Choosing a boat

[david42]

I've started seriously looking for a new boat and I'm having trouble choosing. I've got back into sailing after a long break. In the eighties I fitted out a Newbridge Venturer bilge keeler which was a good little boat, you could park it anywhere. After that I had a beautiful Vertue which I loved sailing but needed too much maintenance for me. I've promised myself something larger and GRP, around 30 foot or so, I can spend around 12,000 - £20,000 max, the list so far is
SHE 9.5 Traveller
UFO 31
Rival 31/32
and I've just noticed a Dufour Arpegge.
Any comments?
I seem to prefer that '70's vintage, something about growing up in the 70's I guess, I've also got a Kawasaki Z1A - I wouldn't change it for a more modern bike because I love it's character, that's what I'm looking for in a boat, but I'd like a boat that handles a bit better than the Z1, if you see what I mean.

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[yoda]

How about a Contessa 28? At the bottom end of your price range the Pioneer 9 is a lovely boat and well built but not the roomiest inside (SWMBO has to stay home if I take the 4 children).

Yoda

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[david42]

I like the idea of the Contessa 28 but I've only ever seen one advertised, I remember thinking it looked like a good deal. I've never seen a Pioneer, any idea where I can get some information from?
I must admit that my preference would be to leave the kids at home and take the wife.

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[stevebirch2002]

Have a look at something a little smaller but very, very, very sea worthy - The Albin Vega 27. Price range £8000 - £15000. Try out the website at:

www.albinvega.co.uk

<hr width=100% size=1>Albin Vega "Southern Comfort" V1703

 

[david42]

The Vega looks good but I really want to permanent chart table, that was the one thing that really let the Vertue down. Have you ever come across a Hummingbird 30?

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[johna]

Have a good look at the Sabre 27.
Web site http://www.sabre27.org.uk/

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[david42]

The Sabre 27 looks good as well, I like the long fin and skeg design, does it have a proper chart table? Or am I asking too much of a 27 footer? I see Ken Endean is involved in the owners association, I presume then that the boat he's writing about regularly in YM is a Sabre?

My list seems to be getting longer all the time, I'm getting the feeling that it's maybe not so important to have a particular model in mind but rather to look widely and focus more on condition, inventory and price.

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[penfold]

wot about

albin ballad
most elisabethans, particularly the later 29 with the long fin and skeg
carter 29/30
westerly crossbow
seamaster 925
westerly GK29
scampi
Hunter Impala
Oyster 26
Plastic Vertue? maybe too expensive.
Dufour 28
Ecume de mer
Van De Stadt pioneer 9/10m
Trapper 500/28 (My mate in Aldeburgh's trying to flog his)
jaguar
sadler 29
If you can cope without standing headroom, there's the likes of;
Morgan Giles 27
Halcyon 27
Cutlass
Contessa 26
Invicta
Warsash one design

I could go on but I'm getting RSI.

As you say, condition is all. Inventory is nice, but don't feel obliged to pay extra, especially for stuff you don't need/want; you wouldn't buy a clunker because it came with a brand new Avon? Plus, you're buying the boat, not the equipment. Treat the stuff as a sweetener, not a deal breaker; if the owner is not dropping the price quite enough and there is some gucci equipment on board that hasn't been included in the inventory, ask for it to be included. In this price bracket brokers tend not to try very hard to sell them, so many spend months or years on the market, which means owners are often open to offers well under the sticker price.. However, this also means you have to light a fire under the brokers to get them to tell you what is available, as after a month or two the boats get taken off the magazine ads. Pester them until they send you the schedules just to shut you up.

HTH. Cheers,
David

<hr width=100% size=1>What in the wide, wide world of sports is goin' on here?

 

[dickh]

Also look at Jaguar 27 - I am biased of course, the website is http://pages.unisonfree.net/paul.absolon/ where, if you look under 'The Message Board' there just happens to be a J27 at £14500....
Another is a Carter 30, which should be available at under 20k.

<hr width=100% size=1>dickh
I'd rather be sailing... /forums/images/icons/smile.gif

 

[johna]

On Mark II boats the chart table slides out from above the port quarter berth. Many of the early boats were home completed and various arrangements are found.

Not sure of the need for chart tables per se these days with the onset of electronic charting either by plotter or laptop.

Yes Ken has a Sabre. An early bilge keel I think not sure of internal arrangement but he is the only Sabre with an outboard instead of an inboard motor.


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[david42]

Re: Chart tables and inventoriesat

Having had a few years out of sailing I'm new to GPS and chart plotters, my preference is to have a workable chart table and use the electronics as a back up/cross check. Chartwork has always been part of the fun of sailing for me and I've always promised myself a boat with a decent chart table, the Venturer had a fold away table and you had to use the saloon table on the Vertue.

Is there an acceptable 'standard' inventory for a second hand boat? The one's that I've been looking at all seem to have widely different levels of kit and most of it looks like hand me downs from someone's allotment shed.

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[dulcibella]

You may be able to find a Halmatic 30 at the top of that price range if it needs work and you haggle a bit. Wonderful sea boats - up to anything.

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