Help me choose

[broadbent]

I posted this yesterday but it never appeared so -

I have recently retired down to Poole, and upto 20 years ago, sailed mostly dinghys and the occasional chartered yacht.
My wife hates anything that heels, so I bought a 6m SeaRay motor boat, and indeed she feels quite comfortable and safe in it, although we don't go that fast and use it mainly for picnics. I find it now pretty boring, particularly if on my own, and the adventures of going to Weymouth are also not particularly exciting.

So we decided that I should sell it and buy a sailing boat. I have also decided not to spend a fortune as I would rather charter a boat and let the owners have all the responsibility, but I would like to have a boat for sailing around Poole and further afield. So I have set a limit of about £12,000

I have seen two very different boats.
A brand new Salterns Tela which is a traditional style 16' open day boat, and very nice it is too;
and a 1979 Trapper 300 in which I could sail to Franceb etc.

My experience of owning the SeaRay is that of a black hole into which you shovel money. Also finding suitable moorings in Poole is a problem together with the time cleaning off the bird shit etc.

Any thoughts to help be make up my mind would be really appreciated

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[yachtcharisma]

This question seems to be less about the specific boats, more about use you might put them to.

Advantages of the dayboat would be that it is trailerable (so no mooring, also can trail it to other areas if you want to), looks very pretty, probably easily manageable singlehanded (although I don't know the specific boat), shallow draft so able to explore the more inaccessable bits of somewhere like Poole Harbour. But, its open to the elements, probably feels less secure for your wife than a "big boat", and although I'm sure quite capable of short coastal passages would be doing that sort of thing more in a spirit of adventure than of comfort.

The advantages of the Trapper would be "big boat" feel, comfortable interior for overnighting, capable of much longer voyages, raceable if that's something you might want to get into.

So if its afternoons pottering around Poole Harbour and other destinations that you could trail to, "messing about in boats", that you're keen on, I'd go for the dayboat. If its weekends cruising along the coast / across the channel, plus potentially racing that you'd like, I'd go for the Trapper (didn't know them, but they look nice boats from what I've seen on the web).

Oh, and you don't actually indicate whether you're abandoning the wife or trying to entice her into sailing - I'd have thought the Trapper probably better if the latter is the plan - but probably best not to take her racing!

Hope that helps!

Cheers
Patrick

<hr width=100% size=1>Sailing a Victoire 25 on the Scottish West Coast

 

[Talbot]

I you still want wife to go with you - why not try a catamaran. I bought one cause wife and daughter did not like sailing while tipped over. Now I would not buy a monohull!!!! Suggest you look at the Woods design Strider 24' a v fast cruiser for about the same money as the other boats you are looking at.

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