Boat Hunt

[jonlaw]

I'm after a used yacht for next summer for mainly cruising. My main criteria are, two doubles aft, less than ten years old and £50000 or less.
There are numerous ads for Sun fast 36 and Beneteau 351 but the prices seem to vary considerably - why?
Should I stay away from ex charters ?
What other yachts under this price have two aft cabins ?
Has anybody ever used a buying agent ?
I'm travelling to the Southampton boat show and plan to spend a day trailing boat yards, but I would need an idea of what types to view.
Appreciate any comments.
John

 

[tcm]

If you want it for next summer, you'll have to pay berthing etc all the way through the winter, so praps hold off an actual purchase?

The is a "second hand boat show" at the same time as the so'ton boat show, tho these can be full of fairly desperate types who got nowhere with a private/brokerage sale.

Charter boats tend to be very definitely "used" and will almost certainly have 2 aft cabins - this being almsot the very definition of a charter layout. But the engine will have lots of hours, the rigging may ned some replacement. An ex-charter boat won't ever have been "loved", and is unlikely to have lots of nice extras such as radar and so on.

Jeanneau and beneteau are likely starting points if you need the space. Also, have a look at boats a bit over 40 feet to see the big difference in internal volume. These are more likely to be "second boats" for the previous owner, less likely to have had a hard time.

 

[JeremyF]

The spec you are calling for is regarded as 'charter' on yachts of 34' - 36', but of course families buy them so each kid has their own cabin. I wouldnt want to put adult couples in these aft cabins for more than one night, tho'!

Dont buy an ex-charter unless it is seriously cheap, and you are ready for a serious investment in time and money.

Use the second-hand boat show, and the last 12 months YM classifieds as a way of getting sensitive to the market price for private versions of your shortlist, and then pounce when a good deal appears in the next 6 months. Brokers are as good a source of good deals as private sales - if you get to know what's at the brokers now, come February, those left will often be ready to do a deal.

For your budget you should get a nice example about 5 years old

Jeremy Flynn

 

[Twister_Ken]

At the 35 foot mark, don't let the expression 'twin aft cabins' fool you into thinking you are getting twin aft cabins.

What you get are twin aft sleeping slots, which are just about bearable if all you want are badly-needed zzzzs. But they are generally found in the sort of yacht that suffers from the dreaded transom slap. Even a minor ripple coming from astern gets 'trapped' under the stern and creates an annoying plopping sound. As this happens about four feet from the prospective sleeper's ear, you've got to be pretty Jacob's to drop-off.

If you want twin aft cabins that you might actually describe as living spaces without having your tongue too firmly in your cheek, you've got to look at about 42 feet plus.

As for ex-charter boat, if I had a bargepole, I wouldn't touch one with it UNLESS it was priced to allow a lot of boatwrighting/engineering/sailmaking/riggering to bring it back up to A1 condition.

 

[Twister_Ken]

At the 35 foot mark, don't let the expression 'twin aft cabins' fool you into thinking you are getting twin aft cabins.

What you get are twin aft sleeping slots, which are just about bearable if all you want are badly-needed zzzzs. But they are generally found in the sort of yacht that suffers from the dreaded transom slap. Even a minor ripple coming from astern gets 'trapped' under the stern and creates an annoying plopping sound. As this happens about four feet from the prospective sleeper's ear, you've got to be pretty Jacob's to drop-off.

If you want twin aft cabins that you might actually describe as living spaces without having your tongue too firmly in your cheek, you've got to look at about 42 feet plus.

As for ex-charter boat, if I had a bargepole, I wouldn't touch one with it UNLESS it was priced to allow all the boatwrighting/engineering/sailmaking/riggering necessary to bring it back up to A1 condition.