Antares 1080 v 980 v 9

[TomWGA]

Hello guys, I'm currently looking to upgrade my Fairline Sedan 32 (1979) and am looking at a few options: namely the Antares Serie 9, 9.80 and 10.80 (sadly the Nimbus 380 Commander is out of my price range for now). Budget between £35- 65k maybe a bit more if I get a good price for the old girl.

I'm based at North Fambridge on the Crouch so do lots of river and inshore cruising- crossing the Thames, going up to the other Essex and Suffolk rivers- but would like something that can go further if needed. I boat solo and I like to be out all year round (both away at marinas and at anchor/ on buoy).

Must haves- twin diesel engines, flybridge and decent windscreen wipers. A windscreen demister would be a dream.

I'm not bothered about flat out speed- more reliability, sea keeping in most conditions, and a decent cruise speed (14-18 kts? if needed).

Any one have any thoughts/ experience about what's good what's not on the above boats? Is the 1080 manageable for 1 person- i'm pretty comfortable with the handling- it's more how many marinas cater for 36 foot boats etc? I'm guessing not a problem. And do they hold on the anchor ok with that windage?

Or any other boats I could be looking at?

Finally, i looked at some boats down in Cornwall this weekend and wondered about the state of the propellers on one of them- edges looked blunt and the were pitted etc Is that a major problem and can it be rectified?

Thanks in advance for any help. Cheers. Tom.

 

[simonfraser]

Anchor, if its good / big enough it will hold, start an anchor thread

Solo on a mobo i’d Want a bow thurster to help with mooring, that’s the tricky bit.

Demister if it does not come with one buy a fan, works a treat.

Cruising speed of 14-18 is a bit odd, that’s above the hull speed of 10m ?

 

[wongaero]

The Series 9 looks a little lacking in space to me (wide side decks, narrow wheelhouse) whereas I've walked past a 1080 on a pontoon and it looked utterly vast by comparison. I'd quite fancy a 980 as a compromise apart from there being a galley where the forward-facing crew seat ought to be. Maybe that's been done to allow access to the engines, I'm not sure.

 

[Dunadd]

We are just finishing our first season with a 1080 which we purchased in February.
When we were shopping the 980 was primary on our list as our budget would’ve allowed for one with ‘D’ series engines but it quickly got ruled out for the lack of passenger helm seat and accommodation space compared to the 1080.
The 1080 has much higher saloon windows which do restrict any side view for anyone sitting at the table but over the season we have found the privacy this gives us whilst in a marina balances out a compromise.
The 1080 has a much bigger cabin under the saloon which is quieter than the main cabin as limited ‘Hull slap’ when overnighting on swing mooring or anchor.
Side decks and large cockpit are great for moving around.

As soon as we bought the boat our first purchase was a ‘rocna’ Anchor to replace the brittany which the boat came with, I keep the brittany in the cockpit sole as a ketch. So far we’ve spent the night on the hook a few times in pretty gusting winds and she’s been fine although does swing a fair amount.

We boat with a little person 2 1/2 so most of our berthing/anchoring has been single handed, the bow does have a mind of its own once the engines are in neutral, not found coming alongside a problem but still a bit awkward coming into our finger berth, part of this I am putting down to my lack of experience with something this size and a bow thruster would certainly help (we don’t have one). Picking up moorings has been okay I just prep bow line down to cockpit and pick up there and walk back to bow. Anchoring fine as we have windlass controls at both helms plus the bow still prefer doing this from the flybridge to stand a slim chance of trying to stay straight on chain when raising.

Windscreen demisters in ours pretty sure they are standard, wipers good. Ours has a eberspacher which is a must have in our book and been used regularly.

We cruise @ 18-22 knots with 2x315 yanmars, our neighbour in the marina used to have a 1080 with 2x200 volvos and reckoned on either two speeds of 7/8knots or 16/18knots which was near enough flat out with that set up, I’m pretty sure they said that at low speed they ran on one engine.
Think you might be ‘on the hump’ at 14.

We had ours out in a pretty large following sea 6 gusting 7, handled it fine although did need to be helmed very much on the throttles, takes head seas very well as long as the tabs are down.

Looked at a prestige 32&36 but weren’t for us, aquador 32 was very nice but single 440 yanmar put us off plus don’t see many for sale.

 

[TomWGA]

Thanks Dunadd- what a beautifully detailed response- very much appreciated. You sound happy with the 1080. They look almost intimidatingly large compared to the series 9 but I thought that when I stepped up from 27ft to my 32ft fairlone sedan and soon got used to it (especially when she topped out at 27kts

Interesting comments re the bow thruster. Would you have one fitted or have you ruled that out?

Her performance speeds and sea handling sound spot on ?

Forgive my ignorance- what do you mean by ‘on the hump’?

I’m with you on the lack of passenger helm seat on the 980- strange one that.

Thanks Simonfraser and wongaero for your responses.

 

[Dunadd]

No problem Tom,

As this is our first boat of this size I have spent this season thinking it’s huge every time I walk along the pontoon, but At slow speed I just crank the large sliding window open so I can hang out it to see what’s going on, leave the saloon sliding doors open and the canopy up on the cockpit ready for a dash over the side to do lines.

I’m planning on persevering without a bow thruster as I’m quite stubborn and determined to hone my slow speed handling.
I’ve just learnt to back out of any given attempt without shame and set up again.

I know a lot of folk view the beneteau’s as a ‘budget boat’ but nothing has fallen off ours, nothing rattles and the joinery is all still in good nick for its 17 years it’s just all quite ‘functional’ inside which suits us and part of the reason we were less keen on the prestige’s.

Would be interesting to know the performance of the more widely available ‘kad’ engines but I would suspect similar to our set up, we top out at 28ish knts but the props do need a spruce up.

By ‘hump’ I mean at 14 knots I would suspect that it wouldn’t be fully on the plane or maybe just, I normally just go straight from 7knts to our normal cruise speed so haven’t tried sitting at that speed.

We are very happy with ours, good range on tanks 630ltrs, bow great for bbqs if the weathers okay and enough space that you don’t feel your camping.

 

[TomWGA]

Brilliant. Thanks again Dunadd very interesting and a great help ?

 

[Whitelighter]

A German broker I regularly get mail from has a 2002 1080 asking €69000

Only have it on email so can forward if you pm me an email address

 

[Cathy*]

I wasn't familiar with your boat so did a quick check and it looks quite roomy. I think you would find a 980 too small. We moved up from a 980 a couple of years ago. There are 2 of us, if we had another couple on the boat we could not all sit around the table comfortably to eat . My husband would sit on the helm seat. We took the door off to the second cabin with bunks and used the cabin for storage. Access to the head was tight as the door hit the toilet and you had to wriggle around it. The galley area was ok for preparing snacks but if I wanted to do a proper meal, space was tight with no worktop area. We spent a week on a mooring in Falmouth and decided we needed a bigger boat. A friend advised us to make a list of what we spend most of our time doing on the boat and then look for something that fulfils that. We spend a lot of time on the water, weeks at a time, but most of it is on a mooring or in a berth so room and comfort were most important plus storage and decent cooking facilities. We had a quick look at a 1080 when looking for a 980 but at the time it seemed huge and the windows were high so you couldn't see out when sitting at the table, so we dismissed it. I haven't looked at one since.

 

[TomWGA]

Thanks for the message. Yes the Fairline sedan 32 is very roomy and open.

How did you find the 980 in terms of positives? One of the drawbacks to me seems to be the lack of passenger helm seat- how did you work around that?

And what did you trade up to?

I like the point about make a list of what you use it for and use that to help decide- thanks again for your message.

 

[Cathy*]

The lack of passenger helm seat didn't bother me. We could sit 3 at the helm on our new boat, an Atlantic 38, but I tend to be walking around not sitting.

I would stand leaning against the sink on the 980 if I wanted you to be at the front.

In choosing the 980 we were looking for things which we didn't have on our previous boat, an Antares 8. We wanted an island bed so one of us didn't have to clamber over the other.

2 engines to eliminate prop walk but also for my peace of mind having a spare. It could turn on a sixpence. We do our own servicing so the extra costs are minimal. Access to the engines is quite tight you have to remove lots of floor panels to get decent access.

The gunwales on both the Antares 8 and the 980 are wide enough to walk around both sides safely and at no point are you balancing on the edge.

It's very easy to pick up a buoy from the back of the 980.

We liked the idea of the moving transom as you don't pay for a permanent swim platform and the swim ladder was better than the one we have now. We were a bit concerned however when we saw how much the side of the boat flexed due to the lines to the finger pulling in strong winds.

I would make the list of what you are looking for then try to have 4 of you on a boat moving around as you would if it were yours and see how you feel.

When choosing our Atlantic 38 we wanted to not have the helm inside the living accommodation. We have an aft cabin so a full sized bed and plenty of storage. We also have more visitors now because we can all sit down.

 

[TomWGA]

Thanks Cathy. I know what you mean about the island berth. And the standing up in the galley is what I would do too.

Again- really appreciate the feedback- it’s given me lots of food for thought...