Canal/river/lake/coastal yacht options

[Southernexplorerkyle]

Greetings from New Zealand. I am a mad keen sailor having a mid life crisis! Approaching 50 my wife and I have decided to quit our jobs and take a few years off smelling the roses and travel more. We are after some advice from you good people in terms of a Canal/lake and coastal yacht capable boat in the lower budget range? We would like to buy in either Ireland or UK with intentions of moving onto contental Europe in season 2. We just want a good bones and functional type boat. We are not flashy people we love camping ect so can easily ruff it for a year or two. We don't want to sell our house or current boat in nz as they will provide us with a small income. We are not familiar with UK canal /coastal yachts so any help would be appreciated.

Regards Kyle

 

[TQA]

Greetings from New Zealand. I am a mad keen sailor having a mid life crisis! Approaching 50 my wife and I have decided to quit our jobs and take a few years off smelling the roses and travel more. We are after some advice from you good people in terms of a Canal/lake and coastal yacht capable boat in the lower budget range? We would like to buy in either Ireland or UK with intentions of moving onto contental Europe in season 2. We just want a good bones and functional type boat. We are not flashy people we love camping ect so can easily ruff it for a year or two. We don't want to sell our house or current boat in nz as they will provide us with a small income. We are not familiar with UK canal /coastal yachts so any help would be appreciated.

Regards Kyle

If you mean the UK narrowboat canals then you have a beam restriction of 7 ft this would be a fairly small sailing boat say something around 18 to 20 ft.

You could buy a traditional British narrowboat, explore the extensive UK canal system in year 1 cross the channel [ this is risky requires some precautionary work but has been done many times [ then explore the very extensive continental canal/river systems. If you consider this I strongly recommend that you read Narrow Dog To Carcassonne

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Narrow-Dog-Carcassonne-Terry-Darlington/dp/0553816691

 

[Tranona]

Greetings from New Zealand. I am a mad keen sailor having a mid life crisis! Approaching 50 my wife and I have decided to quit our jobs and take a few years off smelling the roses and travel more. We are after some advice from you good people in terms of a Canal/lake and coastal yacht capable boat in the lower budget range? We would like to buy in either Ireland or UK with intentions of moving onto contental Europe in season 2. We just want a good bones and functional type boat. We are not flashy people we love camping ect so can easily ruff it for a year or two. We don't want to sell our house or current boat in nz as they will provide us with a small income. We are not familiar with UK canal /coastal yachts so any help would be appreciated.

Regards Kyle

Welcome to the forum

There is such a huge range of boats available at just about every price point that will do the job. The first decision perhaps is do you want a pure motor boat or a sailing boat where you can remove the mast if you want to venture into the canals. The former will restrict you to a much smaller choice, particularly on a a limited budget and will also limit your ability to explore coastal waters.

Probably the most common "budget" buy is an older sailing cruiser in the 26-32' range with a good engine. This size gives enough space to live reasonably comfortably for extended periods and capable of offshore cruising. If you are hands on with fixing boats you can get a suitable boat prepared for the project for under £20k. Prices vary hugely as demand for such boats is low at the moment, not least because most need significant work and expenditure to make them reliable and comfortable.

Suggest you look through on line sites such as www.apolloduck.co.uk or on ebay to get a feel for what is available. Buying a boat, however is not quick as you will probably need to look at a fair number to find what you want and then spend time getting it prepared so a 3-4 month time scale is reasonable to budget for. Remember also that boating is very seasonal and nothing much is possible in the Nov-Mar period except working on preparation.

BTW while the European canals are mostly navigable by sea going boats (with mast dropped) UK canals are generally not. You will find masses of information - books, magazines, blogs etc about the subject and the many varying ways of travelling around in small boats.

Hope this helps getting you going.

 

[Grehan]

To explore the 10,000km network of canals in France a yacht, mast down, is quite possible and we've done it. However, keel depth is a factor. 1.8m (in fresh water) will notionally get you through north-south, but probably with a few problems and you won't be able to do much else apart from that passage. For more thorough exploration (and enjoyment!) 1.2m would be maximum. Bilge-keels are not ideal because of the sloping sides of traditional canals.

• https://www.french-waterways.com/hands-on/practical-navigation/

Since 2008 we've been aboard an inland cruiser, draft 0.9m but before that our Southerly yacht was ideal. Draft, keel-up, 0.6m . The marque has been going for many years, with different sizes from 10m o.a There are plenty of examples at various price points. Various conditions too, but in general terms they were reasonably well built.
There was an extensive recent thread here on YBW about buying one . . .
> http://www.ybw.com/forums/showthread.php?502571-To-Southerly-or-not-to-Southerly

 

[Southernexplorerkyle]

Thank you very much,this was the kind of information I was after. Very grateful. Definitely want something that I can drop the mast down easily enough. My understanding is most of English canal system would be restricted, but the Irish and Scottish areas not so much. I will follow up on your advice. Regards Kyle

 

[Southernexplorerkyle]

Thank you for your time to respond. Not really after a narrow boat as such. My understanding is the English canals would make it prohibited for a yacht. We are now looking at hiring to view this area.

Regards Kyle

 

[Southernexplorerkyle]

Thank you for your time. Yes the Southerly yachts are well made and definitely suitable but maybe out of our 30 to 40 k budget.

Regards Kyle

 

[Grehan]

Thank you for your time. Yes the Southerly yachts are well made and definitely suitable but maybe out of our 30 to 40 k budget.
Regards Kyle

https://www.apolloduck.com/boat.phtml?id=436764 £25,500
https://www.apolloduck.com/boat/southerly-105/409177 £35,000
https://www.yachtworld.co.uk/boats/category/type/Southerly/95
https://haylingisland.boatshed.com/dosearch.php?q=southerly
etc

 

[Tranona]

Thank you for your time. Yes the Southerly yachts are well made and definitely suitable but maybe out of our 30 to 40 k budget.

Regards Kyle

With that budget you will have a very good choice of boats, including as grehan says the older and smaller Sotherleys, or even an early 115 needing a bit of fettling.

Sounds like you will need several years to do all the things you suggest. Remember in N Europe you only effectively have 6 reasonable months a year to do any serious travelling by water and weather can seriously restrict the useful days, particularly for the coastal bits.

The UK narrow canals system is vast and the best you can hope for is just a sample as the distances you can travel in a day are short and the cost of hiring a boat, particularly high season will seriously deplete your budget!

Just to give you an idea of the sort of things that are possible. A circumnavigation of "Britain", taking in bits of Ireland and using the Caledonian Canal is a decent season's project - april to October. Across the channel , bit of Northern France and through the canals to the Med, another season. Back to the UK via the Atlantic coast another (long) season.

As suggested tap into blogs to see what others have done. There is no perfect way and always a trade off between speed of transit and depth of tourist experience.

 

[BobnLesley]

...april to October. Across the channel , bit of Northern France and through the canals to the Med, another season. Back to the UK via the Atlantic coast another (long) season...

On that scenario/timescale proposal, surely the OP would find thinks a lot more comfortable to sail down the Atlantic coast and around to the western Med, with wind and current in his favour and then come back via the canals?

 

[Tranona]

On that scenario/timescale proposal, surely the OP would find thinks a lot more comfortable to sail down the Atlantic coast and around to the western Med, with wind and current in his favour and then come back via the canals?

Yes, but but pros and cons. Going north up the Rhone in the spring can be hard work.

I was only making suggestions, more to emphasise the timescales involved nd the OP can decide depending on his priorities.

 

[Sybarite]

Greetings from New Zealand. I am a mad keen sailor having a mid life crisis! Approaching 50 my wife and I have decided to quit our jobs and take a few years off smelling the roses and travel more. We are after some advice from you good people in terms of a Canal/lake and coastal yacht capable boat in the lower budget range? We would like to buy in either Ireland or UK with intentions of moving onto contental Europe in season 2. We just want a good bones and functional type boat. We are not flashy people we love camping ect so can easily ruff it for a year or two. We don't want to sell our house or current boat in nz as they will provide us with a small income. We are not familiar with UK canal /coastal yachts so any help would be appreciated.

Regards Kyle

Welcome to the forum Kyle.

To get you in the mood here is an article from the 1930's by somebody who has a similar taste to yours.

It's called the £200 millionaire.

http://www.bluemoment.com/200pm.html

When I read it I keep thinking of "Kylix", a boat designed by Maurice Griffiths, former Yachting Monthly editor for his own retirement. I think it has a very warm and inviting interior even though it is only 27' long (also exists in 29').

https://sailboatdata.com/sailboat/kylix-27
https://www.bhyachtbrokers.com/boat...fiths-kylix-mk-ii-beaulieu-hampshire-6091611/
http://www.eventides.org.uk/images8/MG 4.jpg

Good luck in your search.

 

[phantomlady]

We bought a Southerly 100 last year for 15K with exactly the same plan! The boat is excellent...plenty of room...relatively new engine...good sails...we can go anywhere on it! even 'park' it on the beach lol Best of all it has a factory fitted mast lowering system so we can raise and lower the mast ourselves