Best ever bargain Centaur? Or is there something wrong?

[justanothersailboat]

(lost keels): ...hardly any?

If the only mooring you can access is a Solent marina, the cost rules out quite a lot of boat-and-usage-pattern combinations for quite a lot of people, sadly.

 

[ashtead]

Unless you can moor on the Medina -back in the day when westerly were churning out centaur it was a few hundred£ per year when harbourmaster Alan was around I believe. No idea what a centaur mooring costs on Medina today though.

 

[Supertramp]

Does anyone have any record of how many Centaur keels are lying at the bottom of the Solent?

They do at least come with a spare.

 

[steveeasy]

Surely you go on what is in front of you. I’d not be overly suspicious of the fact only 4 pics exist or if it is cheap. The fact is if one wants to sell something reducing the price to what they are happy with finds a buyer quickly.
The very best boats can be the cheapest. The owner with deep pockets has lavished her and then decides to sell and can’t be bothered to mess around trying to get a high price. He does not need the cash.
I’ve seen this recently with a Rolls Royce of a boat almost given away.
I’ve already decided when I sell mine I won’t mess around trying to get a perceived market price. I’ll just get something. Far better than wasting time.

So go view with an open mind.

Steveeasy

 

[justanothersailboat]

I rather hope the 4-pictures Centaur from 2019 went to a loving home! I imagine we'll never know.

I partly agree with you (steveeasy) on selling-an-old-boat price and partly not. If I get to the point of selling I wouldn't want to chase the highest theoretical price I could get for my (old, but not Centaur old) boat - clearly a bad use of time and storage expense - but nor would I want to let her go supercheap to a significant percentage of potential "very cheap boat" purchasers who are a serious bad bet. One day she'll rot and get chopped up, but I'd sacrifice some time and effort to put that day off.

 

[Greenheart]

For the Solent, £5 a day would be a total bargain almost regardless of where, and tidal access limits. Even £10 is still cheap.

I believe it - I've seen it. I still think it's still pretty near insanity (speaking as one who has been so crazy).

I would have happily obliged myself to row, to reach a reasonably priced swinging mooring if there were any locally, rather than be continuously robbed for the convenience of stepping aboard from a pontoon. I like using a tender. I began sailing at Chichester and my appreciation of moorings in rustic scenery is greater than my need to tie up in the yachting equivalent of a carpark.

But I really think a trailable boat makes best sense for me, as well as being cheaper all round than bigger craft. At whichever point each year the weather stops me wanting to sail, I'll also stop paying for mooring/berthing until the following spring...and if I foresee a busy year of work, or enduring unfitness or any obstacle to using the boat, it'll sit at home costing little till I'm ready to sail (and pay) again.
.

 

[Chiara’s slave]

I believe it - I've seen it. I still think it's still pretty near insanity (speaking as one who has been so crazy).

I would have happily obliged myself to row, to reach a reasonably priced swinging mooring if there were any locally, rather than be continuously robbed for the convenience of stepping aboard from a pontoon. I like using a tender. I began sailing at Chichester and my appreciation of moorings in rustic scenery is greater than my need to tie up in the yachting equivalent of a carpark.

But I really think a trailable boat makes best sense for me, as well as being cheaper all round than bigger craft. At whichever point each year the weather stops me wanting to sail, I'll also stop paying for mooring/berthing until the following spring...and if I foresee a busy year of work, or enduring unfitness or any obstacle to using the boat, it'll sit at home costing little till I'm ready to sail (and pay) again.
.

All our previous boats wintered at home, and spent the summer on a variety of lower priced, sometimes less convenient, swinging moorings, with the bonus of better scenery and fewer neighbours. We are very fortunate now to have a residents mooring in Yarmouth. A number of our neighbours have basic priced boats as it’s viable to do if your mooring is cheap enough. A pontoon, but not walk ashore, and some distance to any sort of modern convenience. Most people leave these moorings in a box.

 

[flaming]

. Most people leave these moorings in a box.

sounds like they need a bit of H&S applied to them then….

 

[WoodyP]

My learned experience is that old boats don't sell unless they are cheap and that if you don't take the offer you are stuck with the hole in the water swallowing your money.

 

[Wansworth]

My learned experience is that old boats don't sell unless they are cheap and that if you don't take the offer you are stuck with the hole in the water swallowing your money.

At what point is too cheap or even giving it away liable to put buyers off?

 

[WoodyP]

I have no idea. But it's a race to the bottom. A cheeky offer may be refused, but reality kicks in when it's the only one.

 

[samfieldhouse]

I remember my dad selling our centaur in 1996 for £14k. Bonkers really. How times change.

The one advertised at £7995 must be absolutely top notch now. I’ve seen them go for less than £1k - not forgetting that boat scrapyard in Portsmouth seem to scrap them on a monthly basis.

 

[Chiara’s slave]

sounds like they need a bit of H&S applied to them then….

Maybe it’s the killer egrets. Though more likely to be crapped to death by a cormorant