Help With Boat Choice

hughgilhespie

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Hi Experts
Some advice please. We currently have a Hatteras 42 LRC that we are enjoying very much. She is our first boat and we have owned her for just over a year. We are now back in Torquay after 4 glorious months cruising around Brittany. Next season we want to be a bit more adventurous but there is a problem. Not a problem with the boat but a problem with us. We are not exactly in the first flush of youth and so we don’t make passages longer than about 10 hours and with our cruising speed of 7.5 knots that limits our range to about 70 miles maximum per day. This is fine for the CI and Northern France but we would love to cruise the West coast of Ireland and Scotland as well as going north to the Baltic and with these distances we ideally want a faster boat so we can get a passage range of say 150 miles per day in our daylight only cruising.
So – we are thinking about changing the boat but as newcomers to power boating (12 months experience only) we don’t know enough to decide what sort of boats we should be looking for. Ideally we want a boat that has the following:

Cruising speed around 20 knots

Aft cabin design

Twin shaft drive

2+2 layout – i.e. only one guest cabin

Size range 34 to 40 foot – we found that a 42 footer was a bit large for many marinas in France.

Nice to have an air-draft less than 3.5 meters

Would the panel be kind enough to suggest makes and models of boats that would suit us? We would prefer a second hand boat but foresee problems in that it would have to be a part-exchange deal with our Hatteras.

Thanks in anticipation.
 
Hi,
You have not given any indication of budget, but the following immeadiately spring to mind:-

Broom 37/39 or Broom 38

Grand Banks 42 or if smaller then 36 ( not many around )

Trader 41+2

Cheers
Jim
 
Last edited:
Good suggestions above.

You could also consider the Aqua Star 38. Cruise speed is a little below your requirements though, at 15 - 17 knots.
 
Possible boat

I have a Nimbus 3400 Europa, this is 34 ft 11 ft beam with an aft cabin and a mid cabin with two single berths in a mid cabin. Twin screw shaft drive, coupe design (so low air draft ). Cruise at a comfortable 22 - 23 knots. Easy to control with a solid build. I chose this for ease of use with two crew (the wife and I!). Low air draft ideal for the French canals, and as you rightly say easier to find a berth!, if you want more info email me.

Regards

Adrian
 
A Broom is really the answer I would personally go to 45ft as sea keeping will be miles better with a longer waterline length, a serious cruiser with aft cabin good engines and a good helm which unless you buy with an inside dedicated helm , a Broom or atlantic 44/42 is the answer.

On a long passage you may need the shelter if the weather changes, you seem to have a lot of miles under your belt for 1 season so im sure you know what your needs are.

The Hatteras is a good boat though a bit beamy for some of the uk/european coasts.

The Broom 44 or newer 450 is a craking all rounder with good accomodation and sea keeping.

The build quality of the older models is far better than the recent models.

I know of 1 44 which I have worked on in recent years for sale, it has the larger ford sabre engines only one was built with these engines in, and has a good turn of speed with the ease of low running costs , pm me if your interested.
 
Were you in Trebeurden two weeks ago with aburgundy coloured hull stripe ?

I have an Aquastar 48 cruise at 19.5 and I find filling up in france a frightening experience from a cost point of view.

Boats are a compromise in all aspects, if you want to do extensive cruising at 20 odd knots in a large boat then a hefty fuel cost will result. I use about 6.2litres per NM, I would guess yours is a fraction of that.

A smaller lighter boat will not have the seakeeping, therfore reducing your weather window, if you have plenty of time to wait for the weather to abate this could be ok?

I have my old boat, a Fairline Sedan 36 for sale, a great sea boat , cruise at 23 to 25 knots two cabins plus saloon about 4.9 litres per mile.

A friend of mine has a Nordwest 390 cruise at 25 to 28 knots about 4 litres per NM as its a full planing hull.

I know of a Broom 45 with Cat main engines a minter that is for sale and an Aquastar 38.
 
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