Cheap way to keep a boat that won't sale!

[MarcJ]

Have you looked around Clynder, there are a few yards there that may be able to help with cheap swinging mooring or hard standing. I don't know the area very well, but my brother lives there so I've walked the shore line a few times!
When we sold our 20ft'er I did a good web page add using Weebly, that seemed to do the trick. It wasn't a Westerly but it did have a trailor, electrics & half decent outboard - probably spent £1k on it, and got what we paid for it £1600.
Good advice in getting it sold - you'll soon forget the "loss" and can get on with pouring money into your new boat!!
(Edit: the trailor wasn't strictly road legal)

 

[Sneaky Pete]

DRB marine next to Silvers on the Gareloch will rent out a mooring or you could put the boat on the hard there. Marina fees will need to be paid for start of season so there is a time constraint with you. Apollo Duck is free with one picture, and Yacht market has a cost but displays much larger pictures of the boat I’ve used both when selling. Helensburgh sailing club may store the boat you would have to enquire.
And then there is E-Bay.

 

[Seajet]

Get her ashore at the cheapest place available; less maintenance, much less worry in gales, and a potential buyer will be pleased to find her ready for inspection - maybe not now for this value of boat, but until recently it was up to owners to dry the boat so the punter could pay for a survey.

The Westerly 21 is a good boat ( subject to inboard ) which will stll give a young family or a beginner to cruisers a lot of fun - a genuine Good Luck.

 

[Lulabelle]

The Westerly 21 is a good boat ( subject to inboard ) which will stll give a young family or a beginner to cruisers a lot of fun - a genuine Good Luck.

Thanks for your advice... She has been a great beginner boat with an idiot proof rollerblind mainsail. No inboard in this one though... so great big boot space and uglyish outboard. At least my engine maintenance was cheap I guess.

 

[Seajet]

Though not ideal as a spanking new Nannidiesel or something, at least a complete engine change if required is a few hundred quid and half an hour; compare that to the cost, time and hassle of a new inboard !

A lot less sailing speed drag and worry about picking up lobster pot lines etc too.

I'd suggest you push those points in your advertising, along with the stowage space under the cockpit thus available for keeping an inflatable dinghy.

 

[Concerto]

Is the OP a member of the Westerly Owners Association? If not it is £15pa. Then advertise it on their web site for free.

 

[Spyro]

Your advice is good, but for a W21 without a trailer I think £1,500 would be a great result and < £500 on eBay more likely.

I think that is the reality.

 

[Spyro]

We were in a similar situation a few years ago. We stored the boat at Ardrossan for free and Sunbird did the brokerage. I don't know if they still have this arrangement but worth a call.

They have made me a similar offer for my existing boat when I was looking at a boat they had on brokerage but they will not take on a boat of that value. I think a few years ago their lower limit was around £10k

 

[Spyro]

Best advice us put it on Ebay. You may spend as much on moorings and upkeep in a year than what you will get for it and still be left with the boat.

 

[fastjedi]

Have faith ...... It's not Ebay time (yet)
As Seajet says, revisit your proposition, be realistic about the price and make sure its posted for sale everywhere!
It will soon be spring. Stick with it until May ... then consider going for ebay.

 

[MarcJ]

Have faith ...... It's not Ebay time (yet)
As Seajet says, revisit your proposition, be realistic about the price and make sure its posted for sale everywhere!
It will soon be spring. Stick with it until May ... then consider going for ebay.

Good advice, think ours went the end of May!

 

[Tomaret]

I did the same thing last year! I got my old boat ashore and up for sale at the height of the season, priced at £3000 (25%) less than the next cheapest one on the market and about 2/3 of the average asking price reflecting what I thought a new owner might want to spend on getting the hull dry. Didn't get any interest at all until a cash buyer appeared out of the blue in December and bought "as is, where is" for a 20% discount on the asking price. He, of course got an absolute bargain, in my view, but I was racking up yard costs, the boat was beginning to show signs of having been on the hard for 6 months and I wanted to get her sold.

The advice to move on, at any cost, is a good. If I had got to the end of May without any interest I would have paid to have her broken up, just to be done.

If I hadn't bought on a whim I'd be happily prepping the old boat for the new season, with full confidence in her, so it's not that she wasn't sound. The market for second hand boats is incredibly soft.

As an aside, I'm typing this on a charter yacht on a mooring in the Bay of Islands, New Zealand. Looking at some of the yachts around me there are a fair few where it's clear that they are no longer the owners first priority. Unwanted, aged plastic boats are clearly going to be a problem in all sailing countries sooner rather than later.