Crying on the shoulders of strangers.

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12 months and still no yacht!

Ive been to, England, Scotland, France, Spain, Holland, Denmark, Germany, Belgium.

Im thinking of giving up on this dream. How can a 40 ft 1980/90s yacht in good (and I do mean good) condition, set up well for short handed and long distance be so hard to find?

Perhaps the fact I want good living accomodation and nice-sh ashethics.

Did anyone else suffer the same ?
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Just to clarify: Examples of what I have looked at:
Budget is £60k
Jeanneau sunfizz/kiss, Beneteau firsts, Moody 41/419/422/44/47
Westerley OceanRangers. Bavaria 390 Lagoon, SunMagic44, Hylas 44, Bowman 46, Oyster 39,435.

All have had some serious flaw or been set up for charter and not cruising.
 
Perhaps your expectations are to high at that particular budget?

Just a thought.

What happens if you look at boats asking say, £75K, (they may drop to £60K), or have you already done that?
 
I didnt put this post up so that I could end up justifing myself or the yachts I have been looking at.

It makes little odds what you ask a broker about the condition of a yacht bult in 1980 or 1990 - thier job is to get people to look at thier boats and obviously if Im told its not in good condition then I wouldnt go. White Lady, thankfully I DONT have better things to spend my time on, but i do have better things to spend money on. So I go through EXTENSIVE conversations on email (which acts as an audit trail of conversation) before travelling to view a yacht.

As for the Beneteau first - many have been set up succesfully and used long term for long distance crusing.


Yes, I am pushing prices down from around the 70-80k mark to £60k before going to view a yacht I find out if the seller would reduce it to my price level, and then go from there. The sale is always subject to survey. After 12 months of searching full time I'd like to believe I know the market pretty well, and dont think I am being all that ambitious. Ive seen Moody 47s at £59k, 422s at £35k & £50k(with teak deck). Endless Moody 41/419s sub £60k, several Bav 390 Lagoons at sub £60k. Westerleys, Bowmans etc too. Im not making it up - honest. THey are all being advertised in excellent condition.

Ill keep looking.
 
Is it that you are just trying to find the wrong boat for the wrong money or that your expectations are just to high.
You don't suggest what you are looking for and the reasons you have not purchased any of them.

With our present boat, I first decided on type (as in design) then builders of which I short listed to 3 or 4 and then started looking. We travelled to Holland, Greece (mainland and Islands) Spain (mainland and Islands) and Italy. I was never off the Yachtworld.com site.
In the end I found what we were looking for by accident really.

Some years ago now, our first time purchase of a yacht was a First 35 which without doubt needed a vision of what it could be made into rather than what state it was in at the time. With a lot of work it turned out to be a gem of a boat with a lot of fond memories and we still get invites to sail her with her present owners.

A few years ago a friend of mine was looking for a replacement yacht for his sailing school. He went about it in a different way and did the brokers and yards and we travelled all over the place and may be looking at 20 a trip till he found what he wanted.

It's like the syndrome of 'how long is a piece of string' but probably in the end it's a compromise. Imo find your boat and if you have to adapt it for short handed or long distance so be it.

Hope this little insite to my findings helps a little and good luck with finding what you are looking for.

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Theres nothing wrong with a Beneteau First for Blue Water Cruising! We have done an atlantic circuit on ours and also lived aboard very comfortably for 12 months at a time.
Ours is 1982 vintage and boy is she strong and well made.
I think the accomodation is perfect for us (couple and cat) and she is easily handled by two people. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif
 
I think you need to go back to the drawing board.

You are suffering from a dose of "ready- fire - aim" /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

The boats you are looking at are so diverse that I suspect that you haven't formally identified your priorities and are maybe evaluating each boat afresh.....and down that road lies madness!

Its great that you review a broad range of craft to begin with as it gives an experience of what's on the market and what "bangs to expect for your buck"but that's no way to isolate the right choice of boat.

Having evaluated the market you know what is available, now you need to sit down and decide what is important to you and in what order. Make a list, because boat design is about compromise and under 65ft that means you rarely get the complete package - which means you will need to compromise too.

Now is the time to stop looking at boats that don't tick your boxes and you will then very quickly isolate what is for you.

The boat market is depressed at the moment so you should be able aim high and negotiate low. If you can't find what you want now then you will need to adjust your budget or your ambitions

In our case we very quickly came up with a list, yours will be different I am sure. I list what was important to us in case it helps:-

1. Capital cost below £100k, (much less if possible!!)
2. Fibreglass for low maintenance
3. Proven, stable and seaworthy (decent keel/ballast, stable, small windows, moderate size cockpit etc)
4. Reasonably fast for good passage times (LWL and fin and skeg were factors here)
5. Roller reefing main and foresail to encourage us to reef early and often and in safety from the cockpit
6. Sloop rather than ketch as the roller reefing gives great variety of sail plans without all the extra mast and rigging
7. Large enough to live on comfortably and have guests from time to time but not so large costs went into the stratosphere. In the end we decided 40ft min and 45ft max.
8. Good storage
9. Decent size saloon with straight bench seats that could double as bunks or for just plain slobbing about on.
10. Spacious aft cabin with centreline bunk (important to us for living aboard)
11. Good sized galley with plenty of cool storage
12. Good engine access (3 sides)
13. Marinised big name (Ford) diesel so parts cheap and readily available - anywhere.
14. No teak decking (gets too hot and too expensive says Nigel Calder and who am I to argue?)
15. Clear uncluttered decks with area to sunbathe
16. Plenty of opening hatches for ventilation
 
I have to wholeheartedly agree with Phantomlady, the Beneteau First 35 (1982)we had was as strong as anything on the market and no slouch in the water and could easily be sailed single handed. With it's pilot bunks it had room to sleep eleven people so all this space for one ! it's got to be an option.

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Certainly you wouldn't have got what you are looking for at anything like 60k a few years ago and presumably the same is true today. Maybe if you wait there will be some distressed sales coming onto the market otherwise raise your budget or reduce your spec. In 2004/5 your absolute minimum for that spec would have been £130k (if you were lucky) but nearer to £200k would have been more reasonable. We were looking for that kind of spec at the time, and hunted for around six months.
 
[ QUOTE ]
12 months and still no yacht!

Ive been to, England, Scotland, France, Spain, Holland, Denmark, Germany, Belgium.

Im thinking of giving up on this dream. How can a 40 ft 1980/90s yacht in good (and I do mean good) condition, set up well for short handed and long distance be so hard to find?

Perhaps the fact I want good living accomodation and nice-sh ashethics.

Did anyone else suffer the same ?

[/ QUOTE ]

Well I have one and if you are still looking come September it will be for sale. Ours is a 1988 Jeanneau Sun Legende 41 designed by Doug Peterson and the successor to the Sunfizz 40. Ours has been modified to suit a couple with a guest cabin aft and owners cabin forwards and huge stowage. We have all the long distance gear like a stern gantry with wind and solar power, large battery banks, holding tank and so on. There is a bimini convertible to cockpit enclosure system. She did the AZAB two handed race and finished 6th and has cruised the length and breadth of the Med. She is a very fast and sweet sailer and set up with all reefing from the cockpit, with three slab reefs on a fully battened mainsail. There is a separate additional inner forestay (removable) on which goes a staysail or a storm jib with dedicated track. The mast has a roller car system for the fully battened sail and a separate track for a trysail. Sails are first class and from (Dimension Polyant) Hydranet Dacron with woven in Dyneema/Spectra reinforcement. Both Genoa and mainsail are triradial construction.

This will be for sale after we return from our summer cruise only because we are retiring and selling up everything to emigrate to the USA. The boat will therefore be sold with LOTS of gear from pots and pans to ifs and ands.
 
I think you may have this the wrong way round. Instead of asking a stranger what price a boat try asking yourself what price your dream? If you valued the dream more perhaps you might be prepared to risk some money on the boat.
 
All this seems to suggest that what you are looking for does not exist!

So you have to either increase your budget to get in reach of boats that do meet your standards or scale back your size/equipment brand expectations to fit your budget.

As an observation, looking at the list of boats you have looked at I am not surprised that most are unacceptable at £60k. The only way you can get a model of a boat that asks normally £80-90k for 60 is if it is a dog - that is why it is £60k!

Just as an example, I looked at a Moody 422 recently that would have met your outline spec. It sold for just over £40k. Why? because it needed at least £20k in materials and equipment to bring it up to comparable condition to others which go for 70-80. Doable if you have the time and expertise.
 
I agree with that. i have been looking in Florida for the last few months and found a 13m Angelo Lavranos sloop going for $80k guy took $50k! So I've ended up with a 1992 boat for £35k, but after he had used it as a house for 4 years every single system needs work. It will all work in the end and its a great boat but it needs money and time.
 
[ QUOTE ]
I didnt put this post up so that I could end up justifing myself or the yachts I have been looking at.

Blah! Blah!

Ill keep looking.

[/ QUOTE ]

Cheeky get! If you don't like realistic comments feck off somewhere else!
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I spent 2 years looking for the right boat, in the mid 90's. The right boat was basically a ratio between, Size/Condition/Price.
I looked all over the UK, France, Spain and Greece and found exactly what I had in mind in Athens. within a week of viewing, she was surveyed and!!!! I had my boat (Bendytoy Oceanis)
Many years later after selling that one, I started looking again, for my next boat, thinking 'here we go again, another 2 years......." Totally different set of values, this time though.
Found her within a month!!
Strange world, buying boats!!!
 
I was struggling to find the right boat but came accross a ferro cement yacht that we bought 3 years agao and has been great. I know there are lots of arguments for and against but when I investigated and looked further I was convinced if well built these can be good boats. My reason for posting is there is a great looking Hartley Fijian for sale at present in your budget and from the picutes looks like it would be a good buy link
bhttp://www.boatshed.com/hartley_fijian_43_-boat-64374.htmlelow
 
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