Looking for a change

[Greg2]

Funnily enough, the wife has added this to to our “have a look at” list although my gut feeling is it’s too old and too big.
Broom 41 for sale UK, Broom boats for sale, Broom used boat sales, Broom Motor Boats For Sale 1993 Broom 41 - Apollo Duck
It certainly looks like there is a fair amount out there.

We had a 41 and the cockpit alone is a fantastically comfortable place in which we spent much of our time aboard. Ours was a 1992 boat and that era of Broom is probably when they were building their best quality boats. Ours had the teak interior and the quality of the craftsmanship was something to behold. Very comfortable boats and we likened ours to a floating apartment.

They are a tad high sided so we had a fender step and a rope hanging from the coachroof rail to aid with boarding. Some have bespoke stainless steps that attached to the side and that is something you can get fabricated if required. My wife is not particularly tall and she did just fine with the fender step.

The planing hull with skeg keel is a good combination and whilst the size can be daunting at first they are very easy to manoeuvre in close quarters. The keel also meant that we could run on one engine when inland if we wanted to - only needed about 10 degrees of rudder to offset the prop trying to turn the boat. Need to check that the gearboxes are okay with lubrication when the engine isn’t running to do that.

NYA have one on the market - it is a stock boat so part exchange is an option
Broom 41 For Sale | Norfolk Yacht Agency | NYB159795

They are local to us and are a great outfit to deal with. I should declare that we have some connection with them but a major part of that is having been very satisfied customers for years.
.

 

[Bouba]

Just bow as far as I can see.
Herself really fancies Canal du Midi having watched a Timmy West/Prunela Scales thing on it, it was her first choice for next week’s escape but Netherlands was much cheaper and we get to see the in-laws.
Maybe at some point in the future we might travel that far but we’d have to plan carefully to avoid the VAT rules.

I have done the du Midi a few times... and it truly is wonderful....but it’s changing fast...very fast. A worm that arrived in the wood of ammunition boxes from America during The Great War has for the last century been making it’s way south from the Western Front ....it’s killing the plane trees....these are those oh so French trees that make every scene or rural road look so French....they send that dappled light onto the water making everything so glorious....and French.
The progress of the worm was slow...but the cure isn’t....it’s the chainsaw. The entire canal side is being chainsawed rapidly. What’s left to see....it exposes industrial wasteland or factory farmland. The magic gone for the next hundred years until the replanting goes tall and majestic.
So go now...don’t wait

 

[SimonX]

We had a 41 and the cockpit alone is a fantastically comfortable place in which we spent much of our time aboard. Ours was a 1992 boat and that era of Broom is probably when they were building their best quality boats. Ours had the teak interior and the quality of the craftsmanship was something to behold. Very comfortable boats and we likened ours to a floating apartment.

They are a tad high sided so we had a fender step and a rope hanging from the coachroof rail to aid with boarding. Some have bespoke stainless steps that attached to the side and that is something you can get fabricated if required. My wife is not particularly tall and she did just fine with the fender step.

The planing hull with skeg keel is a good combination and whilst the size can be daunting at first they are very easy to manoeuvre in close quarters. The keel also meant that we could run on one engine when inland if we wanted to - only needed about 10 degrees of rudder to offset the prop trying to turn the boat. Need to check that the gearboxes are okay with lubrication when the engine isn’t running to do that.

NYA have one on the market - it is a stock boat so part exchange is an option
Broom 41 For Sale | Norfolk Yacht Agency | NYB159795

They are local to us and are a great outfit to deal with. I should declare that we have some connection with them but a major part of that is having been very satisfied customers for years.
.

That looks a nice boat but that listing gives the draft which the other one didn’t. 1.3m looks a bit tight for canals.
Been doing some research after comments about Midi and others.
Navigation Information | Depths, Heights, and Widths
Haven’t found similar for Dutch/Belgian. @Alicatt - any draft problems?
That company sure has some lovely boats though. Been a long time since I’ve been to Norfolk, do I need a passport/translator?

 

[The Q]

Do you find you need to lower the windows on the canals where you are? You are in Netherlands and Belgium I see.
My wife has booked us On a LeBoat holiday in Netherlands starting Monday and looking at the boat spec I was quite surprised to see it has an air draft of only 2.68m.
We need to have a closer look at places we are potentially going to go when we buy our own boat. On this trip we are going to meet up with her relations in Utrecht but she also, at some future date, fancies retracing the other side of her family who were flax growers in Flanders.
Beyond that we are both keen to see more of France and the 3.2 of the Broom Ocean 38 seems fine for that.
If you do lower the windows, do they seal again OK when you put them back up?

A lot of Le Boats older boats were built by Norfolk broads companies some are even old Broads hire boats.. They were built to go under Norfolk bridges, though 2.68 is high.. Le Boat being a merger of two Norfolk broads companies and one Irish company. The really older boats could go under a 2M bridge.
These look like those made not 20 miles from me.
Now however LE boat has a contract with Beneteau for all new boats..
here's an earlier one with the older windows on the Norfolk Broads. (they did them in several lengths.

 

[SimonX]

A lot of Le Boats older boats were built by Norfolk broads companies some are even old Broads hire boats.. They were built to go under Norfolk bridges, though 2.68 is high.. Le Boat being a merger of two Norfolk broads companies and one Irish company. The really older boats could go under a 2M bridge.
These look like those made not 20 miles from me. View attachment 199967
Now however LE boat has a contract with Beneteau for all new boats..
here's an earlier one with the older windows on the Norfolk Broads. (they did them in several lengths.
View attachment 199968

This is the type we are getting.
Clipper
It’s not particularly relevant to the type of boat we are looking to buy, although it does look Broom-ish, more to get a flavour for canal cruising. On our existing boat we’ve only ever done coastal although we did a hired longboat trip a few years back on the Oxford canal

Talking of the Broads, I’m not familiar with boating there but, if I was to buy a boat from NYA with the 3.2 air draft like the 41, can you get to the sea or would it need lifted out and taken to a port?

 

[Bouba]

A lot of Le Boats older boats were built by Norfolk broads companies some are even old Broads hire boats.. They were built to go under Norfolk bridges, though 2.68 is high.. Le Boat being a merger of two Norfolk broads companies and one Irish company. The really older boats could go under a 2M bridge.
These look like those made not 20 miles from me. View attachment 199967
Now however LE boat has a contract with Beneteau for all new boats..
here's an earlier one with the older windows on the Norfolk Broads. (they did them in several lengths.
View attachment 199968

At one time Broom was making their boats…then I think Bavaria might also had a go

 

[The Q]

This is the type we are getting.
Clipper
It’s not particularly relevant to the type of boat we are looking to buy, more to get a flavour for canal cruising. On our existing boat we’ve only ever done coastal although we did a hired longboat trip a few years back on the Oxford canal

Yep that's definitely a Norfolk Built boat,

I'm Assuming from NYA at Brundall yes you can get out top sea from there, Norwich Was a port..


The route to Yarmouth has a several bridges in the way, some open easily like Reedham, though you might have to wait for a train to clear. British rail 0330 858 4655.

At High tide.
Arrangements for opening have to be made with Peel Ports they like at least 24 hours notice or a Friday for the weekends
Breydon lifting has a clearance of 3.51M when down. 01493 651275,
Yarmouth Haven 2.06M, 01493 335522
Yarmouth Herring 4.05M lifting bridge 01493 335522

 

[SimonX]

I have done the du Midi a few times... and it truly is wonderful....but it’s changing fast...very fast. A worm that arrived in the wood of ammunition boxes from America during The Great War has for the last century been making it’s way south from the Western Front ....it’s killing the plane trees....these are those oh so French trees that make every scene or rural road look so French....they send that dappled light onto the water making everything so glorious....and French.
The progress of the worm was slow...but the cure isn’t....it’s the chainsaw. The entire canal side is being chainsawed rapidly. What’s left to see....it exposes industrial wasteland or factory farmland. The magic gone for the next hundred years until the replanting goes tall and majestic.
So go now...don’t wait

Yes, it mentions the trees in the Great Canal Journeys episode and that is 10 years old ( Tim now being dead and Pru sadly suffering dementia).

 

[SimonX]

Yep that's definitely a Norfolk Built boat,

I'm Assuming from NYA at Brundall yes you can get out top sea from there, Norwich Was a port..
View attachment 199969

The route to Yarmouth has a several bridges in the way, some open easily like Reedham, though you might have to wait for a train to clear. British rail 0330 858 4655.

At High tide.
Arrangements for opening have to be made with Peel Ports they like at least 24 hours notice or a Friday for the weekends
Breydon lifting has a clearance of 3.51M when down. 01493 651275,
Yarmouth Haven 2.06M, 01493 335522
Yarmouth Herring 4.05M lifting bridge 01493 335522

Thanks, I’ve never been in,to Norwich. For years we had a contract from a company in Yarmouth to take stuff to Farnham and the reverse. Occasionally they’d get a hotshot and it’d do it myself if I couldn’t find a driver. Only sight of Norwich was whizzing round the bypass, usually late at night.

 

[Alicatt]

That looks a nice boat but that listing gives the draft which the other one didn’t. 1.3m looks a bit tight for canals.
Been doing some research after comments about Midi and others.
Navigation Information | Depths, Heights, and Widths
Haven’t found similar for Dutch/Belgian. @Alicatt - any draft problems?
That company sure has some lovely boats though. Been a long time since I’ve been to Norfolk, do I need a passport/translator?

No real draught problems in Belgium, most canals are dredged to at least 2m for the small side canals like ours, not seen anything under 1m under the keel of Hunter which has a draught of 1.1m.
Some of the smaller canals in Friesland are very shallow and even in a 6.5m sloop too much gas will have the rudder on the bottom, you have to keep an eye on load distribution "Oi tubby sit up the bow please "
As for air draught lowest bridge I know of in our area is 4.1m and that is right beside our marina The Blauwe Reiger Yacht Club HOMEPAGE Yachtclub De Blauwe reiger
The Visuris website has a water state information on depth and flow rates, it is updated pretty much real time, there is a similar site for The Netherlands plus there are notices to mariners that are published regularly.
Most important information is contained in the Waterkaarten App which is updated in real time or within the hour, most skippers use it for navigation around the canals here, it covers France, Belgium, Luxembourg, The Netherlands, Germany, Denmark, Ireland, Switzerland and UK from memory it is about €55 per year subscription, there is a 7 day free trial too on Android, iPhone/pad, and Windows
Waterkaarten App | Explore Western Europe by boat

 

[SimonX]

Yep that's definitely a Norfolk Built boat,

I'm Assuming from NYA at Brundall yes you can get out top sea from there, Norwich Was a port..
View attachment 199969

The route to Yarmouth has a several bridges in the way, some open easily like Reedham, though you might have to wait for a train to clear. British rail 0330 858 4655.

At High tide.
Arrangements for opening have to be made with Peel Ports they like at least 24 hours notice or a Friday for the weekends
Breydon lifting has a clearance of 3.51M when down. 01493 651275,
Yarmouth Haven 2.06M, 01493 335522
Yarmouth Herring 4.05M lifting bridge 01493 335522

Oops, double post.

 

[SimonX]

We have just finished 7 days pottering around the Dutch rivers and canals in a LeBoat cruiser. Was good fun although hit by wind and rain on two days.
The interior of the boat was very similar to some of the Brooms although I am told it was made by a company called Porter and Haylet who were bought over by LeBoat.
We saw quite a few Brooms on our travels but mostly small, fairly old ones. We also saw and visited an Atlantic 37 from 1992 but weren’t very taken with it as it seemed very old fashioned inside and had a lot of space taken up with internal helm.
We did meet a French couple who had bought an ex-LeBoat Continentale, a 13m which originally had three cabins. They completely gutted it and merged two cabins into a state room and fitted a reconditioned engine, and thrusters. They have been travelling for just over a year.
We became quite interested in this idea for a while until we got out onto the Noordseekanaal into Amsterdam which also coincided with serious wind and rain. I really didn’t feel comfortable on an underpowered, keelless boat on a big channel like that and our plans for France would involve some big rivers.
Add to that the problems of buying and equipping in Europe with all the exchange and other Br*it issues and we went off that idea.
Then, at Sixhaven in Amsterdam, we met a chap call Robin and his wife Claire on their Broom 42CL. To say my wife fell in love with it is an understatement, if it had been for sale, she’d have bought it then and there ! Part of it was that they had retrimmed it in a sort of red/gold chintz pattern that she really liked but mostly because they showed us all the pros and cons ( mostly pros), things to look out for and how they had adapted it. They have twin Yanmar 350 which they say are plenty powerful and very reliable. They have added many things to make living onboard easier including washing machine, dishwasher and aircon ( three separate mini units exchanging through windows). The boat was in France at Brexit time so they haven’t taken it back to U.K. and don’t miss it. Robin, like me, is from Northern Ireland, so they don’t get any 90 day issues.
Now we need to see if we can scrape up another £50k. Plenty for sale at the moment.
And, of course, sell the existing boat.

 

[Greg2]

The Broom 42CL is a great boat and we gave very serious consideration to one a few years back.

Just on the matter of no 90 day issues, from what you said can we assume Claire doesn’t have an Irish passport? That being the case it isn’t quite as straightforward as no issues unless she has an EU passport. My wife is from NI and she has an Irish passport and whilst travelling with her does proved more flexibility it doesn’t give me the same freedom of movement as she has.

 

[Alicatt]

The 42CL is very nice Would love to step up to one, they seem very capable and with the electric foldable radar arch much easier on the back compared with our "armstrong" one.

Those Yanmars can be up to 440hp as there is a 42CL with a pair of them up for sale just now in the UK

I have Belgian residency so no issues spending time in the EU or UK, my wife is Belgian and has a Belgian passport so she has a rolling 180 days she can spend in the UK.
If/When I get Belgian citizenship it would mean that my RYA ICC is no longer valid. My wife who did the Powerboat 2 at the same time as me cannot have an RYA ICC as she is not British or resident in the UK

 

[SimonX]

The Broom 42CL is a great boat and we gave very serious consideration to one a few years back.

Just on the matter of no 90 day issues, from what you said can we assume Claire doesn’t have an Irish passport? That being the case it isn’t quite as straightforward as no issues unless she has an EU passport. My wife is from NI and she has an Irish passport and whilst travelling with her does proved more flexibility it doesn’t give me the same freedom of movement as she has.

As far as I know, Claire is English, West Country accent. Robin just said they have no issues. I have an Irish passport through being born in Northern Ireland and my wife has a Dutch one courtesy of her mother so we don’t have any issues. My wife is already planning our next trip (Normandy) but whether it will be on a new boat is another matter.

 

[SimonX]

The 42CL is very nice Would love to step up to one, they seem very capable and with the electric foldable radar arch much easier on the back compared with our "armstrong" one.

Those Yanmars can be up to 440hp as there is a 42CL with a pair of them up for sale just now in the UK

I have Belgian residency so no issues spending time in the EU or UK, my wife is Belgian and has a Belgian passport so she has a rolling 180 days she can spend in the UK.
If/When I get Belgian citizenship it would mean that my RYA ICC is no longer valid. My wife who did the Powerboat 2 at the same time as me cannot have an RYA ICC as she is not British or resident in the UK

Yes, the one we saw in Amsterdam had an electric/hydraulic arch and also a quick folding canopy, unfortunately unable to demonstrate as it was raining.
I saw that some of the ones for sale have bigger engines but I’d be OK with smaller ones if that is what is available.
We’re not planning on changing residency but I do need to get Day Skipper/ICC and my wife needs to do everything from scratch. I’m investigating getting this done on our Bayliner although it would be nicer to use something a bit more like we are going to have so may wait.

 

[Alicatt]

Yes, the one we saw in Amsterdam had an electric/hydraulic arch and also a quick folding canopy, unfortunately unable to demonstrate as it was raining.
I saw that some of the ones for sale have bigger engines but I’d be OK with smaller ones if that is what is available.
We’re not planning on changing residency but I do need to get Day Skipper/ICC and my wife needs to do everything from scratch. I’m investigating getting this done on our Bayliner although it would be nicer to use something a bit more like we are going to have so may wait.

Better to get it done on something more than 10m just in case you get the "up to 10m" restriction on the ICC like I have just now with the PB2 course.

I would recommend going to a class room with other students, a much better learning environment than stuck at home staring at a PC screen.
The practical was just us two students, the other two called it off at the last minute so the two of us had a lot of extra helm time and a chance to observe each other and learn from what we did right and wrong.

The Targa 35 was a blast, with two 400hp VPs on outdrives, and she is very good in a head sea 1m waves did not phase the boat at all and she is comparatively dry compared with some boats I have been on. We came back from the Kyles of Bute with the wind starting to pick up, the start of storm Amy, I was helming back with a following sea 22knots and just overtaking the waves, gave me time to pick my way through the calm bits between each set of waves, slower and the waves pushed the stern around quite a bit.

Was a fine time both the study and the practical, looking forward to the next step

 

[Dino]

The 42CL is a fine boat and probably the only boat I could see myself trading up to in the future. A few friends of mine have them and love them. They are also very capable at sea and have great internal space. I think the 350’s are the ones to go for and they are probably the most popular.
If you are planning to cruise around Europe, would you not be limited with a UK bought boat? If you can find one that is EU Vat paid it would allow you more freedom and mean that you don’t have to pay vat.

 

[SimonX]

The 42CL is a fine boat and probably the only boat I could see myself trading up to in the future. A few friends of mine have them and love them. They are also very capable at sea and have great internal space. I think the 350’s are the ones to go for and they are probably the most popular.
If you are planning to cruise around Europe, would you not be limited with a UK bought boat? If you can find one that is EU Vat paid it would allow you more freedom and mean that you don’t have to pay vat.

The space is what really appealed to us, the couple we met really have it set up like a home on the water.

I’ve thought about that but buying in Europe means paying in Euros which adds extra exchange costs and prices seem generally higher. Then there’s the cost of equipping it there with all the bits and bobs, some of which we already have on our existing boat, shipping them over means paying taxes on them. Also means changing registration and suchlike for insurance. Also means we can never bring it to the U.K.
Certainly for the first year or two we’d be sticking to Netherlands, Belgium, Northern France. If, in the longer term we want to go further, we could do through the canals to the med and down to Gib within the 18 month period. This would also have to be once her ladyship retires ( she is 10 years younger than me) or passes her shop to someone else to manage as I have done with my business.

 

[SimonX]

Better to get it done on something more than 10m just in case you get the "up to 10m" restriction on the ICC like I have just now with the PB2 course.

I would recommend going to a class room with other students, a much better learning environment than stuck at home staring at a PC screen.
The practical was just us two students, the other two called it off at the last minute so the two of us had a lot of extra helm time and a chance to observe each other and learn from what we did right and wrong.

The Targa 35 was a blast, with two 400hp VPs on outdrives, and she is very good in a head sea 1m waves did not phase the boat at all and she is comparatively dry compared with some boats I have been on. We came back from the Kyles of Bute with the wind starting to pick up, the start of storm Amy, I was helming back with a following sea 22knots and just overtaking the waves, gave me time to pick my way through the calm bits between each set of waves, slower and the waves pushed the stern around quite a bit.

Was a fine time both the study and the practical, looking forward to the next step

Yes, I’d read the thread on here about the restriction to 10m ( our Bayliner is 10m) so that was another reason to look somewhere else. There is a school up in Humberside a friend recommended who have a nice fly bridge with twin shaft drives that’s 12m I think. Might need a translator.