives.jpg

Oh, and Southerlies are just about the most perfect yachts for inland cruising - keel up, 680mm draft. That's 250mm less than we now have. :)
 
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