Boat Recommendations Needed

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ianhs

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In 2005 my wife and I gave up a lifetime of sailing and switched to motorboating, buying a Sealine 28. She has been a lovely boat, but, like many “firsts”, she has really focused our thoughts on what is essential to us in our next boat – and top of the list it’s the quality of the ride in a strong blow and rough seas.

Its really sea state, rather than wind, combined with the direction of travel, but our Sealine can be, to many less experienced friends, pretty uncomfortable in such conditions, when you can’t plane because there’s too much slamming and you get really wet, and then suffer serious rolling at displacement speed.

So we’re looking for recommendations/suggestions for models of used 35’-40’ boats (ideally from the mid 1990s) with 2 double cabins (excluding the saloon) up to c. £120k, which meet the following criteria in a F5 gusting F6 with a 4’-7’ swell/ waves:
1. Minimal slamming if on the plane,
2. Minimal roll at displacement speed,
3. Stays comparatively dry upwind,
and in the right conditions can cruise happily at 16-20kts.

If I’m being unrealistic either in price or capability, please tell me!

I have consciously avoided getting into “semi-displacement”, “semi-planing” or “planing” as the more I read the more I think categories can be misleading as they create generalisations, and in the end it comes down to a particular model’s own characteristics.

At the risk of finding out all sorts of things about your neighbour’s wife, bottom line is would your neighbour’s non-boating wife feel comfortable in the boat(s) you suggest in a rough sea!!

Thanks everyone.
Ian
 
We are in a similar possition!

Look at the great Sea Boats,

Cranchi Zaffiro 34, Fairline Targa 34 or 37, Sessa 35, Doral Boca Grande, Windy 37HT or Jeanneau Prestige 34 HT. All are capable and I am sure I have missed a few but they are all in your price range. You may even stretch to a Princess V40/V42.

If you do consider the Flybridge Market look at Jeanneau Prestige 36, Antares 11.80, Fairline Phantom 40, Princess 360 or 38.

Good look

Paul
 
Cruising or Sport?

I buy boats for their "on board" comfort as against sheer performance.
A few boats back I had a Broom 37 (1991) with a pair of VP 306hp, that cruised all day in the high teens with a serious achievable max of 25 odd knots. She drew 4ft 3inches with a quite deep V hull, + small keel which gave good directional stability at slow speed. She was far heavier than the equivalent Targa boat, with better weight distribution. On several occasions we were able to pass similar sized Targa boats who were clearly not having a comfortable ride.
As a bonus you get 37 feet of accommodation and 13.5 ft beam and a very comfortable and dry steering position on the rear deck.
Certainly available at £120k and less in today's market.
Downside? Fuel consumption will be marginally higher than lighter targas (around 1 mpg).
 
I don't think there's any planing boat under 40' that will plane comfortably into a F5/6 headwind with 4-7 foot waves. A 40' semi d will fare better into the wind, but most certainly wont be dry, in fact it'll be very wet indeed. It will also roll in a beam sea, unless you get one with stabilisers, which are not that common under 40'.

To be honest the boat that meets most of your criteria, except the 16 knots, is a sailing yacht! Seriously though, I reckon your best bet will be a heavy planing boat, with a good sea hull, at the top end of your size range, and accept that planing boats are not great into the wind/waves.
 
ianhs said:
In 2005 my wife and I gave up a lifetime of sailing and switched to motorboating, buying a Sealine 28. She has been a lovely boat, but, like many “firsts”, she has really focused our thoughts on what is essential to us in our next boat – and top of the list it’s the quality of the ride in a strong blow and rough seas...
Click to expand...
For a good 1990's boat with great ride and cavernous space check out some of the previous model 1990s Broom 39's. Should fit in budget. If my memory serves me correctly, one of these did a circumnavigation of the UK about 8 years ago. A pal has one and he find's it excellent in the Atlantic swell off the SW coast of Ireland. I've met two from UK visiting the south coast of Ireland, adventurous crews who like going places and seem happy crossing the Irish sea in F6. Layout may not suit you as she's a massive aft cabin, hence high aft helm and higher free board, but a lot of boat for the money and people who want to travel. The build quality is legendary.

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I think it was 2 Brroom 37's and one 39 that did the circumnavigation
 
ianhs said:
In 2005 my wife and I gave up a lifetime of sailing and switched to motorboating, buying a Sealine 28. She has been a lovely boat, but, like many “firsts”, she has really focused our thoughts on what is essential to us in our next boat – and top of the list it’s the quality of the ride in a strong blow and rough seas.

Its really sea state, rather than wind, combined with the direction of travel, but our Sealine can be, to many less experienced friends, pretty uncomfortable in such conditions, when you can’t plane because there’s too much slamming and you get really wet, and then suffer serious rolling at displacement speed.

So we’re looking for recommendations/suggestions for models of used 35’-40’ boats (ideally from the mid 1990s) with 2 double cabins (excluding the saloon) up to c. £120k, which meet the following criteria in a F5 gusting F6 with a 4’-7’ swell/ waves:
1. Minimal slamming if on the plane,
2. Minimal roll at displacement speed,
3. Stays comparatively dry upwind,
and in the right conditions can cruise happily at 16-20kts.

If I’m being unrealistic either in price or capability, please tell me!

I have consciously avoided getting into “semi-displacement”, “semi-planing” or “planing” as the more I read the more I think categories can be misleading as they create generalisations, and in the end it comes down to a particular model’s own characteristics.

At the risk of finding out all sorts of things about your neighbour’s wife, bottom line is would your neighbour’s non-boating wife feel comfortable in the boat(s) you suggest in a rough sea!!

Thanks everyone.
Ian
Click to expand...
I think the main problem in your spec is the minimal rolling at displacement speed requirement because every monohull rolls like a pig at displacement speeds unless it's stabilized and I don't think your budget is going to stretch to a stabilized boat. You might get a small reduction in rolling if you get a boat with a staysail like an older Grand Banks
IMHO, if you really want a boat thats going to be tolerably comfortable in the conditions you have described, particularly in terms of not slammimg, then you've got to be looking at semi displacement hulls because any planing hull is going to slam into a F5-6. Take a look at something like the Nelson 40/42 or Aquastar 38, both of which have seakindly round bilged hulls capable of modest planing speeds. The Grand Banks I've already mentioned. You may find a 36 in your budget. Then there are other semi-d hulled boats from Taiwan like the Trader 41 and various other makes eg President, Hershine, Ocean Alexander etc but these have hard chine hulls which are not as ultimately seaworthy as the Nelson/Aquastar hulls although they are much roomier inside
 
This is what we did...

Hi Ian
I know exactly what you mean, our last boat was an S28 - a quick one too, making over 37 knts. Trouble is you could hardly ever use the speed due to the sort of chop we get and in any sort of sea the thing would roll about a fair bit. And when at anchor - well, you needed to be very sheltered indeed - I remember that during the Trafalgar celebrations in 2005 at least 2 of our guests were quite sea sick.

So we looked around for a bigger, heavier boat - a trip back from Cherbourg in a force 5 really showed us the light, an F43 plowed the road ahead otherwise we would never had got back!

In the end after looking a various Sealines we found a Princess 360 - built like the proverbial. A totally different experience to a sportsboat but you get a huge amount of space - the galley headroom must be nearly 8 feet!

With regards to sea keeping, the opinion seems to be that they are second to none for the size.

The lower helm is of course dry, but be under no illusions that you can travel easily in the Solent from that position - unless you have a crew on full time pot look out. However, from the upper helm I have only ever gotten slightly wet, and that was in a 6 gusting 7, took one green one over the top as they say.

Sadly for me she is for sale, we've done a fair amount of cruising and now other things seem to be taking priority:

http://www.boatsandoutboards.co.uk/view/F205296

I see you are in West Sussex - send me a Pm if you might be interested, even just to help you make your mind up about what boat you you're looking for.

Tim
 
The S28 does well for a planing hull of that size (we just slow down to semi-displacement mode and burn fuel if we have to, but we don't do F6's by choice :))

If you want it to be a full planing hull, you're going to need a LOT more weight to be able to go upwind comfortably in an F6: most 35-40ft sports cruisers just aren't going to do what you want unless you are talking specialist hulls like Hunton which don't have much in the way of accomodation. Having said that, it would be worth trialling a Fairline Targa 40 or Princess V42 to see if either of them are closer to what you want.

Have you considered something like a Hardy Commodore 36 or similar?
 
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Two hulls perhaps?

Just a thought - a power cat would probably tick most of your boxes - you would just have to get used to having two hulls to contend with rather than one, especially re berthing costs and aesthetics!
There are not many of them around second hand - however Google found this Fountaine Pajot Greenland 34 for sale in France :
http://www.theyachtmarket.com/boats_for_sale/50012/

I remember sitting on the shingle beach down at Milford (near Lymington) a few years ago, and watching various power boats punching west out past the Needles into a fairly brisk SW breeze - all of the planing boats looked a wee bit uncomfortable, whereas one of these Greenlanders (or something similar) was going along very serenely, probably doing about 14 knots, with hardly any pitching.
(Although this one probably had larger engines than the 2 x 62 hp in the boat mentioned above)
 
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I think you will find that the Corvette will slam as it is quite a wide beam for it's length and rather bluff bows.
A friend had one and he made this comment.
 
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