cyberkryten
New member
After having a nice time on a couple of day charters of a crewed catamaran in the Med last year and then hiring out a Boston Whaler in Bermuda a few times last month (a lot of fun, but facilities somewhat lacking!), I’ve been looking at motor boats (definitely not sails).
Having spent 10 years with a PPL and owning a hangared Bulldog (recently sold), I figured that I’d be fairly well prepared for the costs of boating, but the apparent mooring costs have been something of a surprise. I guess at least there seems to be no equivalent of the CAA to deal with when you want to replace something!
I’m not sure how much we’ll stay on it, my wife has never been into camping and whilst we’ve talked about spending a couple of months cruising around the Med one summer, I’m not really sure that’s going to work out, at least not without having experience so have been thinking of getting something closer to home.
I’d thought we’d be able to find something to rent out for a weekend or two in the summer to get an idea of what we want (at least if I got courses done) but having looked it seems that market just doesn’t exist unless we want a dingy or a full crewed mega-yacht. If anyone knows of something, then please can you let me have contact details.
So that means looking at buying something, which is where the question on the order of stuff comes in.
We are on the clifftop in Southbourne, so I just assumed I’d get something based in Christchurch harbour, ideally around the Tuckton bridge (10min walk) so we can get to it easily whenever we felt like it, just walk up to the boat and head off. We’ve seen the boats there so figured no problem but from lurking here it seems as though the harbour may be quite a challenge to get in/out for a newbie and lack of depth may restrict when we can actually go out and further restrict what boat we can actually buy - this isn’t intended to be a “What boat” thread, but it does seem there’s very much an upper (lower?) limit because of depth/access/moorings.
Is anyone local that can give me a rough idea of what the restrictions are likely to be on boat size and movements and how a snap decision of “It’s a lovely day, shall we take the boat out” would work out through the summer?
That is, of course, assuming there are actually any moorings available (I’m guessing we’re looking at something 30-40ft for it to be acceptable from the living/entertaining space and facilities side of things).
Going to Poole or somewhere on the Solent would involve a drive through tourist traffic, with rammed car parks which somewhat defeats the object of moving to the coast!
So, I’m really trying to figure out what should I be looking at for a first step?
a) securing a mooring (which may sit idle if I don’t find a boat)
b) just ‘buy a boat’ (which may have to stay elsewhere if I can’t find a mooring)
c) get some basic training (without which, I might not be able to get my moored boat out to sea safely)
Having spent 10 years with a PPL and owning a hangared Bulldog (recently sold), I figured that I’d be fairly well prepared for the costs of boating, but the apparent mooring costs have been something of a surprise. I guess at least there seems to be no equivalent of the CAA to deal with when you want to replace something!
I’m not sure how much we’ll stay on it, my wife has never been into camping and whilst we’ve talked about spending a couple of months cruising around the Med one summer, I’m not really sure that’s going to work out, at least not without having experience so have been thinking of getting something closer to home.
I’d thought we’d be able to find something to rent out for a weekend or two in the summer to get an idea of what we want (at least if I got courses done) but having looked it seems that market just doesn’t exist unless we want a dingy or a full crewed mega-yacht. If anyone knows of something, then please can you let me have contact details.
So that means looking at buying something, which is where the question on the order of stuff comes in.
We are on the clifftop in Southbourne, so I just assumed I’d get something based in Christchurch harbour, ideally around the Tuckton bridge (10min walk) so we can get to it easily whenever we felt like it, just walk up to the boat and head off. We’ve seen the boats there so figured no problem but from lurking here it seems as though the harbour may be quite a challenge to get in/out for a newbie and lack of depth may restrict when we can actually go out and further restrict what boat we can actually buy - this isn’t intended to be a “What boat” thread, but it does seem there’s very much an upper (lower?) limit because of depth/access/moorings.
Is anyone local that can give me a rough idea of what the restrictions are likely to be on boat size and movements and how a snap decision of “It’s a lovely day, shall we take the boat out” would work out through the summer?
That is, of course, assuming there are actually any moorings available (I’m guessing we’re looking at something 30-40ft for it to be acceptable from the living/entertaining space and facilities side of things).
Going to Poole or somewhere on the Solent would involve a drive through tourist traffic, with rammed car parks which somewhat defeats the object of moving to the coast!
So, I’m really trying to figure out what should I be looking at for a first step?
a) securing a mooring (which may sit idle if I don’t find a boat)
b) just ‘buy a boat’ (which may have to stay elsewhere if I can’t find a mooring)
c) get some basic training (without which, I might not be able to get my moored boat out to sea safely)
