Guy Thompson T24. Very sea-kindly, gets in a real groove when beating. ust have to look for one in good condition as it is a GRP hull with timber superstructure.
Agree about the T24 but the plywood deck can be a problem. For around £4000 or less you could get a Halcyon 23. It was my first boat and they sail well. Accommodation is a little basic but we did weeks away in one.
Try to find one with a new-ish engine. The Yammar 1GM10 was what we fitted. They come in fin, bilge and triple keel form, mine was a fin.
Do you have any other criteria (do you want to be able to stand up in it when below for instance or have a preference for wood, grp or whatever? )
Trident 24s have crossed the Atlantic... David Rudling average 4.2knots sailing from Southampton to St Lucia in the fin keeler Trident Dawn Treader http://www.trident24.com/cruising.html.
I just did a search on www.yachtworld.com for sailing yachts with the following criteria :
20' - 24' long, any age, any material, any type of engine, in the UK, up to GBP 4,000, and a list of 35 boats came up.
As MacHurley22 says "A good Hurley 22 is a lot of boat for your money"
[BIAS]Add to that an active class association, a busy owners forum and a bouyant secondhand market place...can there be any other rational choice?[/BIAS]
Have a peek at Dutch sites, there's a national trait to looking after boats really nicely over there, and prices look good. Besides this, they seem to like boats that are capable.
Not sure how good they really are, but the Friendship 22 looks quite practical. An engineer I've worked with had one and rated it. Also the Oceaans look ok. Take a peek at botenkoop.nl and marktplaats.nl.
Having said that though, a Dutch tug engineer I was chatting too recently was in process of doing up a Hurley 22, and it looked marvellous in his pics.
Well, my Anderson 22 beat a Rival 34 home from Bucklers Hard to Chichester from Bucklers Hard against a true, solid E F6, if anything stronger.
The owner of the Rival was not particularly chuffed, he was very proud of his immaculate boat; for ever afterwards he greeted me with " I hate that boat ! " - And he wasn't entirely joking...
He was also ex-Enterprise National Champion and had owned a Hurley 22. He was amazed by the Anderson, " The Hurley would have stopped dead in those waves ".
I'd be extremely surprised if the Hurley has a class association, spares support and active owners private forum to match.
Since the A22 design doesn't inflict twin keels for drying out either, yes, I'd say there's a rational conclusion !