I seek the holy grail

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Sailorsam101

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Well not quite but in boating terms yes.

I need a bigger boat. Fed up of sharing the fore cabin with ten year old and having the mrs sleeping on her on on the saloon table bed thingy.

I need three bedrooms...a big bed for me and the mrs...the targa 33 bed is too small to share.

Two more cabins for our respective kids who can't share..one is very autistic so needs his own space to do his thing.

Don't mind fly or sportsboat.

Budget is about £140k

And the most Important part....the mrs must be ab,e to step off the side and the back. A princess 440 would do us perfectly but the mrs simply can't get off it when alongside a pontoon...stupid bloody design.

So what say you all...any ideas please?
 
Rodman 41 on shafts
3 bedrooms, big bathing platform good access all around for getting on and off, very good at sea
very well built- proper boat. Rodman build a lot of commercial and military boats. Their leisure boats are designed to take a beating.
proper anchor and chain, safety rails that feel like they are bolted down,
no silly seaplex/electronic cr@p nonsense, pre-tinned copper wiring, proper fuel tanks with inspection sumps and drains. Interior a bit staid but well made.
 
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I think your requirement to get off the side is going to be a sticking point.
Three cabins means volume and volume means tall top sides.

Is stepping off an open swim platform acceptable? If it has to be the side look at older boats where the profile is lower.
Ours is mid 90sand a lower design but even ours going off the side deck onto a pontoon is a route of least resort.

Loads of good three cabin boats about for your budget. Can’t think of one with an ‘easy access’ side deck
 
Sorry i mean stepping off the swim platform at the side is what i want. Lots of boats that fit the bill but the hull shape means its not possible to do this if you have little legs!
 
Ah ok - that makes it a bit easier. So what you are after is a n open swim platform and the squarer the better.
Ours is excellent for that though our boat isn’t available in the uk and I wouldn’t suggest shipping one back because you’d be stuck with it in all likelyhood
 
You could consider a small bathing platform extension to a boat you want. A friend recently did that on a camargue 46 for the exact same reason. Looks great too!
 
Looked at the rodman 41 as mentioned earlier and that does tick all the boxes. I've never understood why a 40 ft yacht can sleep ten and have 4 cabins in comfort while a motorboat only have two cabins..somebody somewhere is missing out on the family market me thinks.
 
Because a motorboat has two huge engines, genset, big fuel tanks (mine are 2000 litres)
Also I contest any 40ft yacht can sleep 10 in ‘comfort’. Sure they may sleep, but certainly not in pocket sprung island beds with ensuite usable showers.
 
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Sailorsam101 said:
Looked at the rodman 41 as mentioned earlier and that does tick all the boxes. I've never understood why a 40 ft yacht can sleep ten and have 4 cabins in comfort while a motorboat only have two cabins..somebody somewhere is missing out on the family market me thinks.
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Have you met many on this forum? Motorboaters are big! Yachties are wiry and don't take a lot of clothes
 
I had a similar shopping list and we ended up buying the SeaRanger 448, as mentioned above. Not quite in your price range once we'd fitted thrusters and a few other bits and pieces, plus we have more to spend on the interior in due course, but not a million miles away.

We also looked at Rodman 41s. Good boats, and tick most boxes and probably my favourite if we hadn't gone for the SeaRanger (which is a much better boat than anything else in the class - but i'm biased!). IPS ones are more common but I did a lot of research and a lot of talking to people both pro and con, and decided against it as a concept. There are some older shaft driven ones around, plus a newer shaft drive boat in the Vendee - but its a bit of a dog to be honest. I had a wasted trip to see it.

Sealine 42/5 is another option if you can find one.

Prestige 46 could also be considered. Personally, I don't think they are that well built and show their age pretty quickly, but they do have masses of space.

There is a lovely SeaRanger 448 for sale on Guernsey now, I looked at it last week in person. But unfortunately, its only a two cabin variant so probably won't suit you. Its also a lot of money.
 
Kawasaki said:
Don't get a sports boat with an outdrive
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Well that's what I've got right now and its OK but with one issue that frankly scares me!

There are two bloody big holes and pipes for each leg bringing seawater to the front of the engine. The hoses are under the engines making access impossible! So if a hose splits or a connector at the far end of the pipe goes...hey presto my boat will sink.

I come from the old school of boating that says every hole through the hull must be able to be closed!

So yes i do want a shaft or two!
 
What about a Windy Bora...... yes it’s got outdrives, but it’s a very well built Boat, has 3 cabins (2 are quite small) and it goes like stink Within your budget and relatively affordable to run I would think. I’m afraid I can’t remember if the bathing platform sticks out enough to step on and off....... but should be easy to check.

I had a Cranchi Med 50 which was absolutely brilliant. 3x proper cabins, 2x proper bathrooms and big Volvos on shafts. Easy to drive and a very easy to use boat. I loved mine. You could buy one in your price range but it’s quite an old boat now and might need some TLC so tread cautiously. Bathing platform is easy to use from the side.
 
........ also the answers you will get in here will all reflect personal choices, as my answer above does. I would and often do make the suggestion that for anyone looking for the perfect Boat, first they need to decide exactly what they want to use it for. Once you know what your perfect day/week/month afloat looks like, it will be much easier to decide which boat fits the bill. Cruising for 3 weeks is a very different game than spending the odd weekend aboard, boating in the Med is very different to boating in the UK. Fast or slow......Big or small ? It goes on and on ........

Good luck anyway. What ever you decide will be great fun for your family !
 
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