am I out of my depth?

[steve2k]

Hello,
My bike was written off recently and I got £3500 from the insurance. I then foolishly looked on Boats-for-sale.com one day and reaslised I could buy a small (20') sailing boat instead of another bike with the money.

I used to sail dinghies, am a keen windsurfer and drive a rescue boat on a local lake (I have RYA qualifications for each). As I'm moving to Southampton it seems like this will be my best opportunity to own a yacht.

So my question is, where do I start?
Before I get down to picking a boat, and there seem to be a variety out there in my budget, I've got some basic questions:

What are the typical running costs of a boat (compared to the £500 the bike cost?)
What are the options for storing it if I don't get one on a trailer?
What is the best sort of boat for weekend pottering about along the south coast?
I know a 4 berth means it sleeps 4, but is there a measure for how many people the boat can carry. I'd like to take friends out.
What training should I do, is there a legal requirement?
Is £3500 going to get me a seaworthy boat or am I wasting my time?

Many thanks in advance for any advice you can give.
Cheers, Steve

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[halcyon]

Click on boat sales at the top of the page, put in your price see what comes up, then see what this lot say about it, but a litle Hurley is a good safe start.

Running costs are a total open book, technically we can run our 27 footer for around £500 a year, mooring / lay-up / insurance, or I could keep it 100 yards away at the marina and pay £3,000 a year.

No legal training, but doing RYA course , or similar would be very useful.

Brian

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[jimbouy]

Steve,

I was at a similar stage late August last year. I decided to get back in to sailing and had a similar total budget.

I paid £1200 for a little Leisure 17 on a trailer. I have probably spent £300 making the trailer safe (I hadn't counted on this) £250 on the boat and another £300 on personal gear that would stay with me if I changed boats.

She was called a 4 berth boat but would only comfortably sleep two. She has room for 3 adults to day sail. Basically she sails like a dinghy... making her a good starting point IMO. I am enjoying myself and already thinking what boat I want next.

Running costs can vary. My pontoon berth is in a drying harbour on the IOW at £340 a year. Insurance £120 ish.


Training is optional. You will need to take a short course if you want a lic. to use a VHF radio.

If your local adult ed. offers the course you could, as i have, spend the winter doing your RYA dayskipper theory. See the RYA web site for more ideas on courses to follow on with.

Youv'e taken a good first step by coming to this forum

All the best

Jim


<hr width=100% size=1> "It is a pleasure to give advice, humiliating to need it, normal to ignore it"

 

[m1taylor]

Unless you plan on keeping a boat on a trailer at home, my advice would be price up the cost of a mooring, and get one secured first before buying the boat. The type of mooring you can get and your price range for it will influence the type of boat you get. So my advice is do it that way round.



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[windandwave]

As regards training: if you can sail dinghies to (say) the old RYA level 3/4 standard, you won't have any difficulties with a small keelboat. Many people find handling under power more difficult, but if you're familiar with driving a rib then there shouldn't be any problem there either. The only thing you might need to look at before going out on your own are a few safety basics re tides / weather / rules of the road / reading a chart / etc. You might already have covered these on your dinghy courses. If not, get your hands on the RYA Yachtmaster Course Notes book:

http://www.murorum.demon.co.uk/sailing/

is one of my favourites.<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1>Edited by windandwave on 21/05/2004 20:35 (server time).</FONT></P>

 

[Birdseye]

To me, the worrying bit is "Southampton". Not that I am familiar with costs round there, so I may be talking out of my hat. But the issue I would guess would be the cost of a mooring / compound space in such a sailing hot spot.

Capital wise - yes you can get a sound boat up to maybe 24 ft at that. Budget for the bits and pieces of kit as has been said. oilies, lifejacket, port vhf radio, wellies, charts, compass, gps, plus all the bits for the boat. But dont fall into the "biker trap". You dont need the brand names, you dont need new. Oilies can come from industrial equipment shops, wellies from tesco, charts second hand etc. better to be out there having fun, than saving up to get the latest Musto kit. Street cred never saved anyone from drowning. (profound that, dont you think /forums/images/icons/smile.gif)

As for buying the boat - well the best start is perhaps to join a club and sail other peoples boats. There are always more sailors wanting crew than the other way round. But if this doesnt appeal, hunt round the clubs / yards looking for superficially tatty boats that you can smarten up with a bit of tlc. Stay away from wood / plywood, or any thing big and really cheap. Dont bother with brokers - theyre not interested in selling £3k boats. Instead, try sending wanted ads to club secretaries for their noticeboards.

Your budget is tight, but its the annual cost that is the difficult bit.

<hr width=100% size=1>this post is a personal opinion, and you should not base your actions on it.