Am I too young for a FlyBridge boat?

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It always seems that the poor 'old' man gets left up on the flybridge on his own. It's either too cold and windy up there for the rest of the family, very little wind protection on a flybridge, or it's too hot and everyone else is downstairs in the shade.

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I hadn't appreciated that there was this advantage - peace and quiet!
 
My daughter was just 2 weeks old when we cast off for the first time with our Flybridge /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

I recommend them, you need the space.

She has grown up with the stairs, kids have no problem, dont forget from the age of 2 they run up and down ladders all the time in the playgrounds (slides, climbing frames etc).

If you miss the sports boat feel just stand up as you are going along and get someone to throw buckets of cold salty water in your face /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif
 
You are too young but you look old enough so it's OK. /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif

Seriously I've had both. Admittedly my fly was smaller than you are considering but I found its worst feature was dealing with small kids. If they're up they want to be down if they're down they want to be up. If they're down an adult has to be, and the steps themselves at sea are a hazard, as well as the fact that flys tend to have low coamings.

You do get more space per foot which is a plus but overall I wouldn't have a fly until the kids are old enough for you to be happy with them being out of your sight.
 
Depends. To live on, flybridge - to drive, sport cruiser.

I think a flybridge can be safe enough, although i'm not really the one to talk, as our son fell off the flybridge at 18 mths old.
 
For floating cottage it has to be a flybridge, or command bridge. However, flybridges at 35' can be a bit challenged aesthetically, and sea keeping can suffer. You can always sea trial though.
 
I'm another one who is (a) older than you and (b) going back from a flybridge to a sportcruiser. I think gjgm is on the money - if the driving experience [of a f/b] doesn't do it for you, then everything else is irrelevant.

Cheers
Jimmy
 
Perhaps another thing to consider is just how much use you need to get from the boat.If it is only going to be used in our "summer" then tent boat probably better than no boat at all.Big advantage of sports boats over FB is that you need never be bored,why not pass away those rainy afternoons shivering under the canvas by counting the leaks or playing the time honoured game of "Shuffle Seat) ie. which seat is least saturated.(Patent applied for)
Apparently heaps of tent boat owners also claim with straight face that they are always to be found out and about mid January,but suspect if you and the family are going to boat all year round you will need a FB. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif
 
As I now fall perfectly into the catagory of a BROOM: I think you may be too young for a FB!

However, I do have a FL Targa 34 and am coming round to the idea of having a FB!

Trained some time ago on a Jeanneau Prestige 36 - seemed to go fast enough and with a parapet around the stern and perhaps a simple mod to the handrail to the FB would seem a good compromise if you have kids!

Handled very well too as I recall!
 
I'm generally a fan of flybridge but not sure I'd recommend it here. Imho flybridges only work if they're big, like 50footer plus, 60foot better still. Then they're big enough to live on in warm climates, with different zones for people to hang around in, and the skipper doesn't get abandoned there on his own

If you're looking at flybr in the 30foot range it will be a small area with nothing for a kid to do except sit still, which kids dont want to do obviously. Especially in a cold wind (lots of apparent wind on a planing flybridge). So you might hate it.

I just can't "get" gigm's and Jimmy-Builder's position on "driving experience". I've tried - I've talked to Jimmy about it a fair bit and he believes it passionately yet i don't get it at all. I think the driving experience in a >30foot boat is always crap. You need a DB9 (or M5/QP with kids) etc to have fun behind a wheel. Boats with cabins are like lorries, driving wise, imho, and you hardly ever touch the wheel cos autopilot does it. So I don't seek any kind of driving experience from the boat. Indeed, I have often done 130miles to the next waypoint, straight line. A boat just a device to allow you to be at sea, and a platform for swimming, lunching, loafing, chewing the fat with friends, etc., isn't it? Tin hat on ere :-)
 
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Apparently heaps of tent boat owners also claim with straight face that they are always to be found out and about mid January

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Here's a little clip of a young fella having fun in the winter on a sportsboat:

 
Why,only last week we out on the old flybridge,
boatatbray.jpg
 
I would'nt go for a flybridge. I prefer the social aspect that a sports cruiser offers, and the ease of handling when cruising alone. Unless going 50ft plus then maybe a fly.

I use my boat all year round and live aboard for a couple of weeks at a time. No leaks at all from the 'tent' and with the heater outlet in the cockpit its comfortable to use in all but the coldest weather.
 
Not picking a fight here, and as I said above I think f/b perhaps doens't make sense here, but I also don't get this "social" thing. People often say s/cruisers are in general better cos everyone is on the same level, party is in one place. Yeah that's true for 3 hours blasting across to Cowes or whatever. But when you have say 6 or 8 people aboard for say 5 days, folks want separate spaces. The party will stick together when it wants to (around a big flybr lunch table for example) but it's definitely the case that folks sometimes want time away from the party and a flybr gives you more of that as folks can spin off to the fly (perhaps 2 separate zones on a bigger fly), aft cockpit, etc. 6 adults cooped up in one space, always in each others faces from breakfast till after dinner, for several days on the trot, isn't socially better Imho!
 
I agree with you completely, with a larger group of people for a longer period, a large f/b is the way to go from an entertaing point of view.

Mid 30ft and an older design I feel f/b to small for social gathering. A s/c is a better option with less people for a day out or maybe a weekend.

All horses for courses.
 
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I got a flybridge and I am only 25..

Tom

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Your telling Porkies.. /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif

Tom
 
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Mid 30ft and an older design I feel f/b to small for social gathering.

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Yup, definitely. I think flybrs only really start to work as a party space (as opposed to just a sitting space, and remembering the original question, small kids don't wanna sit still) at a bit above 40foot, and with a big overhang over the cockpit. Princess 42 upwards, say. Just imho
 
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