Family Day Boat

[Guest]

I have plenty of yacht experience in the 30 to 40 foot range - cruising and racing - but haven't sailed seriously for several years due to young family.

I am now looking for a good day sailor for my wife and I and 2 boys aged 7 & 5.

I'm looking for inshore and estuary sailing, trailable (Land Rover Discovery), safe, easily single-handed, bit of potential performance for when the boys get older, £20k max, outboard option...

The Hawk 20 looks intertesting and the reviews I've seen look pretty good. Does anyone have any thoughts on this boat or any other potential alternatives.

Thanks for your help.

Warren

 

[snowleopard]

i had a swing-keel sonata for a few years. enough performance to make life interesting and a spinaker to play with, room for 4 to sleep but a little cramped of course. towed it everywhere behind my discovery. available secondhand at around £5k or the twin-keel version the duette at around £9k probably easier to launch & recover.

 

[Peppermint]

Re:The Laurent Giles Jolly Boat

I've owned one for about 5 years and it's a perfect knock about dayboat for teaching the kids and going to the beach an such like.

Very traditional looking with a gaff main and lugsail mizzen it's proved a very sociable boat with people always wanting to stop and natter about it.

You'd be hard pressed to spend your budget though. You could have mine for £2500.

 

[spark]

I know a man who has a Swift 18 for sale. I raced in her a couple of times this summer and she goes well, has been well looked after and is complete with trailer, outboard, spinnaker, etc.

Email me at this address and I'll pass on his details to you - mh@qei.co.uk

 

[david_e]

The Beneteau First 211 we had for the lats 2 years is a great day & weekend boat with performance. I found it meets all your requirements and in general there is a very good used market for them. You can get a well equiped brand spanker for the money you want to spend or a decent used for less. They are tough as well, I had quite a prang in mine and it was hard to notice the damage.

Lots of info on www.beneteau-owners.com

Also look at the Parker 21, not as much room but very versatile and good value with a good builder around to support you.

 

[xcw]

How about a Macgregor 26C (the proper sailing version, not the hybrid). I bought mine when the children were 4 & 2 and have had 10 years of fun in her. Large enough for weekends onboard (sleeps 2+2 in relative comfort, galley, head etc), good performance, water ballest so very easy to trail/ launch/recover and ideally suited to inland/estuary sailing + occasional longer trips if required. V easy to maintain. It's even on the market for c. £12k. We have upgraded to a 36 ft because the kids are growing up.