Is this a good deal

[beejay190]

Rich - Solitaire is absolutely right. I started in 2005 with a 19' bow rider with a 190 hp 4.3L V6 engine - plenty of power - but not suited to coastal cruising due to a shallow V hull . The first time I took it to the I O W the return trip was really scary due to wind against tide conditions - for a while I was thinking that hang gliding might be safer.
I sold the bowrider after 18 months and now have a 120hp diesel Fletcher 19 cuddy with a deep V hull which is a far more seaworthy boat. Cruises at 22 knots and I feel very safe in it. I wish I had not bothereed with the bowrider as I would have saved £4K in brokerage and depreciation - but I just put it down to experience. Cheers.

 

[Pete7]

Final thoughts for the night, would you invest £300 on the intermediate powerboat course with Solitaire before buying your next boat? I would. There are thousands of boats for sale and still will be in the autumn, its a buyers market at the moment. So spend some time training driving other peoples boats before you settle on a boat.

Pete

 

[JasonB]

[ QUOTE ]
Thanks Pete & Niall,

Can you tell me, I appreciate a bowrider is exposed but Solitaire mentions them being a real problem in a force 2. How will an 18 foot cuddy be much different? Surely the 18 fot cuddy is a similar design / hull etc and whilst it offers a cuddy, the driver can't use it and the cuddy makes no difference if the boat is unstable in choppy water.


Thanks

[/ QUOTE ]

Hi there,

I had a Jeanneau cap 400 console which was a 4 metre boat that anything over a force 3 (In Harbour) I was soaked in - mind you I enjoy that kind of thing! OK, it's not a bow rider but I think the idea is the same - open bow and very little protection for the helm.

Here's an example French Cap 400

It would be an "extreme" version of the bow rider concept (stretching it a bit) and I took a fair bit of water over the front in my time.

As such I never brought the Gang (Wife and Child) out in anything other than a flat calm. Myself and my buddies had fun (wet) on other days.

For the family we changed to a fast fisher type boat that had a Cuddy and a "Pilot House" type canvas.

This is a video what it's like on a bad weather day on a 20ft Boat. Not so fine day

No water on board of any consequence and I'm warm and dry.

This is a video what it's like on a fine day Fine Day

As you can see after agonising about Petrol V Diesel we went for a Petrol Boat in a Harbour that you can only buy petrol from a certain club and then only if you're a member - we're not!

Few things can turn members of the family against boats more than a day where you get caught out on a day out with some bad weather or even wind against tide if there is no comfort/shelter on board - trust me it's taken 7 years!

Personally I wouldn't consider a bowrider but some sort of a Cuddy/Sportsboat would be the business in my book.

J.

 

[alt]

Well there you go. The Fletcher that the person below speaker of is the exact same as the Panther I had, and there's one for sale in the like I posted for £17k. As I said I bet you could get that down to £15-16k

http://www.fletcher-boats.co.uk/shop_boat_details.asp?PID=111

There's the fletcher website, although the price there is for 3l petrol. On your budget of £15k i'd go for one of those with the 1.7 diesel

[ QUOTE ]
Rich - Solitaire is absolutely right. I started in 2005 with a 19' bow rider with a 190 hp 4.3L V6 engine - plenty of power - but not suited to coastal cruising due to a shallow V hull . The first time I took it to the I O W the return trip was really scary due to wind against tide conditions - for a while I was thinking that hang gliding might be safer.
I sold the bowrider after 18 months and now have a 120hp diesel Fletcher 19 cuddy with a deep V hull which is a far more seaworthy boat. Cruises at 22 knots and I feel very safe in it. I wish I had not bothereed with the bowrider as I would have saved £4K in brokerage and depreciation - but I just put it down to experience. Cheers.

[/ QUOTE ]

 

[beejay190]

Or there are 3 petrol Fletcher 19s currently on brokerage at Poole Boat Park between £11K - £13K . The Boat Park is being forced to close at end of September to make way for a second bridge linking Poole with Hamworthy so berthholders are scrambling around to find somewhere else to keep their boats. I think the sellers are giving up boating and are keen to sell before end September so there may be some good deals to be had. I have no financial interest.

 

[alt]

Think the OP is in the market for a diesel though

[ QUOTE ]
Or there are 3 petrol Fletcher 19s currently on brokerage at Poole Boat Park between £11K - £13K . The Boat Park is being forced to close at end of September to make way for a second bridge linking Poole with Hamworthy so berthholders are scrambling around to find somewhere else to keep their boats. I think the sellers are giving up boating and are keen to sell before end September so there may be some good deals to be had. I have no financial interest.

[/ QUOTE ]

 

[damon]

I have a Rinker v190, a 19 ft Cuddy with a Petrol inboard 4.3 I've had it 3 years.

I rag it around the Solent and IOW, been to Poole, Swanage, Portsmouth, etc etc. Been in a pretty heavy sea with waves coming over the bow and had a blast, felt safe the whole time.

Loads of storage, more than enough power to keep us happy, and fuel economy that doesnt kill us.

Another vote for the petrol cuddy! A bowrider is too limiting, why bother?

 

[ari]

A diesel 1.7 in a sportsboat? No thanks. Bit like having a diesel engined Ferrari and boasting about the MPG. BOat like that wants a nice V6 petrol engine. Smooth, quiet, and above all fast. /forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif

 

[gjgm]

sorry, but that simply is not the case. What is the case is that smaller bowriders in some parts of our coast are not an ideal choice, and there are more suitable boats. Your comment is too general.
However, having started on a Regal 1800 in the Solent, I would agree that the Solent chop can make for a pretty unnerving experience, but in a couple of season we neither had to be rescued,sank,drowned or any disaster at all. Wife was terrified much of the time, I admit ! However, down in cornwall on holidays, the boat was 10 times more useful than a cuddy.
To the original post, I would say that there is no shortage of USA sportsboats, so get the right one for you. What they are good at is whizzing about in relatively calm waters and giving that "close to the water" thrill. For that you want some whizz, and that means petrol. Totally unbelievably pointless to put in some slow heavy lump. bit like the idea of a diesel in an MX5 so you save a bit on fuel. Just you ruin the car.
On a small petril sportboat, I reckon a £1000 of fuel will give you alot of fun.So, have fun in a sportsboat;get as big as you can,really more than 18ft if at all possible. B/rider is limiting, and the motto bigger is better is even more true here in this instance. Certainly 21ft minimum.
Regal excel at smaller sportsboats, they are very good boats. But please, get petrol.

 

[Mike_S]

His boat doesn't appear that cheap either, if my local Regal dealer is anything to go by. They've got 2 1800 LSR diesels for £13995. No mention if they're new or not but I'm sure I saw them both being used in cardiff bay last Sunday.

http://www.performancecarsandmarine.com/yachtsales.asp

I would agree with what others have said though, having gone through the exact same situation as yourself 12 months ago. We started out wanting the bowrider and soon came to realise after speaking to others that we'd be better off with a cuddy, ended up buying a Regal 2150 with a 5 litre V8 petrol in April and haven't regretted it for a minute. Running costs haven't been that bad either, a full tank of fuel lasts several hours at a cruise and she handles rough water very well considering the size of it. As an aside, I paid the same for our boat on its trailer as your man here wants for his bow rider.

 

[lovezoo]

I would imagine RichRich has given up on the idea of getting a boat now - "get a bowrider", "don't get a bowrider", "get a petrol boat", "don't get a petrol boat", but...

My own view is get a boat with a cuddy cabin, the newer the better and if you want out and out performance go down the petrol route. If you want more sedate cruising with economy go the diesel route, but the boat will cost more in the first place.

 

[Solitaire]

[ QUOTE ]
sorry, but that simply is not the case. What is the case is that smaller bowriders in some parts of our coast are not an ideal choice, and there are more suitable boats. Your comment is too general.


[/ QUOTE ]

I bow to your superior knowledge!

 

[davesimmons]

What a post!! I own this boat and have to say as far as I am concerned diesel is the way forward. There is no better feeling than filling up at 54p a litre even if it is only for the next year of so. Even then you will get far more bang for your buck than petrol.

Price seems reasonable enough. I would shop around though as Regals or other 18ft bowriders are not in short supply and as we are coming into the end of summer you should have more bargaining power. If you can hold off and see what happens! Yeah he might sell it but on the other hand he might not and be more flexible.

I would also take Solitaires advice seriously. We bought the Regal as we live in fairly sheltered waters and only use it around beaches etc on fine days. If you are planning any longer distance trips or have rough seas then a cuddy is probably for you. We were out the other day and went a bit further a field – I put the front cover on the bowrider section and thank god I did! Hit a large wave and a lot of water came over the bow. The cover pushed the water back off and I don’t even want to think about what would have happened if the cover was not there.

My last thought is don’t get carried away!! I know what a beautiful boat the Regal is and in many ways we bought it more on impulse then using the old grey matter. Luckily we don’t regret it but don’t take that risk!

 

[chuckaduck]

Re: Solitaire

Qoute..................

Bow riders are bought by those new to boating - basically because of the perceived additional space. Get caught out in any kind of weather above a F2 and you will want to walk home.

Quote.........................

Solitaire is spot on

The bowriders are designed for lake boating in america

We have one on the Thames which is Ideal for us but for coastal trips not so ideal

Simple things like where is the potty and somewhere to escape bad weather

Great to coastal hop on a good day but thats it

 

[Solitaire]

[ QUOTE ]
What a post!! I own this boat and have to say as far as I am concerned diesel is the way forward. There is no better feeling than filling up at 54p a litre even if it is only for the next year of so. Even then you will get far more bang for your buck than petrol.

[/ QUOTE ]

You will get no argument from on that one Dave. I started my boating life with a 14ft Fletcher and a 60hp 2 stroke O/B. I then moved on to a Bayliner 2655, a Bayliner 2052 and then, to my best boat of all - a 1989 Fairline Sprint which I had for 8 years - I loved her and to this day get a tear in my eye when I think back to all the fun (and tribulations) I had with her. I renegined her with a Yamaha 370 sti diesel and she was a dream. People said oh but red diesel is going to. So what I said. Having been used to running on petrol the fact that I could now go nearly 3 times as far on the same literage seemed to make an awful lot of sense to me!

I grew up on small powerboats, it's only really in the last 2 years that I have had the experience on the big buggers. Only this week I was helming a Sunseeker Predator 58 on charter - not my idea of a great boat - can't see over the bow when on the plane!!

Since becoming a powerboat instructor I have driven just about every small power boat there is. Some great some not so good, I have driven just about all the bow riders there is right up to 29 foot. If anybody wanted a nice walk around diesel that can take a good sea and has good accommodation, is trail able and great fun, then go look at the Karnic range. A certain editor of one of these IPC titles actually has one and he even wrote about its delights. I have no connection with Yellow Penguin in Poole who import them, but every one I've ever worked on has impressed.

 

[Whitelighter]

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