F33 - A listy/wobbly boat?

alt

alt

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Folks,
Was talking to an F33 owner (who is trying to sell) last night and asked if he found the boat wobbled/listed a lot due to it being a small flybridge. (This is the general concensus on these forums)

He sounded shocked and never noticed and list/wobble despite having 5 people on the fly-bridge and once getting caught out in an 'F7' on the South Coast of Ireland

Is he telling porkies? I guess i'll find out for myself soon enough as i'm eager to try one out - seems like a perfect first flybridge, however the thought of having TWO out-drives to potentially go wrong is worrying. If only she was available on shafts i'd be veryyyy interested
 
A friend of ours has just bought an F34, the newer version and i was very surprised how much it moves around. You certainly notice it up top.
 
blueglass said:
once had an older failrine 32 ft f/b and never had any serious stabilty problems. More than I can say for the outdrives though!
Click to expand...

Maybe because we are used to sports boats, being lower down the movement isnt as noticeable. Up on the flybridge what would feel a small movement down below is exagerated up top.

Have only been on it at river speeds so far. I certainly wouldnt want to be up top at sea. Think i will stick to sports boats:)
 
Can't understand why people have a downer on the F33. A relatively small boat to have a f/b but that is what I wanted/could afford at the time.
We had one for 4 years. Ok, mainly based on the Thames, but we took her down to the Channel a couple of times a year to cross to France. Covered most of the coast from Dunkirk round to CI with her.
Got caught out in a few rough patches - SWMBO swore the props were out of the water more than once. But she managed well.
I did not have a problem with this boat. I never felt unsafe. The boat did all I asked of her.
Yes, if I went on one now, having had the stability of a boat double the weight for the last 6 years I might find her a bit lively. But at the time I knew no better and did not complain.
 
They are an attractive and well laid out boat and due to the outdrives they offer remarkable space in a very little area.
The low Hp required to get them shifting well also means they are economical to run (discounting the outdrive service costs).

They are quite narrow and that coupled with the weight of the engines being at the back and the relatively high centre of gravity means they can be wibbly wobbly and suffer weight distribution issues or lean a bit into the wind.
I had some customers who had adopted the name "Eileen" for any Sealine they saw due to the lean that the F33 would sometimes be seen running with.
Lots were sold and the same engineering principals went into the F34, again with lots selling so they are hardly likely to simply roll over(!), but be aware they may be a bit tippier than similar small flybridge boats on shafts.

Another slight issue if you see it that way with the F33 is low speed handling. You will find that they are quite hard work around the marina in anything other than a very slight breeze.

If the handling and ride matched the layout they would be the perfect entry level luxury flybridge.
Alternatives to look at would be the Jeanneau Prestige 32 (layout not quite as good, but still very nice) or the Antares 9.80 (a bit more fishing boaty) which are both on shafts and considerably less prone to listing and easier in confined spaces too.

You can't have everything and so you need to decide what is most important.
Sure footed low speed handling and great stability underway / at anchor at the expense of layout or a great layout with some handling compromises.
 
I had a Sealine 305, a model which morphed into the 310 and which later became the F33/34. I've also had several flybridge boats since. The Sealine boat does feel a bit wobbly up top on the flybridge in a seaway for 2 reasons. First it is a relatively short and light hull to put a heavy flybridge on and second, it has sterndrives rather than the more normal shaftdrives which you tend to find on flybridge boats. The sterndrives are more responsive to steering inputs than shaftdrives and, sitting on the flybridge, you will feel as though the boat is leaning over more quickly in a turn. Then because it has sterndrives which means that the drives and the engines are right aft, it feels light at the bow which means the bow gets diverted more easily by waves and wind. This is also an issue at marina speeds; personally I found my boat a bit tricky to handle in crosswinds; I didn't have a bowthruster on mine and I would think now that one is essential. Of course, the upside of having sterndrives and the engines way aft is the amount of space it leaves forward for accomodation and this is the selling point of the boat; it packs an awful lot of accomodation into a relatively small boat and this is why Sealine sold so many.
Personally, I wouldn't go for a sterndrive powered flybridge boat. Shaftdrive flybridge boats are more stable at speed and more docile to control in a marina but there are plenty of people who would disagree with me. If you do get one though, just make sure its got a powerful bowthruster at the front
 
alt said:
Folks,
Was talking to an F33 owner (who is trying to sell) last night and asked if he found the boat wobbled/listed a lot due to it being a small flybridge. (This is the general concensus on these forums)

He sounded shocked and never noticed and list/wobble despite having 5 people on the fly-bridge and once getting caught out in an 'F7' on the South Coast of Ireland

Is he telling porkies? I guess i'll find out for myself soon enough as i'm eager to try one out - seems like a perfect first flybridge, however the thought of having TWO out-drives to potentially go wrong is worrying. If only she was available on shafts i'd be veryyyy interested
Click to expand...

Ive done loads of hours on a 31ft Fairline cornich (flybridge on outdrives)

a lot of seawork on a sealine 310 sports boat on outdrives

and a fair amount of long passages on a Sealine 350 (F37) flybridge.

The F37 being on shafts is by far the most stable boat when it gets rough but the 31ft Corniche on outdrives is streets ahead of the 31ft sports boat.

I would expect the F33 to be far superior to a similar size sports boat in F4-F7

You are much higher in the flybridge and the waves appear much smaller.

The waves that splash up on the windscreen seldom make it to the flybridge.

the noise you get in a sports boat that sounds like it is breaking up just isnt audible on a flybridge.

the only draw back is a flybridge boat on outdrives has a wild bow and is a pig to stern to in a finger berth, bow thruster will help.

F33 would be on my wish list :)
 
Thanks a lot for the informative posts guys.

The F33 in question does NOT have a bow-thruster, which is something to take into consideration.

I simply won't be able to make my mind up until I get a go at one in various conditions.

The learning curve continues!
 
I own a F34, don't really notice when on the plane, don't have a problem at marina speeds. You get use to how a boat handles and therefore anticipate the conditions. Sterndrives make handling easy, more so with a bow thruster. Yes the boat moves when you step on and off but certainly no more than the previous 28' sports cruiser than we used to have. I am biased but I think they're a great boat as is the F33, much better and more fuel efficient than the Jeanneau P32.
 
I have clocked up many many miles (over 3000) in F33's, our own for a while and others since, for what you pay you get a great boat, can be a bit lively and needs thinking about on a windy day in the marina, but overall great fun per ££££. oh and ours did not have a bow-thruster, just a SWMBO as very good crew :-)
 
I am biased because I have a F33, but anyone who says it's "wobbly" hasn't owned a 27 foot American sports boat! To say a 33 foot boat with a 11 foot beam is wobbly should surely compare it with something.
Compared to a larger, wider boat it perhaps is "wobbly" but equally when compared to a smaller, narrow boat it will feel positively solid.

I had a 27 Footer for a couple of seasons and whilst the boat was excellent it wasn't in the same league as the F33.
As I said though, I am biased.
 
Some people want to knock this boat. It’s a 33ft flybridge on outdrives, so it feels a little lively at times. That doesn’t mean there is something fundamentally wrong with it. Its like saying a mini is no good cos it doesn’t feel as relaxed as a family saloon.

A cruising companion of mine had an F33 (without a bow thrusters) for 5 years. It took him and his family just about everywhere is just about any (acceptable) condition. For him, its liveliness became its most endearing feature.
 
Hi Alt,

I first bought a Phantom 40 4 years ago.

I was actually about to buy a new F34 when people told me to go for a second hand P40 .

We sea trialed both and the sheer difference in sea keeping was un believeable! Pure night and day.

Also the owner talking about a F7...

This is a video of me in my Squad 58 in a F6 - F7 . It was pretty violent at points

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_PHtC46bboo

An F7 on the South coast of Ireland with the whole Atlantic to give a huge sea would not be a good experience..

To say the F33 boat handled fine through it I really can't see.... A real force 7 is an angry enough sea...
 
I think wobbliness is a subjective thing - some people will feel uneasy from the motion on the FB of an F33 and others won't be bothered by it.

I was out on a F33 last year, and did notice that it felt a lot less stable than my own boat, a Targa 34, but at no time did the motion give me any cause for unease. Other people's reaction to the same motion could be to run screaming for the hills.
 
boatlover said:
Hi Alt,

I first bought a Phantom 40 4 years ago.

I was actually about to buy a new F34 when people told me to go for a second hand P40 .

We sea trialed both and the sheer difference in sea keeping was un believeable! Pure night and day.

Also the owner talking about a F7...

This is a video of me in my Squad 58 in a F6 - F7 . It was pretty violent at points

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_PHtC46bboo

An F7 on the South coast of Ireland with the whole Atlantic to give a huge sea would not be a good experience..

To say the F33 boat handled fine through it I really can't see.... A real force 7 is an angry enough sea...
Click to expand...

Thats a massive difference in size, weight and configuration. I cant ever imagine anyone choosing a 34ft outdrive boat over a 40ft shaft boat if seakeeping was the only consideration.

Factor running costs, and the F34 might be your only viable option.
 
Biased, but...

I have a F33 and have no intention of parting with it. It is my first boat and, despite all the hand-wringing (including on here) about the difficulty of handling stern-drives, I am very happy with the boat's manoeuvrability (I can turn it in it's own length), space, speed (I have had it at 34 knots, cruise at 22), and economy. I have never, through two Scottish winters, ever helmed from the lounge, always on the flybridge which is just great.
That said, I have the boat for pleasure - not to pit myself against the elements (I have a pilot's licence which I use with the same attitude). If the weather is bad I simply stay in the marina and enjoy everything that it, and the boat, offers. It has a bow-thruster, but even so that will not provide what you need when it is above about F5.
Used within its limits (and what vehicle has none?) I think that it is a great buy and has given us and many friends enormous pleasure.
(p.s. we ruled out a 'sports boat' with mostly canvas on the roof as we are on the Clyde and we wanted to have a quiet workspace when it was chucking it down.)
 
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