Antares 30 or Sealine SC35?

[PaulGooch]

Sorry I'm not up to speed with the marine terminoloy. I thought trolling was marine term for slow speed and I thought it would make berthing easier. I had visions of ploughing in to the marina at 6kt with the engine on idle

If you leave the engine in gear, that's exactly what would happen

As Raf said, you nudge the stick in and out of gear. Certainly not a use for trolling valves.

I read a few threads re AIS, the word 'clutter' crops up a lot.

The more vessels around you with AIS, the more AIS targets get overlaid on the plotter, obviously. Not a problem in most areas yet and if you were in a busy commercial shipping area it'd be very nice to see at a glance exactly where all the big stuff is heading and how fast. We had 3 years out of Shotley in Suffolk, having to pass between Harwich and Felixstowe to get in and out and it was really useful and not at all cluttered on a 10" Garmin plotter. The only complaints i've read are from Solent based boaters, where it's reported a lot of private boats are getting it and some owners are leaving it on all the while, even if they are not on the boat.

That said the images of radar screens on Raymarine's website look very cluttered to the untrained eye.

The radar systems don't seem excessively expensive, circa £1600 for the Raymarine RD418HD dome. What are typical installation costs for radar, assuming the boat has plotter with Radar input?

Again, not had problems with radar clutter, if it's out there you want to see it. Garmin 18" HD radomes are less than £1k. If the plotter supports radar it's just a case of bolting the radome somewhere, usually something like a Scanstrut on the boats you're looking at, and connecting the cable.

 

[HambleDom]

Sealine SC35

Another biased SC35 owner here!
We took delivery of ours last October and this summer used it for a 2 week cruise around the channel isles and Brittany. There were 2 of us and a baby. I grant you a baby is not as big as 2 teenagers but probably takes up as much space!
We had a few "lumpy bits" and the boat was fine. My non-swimming wife was never in fear.
Yep, portholes need to be checked - we have had all of ours replaced!
The roof is a joy though. My last 3 boats have had canopies and I grew to hate them! With this you genuinely get the best of both worlds. Use it all through the winter with the heating on and the roof closed sitting in a t-shirt. If the sun does actually come out in the summer wack it open in seconds!

 

[Anders_P42]

If you leave the engine in gear, that's exactly what would happen

As Raf said, you nudge the stick in and out of gear. Certainly not a use for trolling valves.

The more vessels around you with AIS, the more AIS targets get overlaid on the plotter, obviously. Not a problem in most areas yet and if you were in a busy commercial shipping area it'd be very nice to see at a glance exactly where all the big stuff is heading and how fast. We had 3 years out of Shotley in Suffolk, having to pass between Harwich and Felixstowe to get in and out and it was really useful and not at all cluttered on a 10" Garmin plotter. The only complaints i've read are from Solent based boaters, where it's reported a lot of private boats are getting it and some owners are leaving it on all the while, even if they are not on the boat.

Again, not had problems with radar clutter, if it's out there you want to see it. Garmin 18" HD radomes are less than £1k. If the plotter supports radar it's just a case of bolting the radome somewhere, usually something like a Scanstrut on the boats you're looking at, and connecting the cable.

Useful info thank you.