Looking For my perfect boat

[purplerobbie]

I keep looking in the boats for section for a nice boat to live on. Not that i'm going to live on one for probably the next ten years but it's nice to look.

My perfect boat would have to have.

A walkthrough aft cabin. With preferably a double in it
Be ok to single hand and have a reasonable turn of speed
Not have a high freeboard.
Over 6ft of headroom. I understand there would probably be less in the ends.
An aft cockpit.
Sloop or Cutter rigged.
Encapsulated keel.
Less that 40ft.
Less than £50k

And most important of all A good strong safe and seaworthy.

So what are options? What should i be looking at?

Rob

 

[Ludd]

what should I be looking at?

Crystal ball for lottery numbers!

You can get some but not all under 40ft but you'd be struggling at under 50 grand!

 

[JasonClark]

Obviously it depends on what you want, do you want something that needs renovating to certain extent or are you expecting something to just walk straight into ?

if the former is the option, factor in how handy you are and how motivated you are to renovate, trust me on cold rainy days it takes a very motivated man to leave a nice warm house and make for the boat yard ! Also if your not upto doing these things and you have to pay someone else to do the necessary, expect to pay a small fortune as you only have to read this very forum for the horror stories and how "some" marina's have people by the Ball's.

If the Latter is your idea, expect a long hunt for your perfect boat.

Happy sailing.

 

[snowleopard]

A walkthrough aft cabin. With preferably a double in it
Be ok to single hand and have a reasonable turn of speed
Not have a high freeboard.
Over 6ft of headroom. I understand there would probably be less in the ends.
An aft cockpit.
Sloop or Cutter rigged.
Encapsulated keel.
Less that 40ft.
Less than £50k

I doubt you can get all of those as quite a few are contradictory. Walk-through aft cabin and 6ft+ headroom really don't go with low freeboard unless the boat is pretty big. An aft cockpit is going to make for a pretty cramped aft cabin, probably involving one person having to climb over the other to get out of bed.

To be big enough for the interior space you are looking for while small enough to singlehand probably means light displacement which means it will be less robust.

As for encapsulated keel - why? Are you afraid of an external keel falling off? If I hit a rock I'd rather do it with a solid lump of metal that have a hole knocked in an outer skin of GRP and have to worry about how to get the water out again!

 

[purplerobbie]

This isnt something i'm going to be doing in the next few years.
Was just looking for ideas for boats really.
Yes i would consider a project as i have done 3 already.

There must be a few boats with these requirements at that price. I can think of a couple that fall close

Rob

 

[Coaster]

I can think of a couple that fall close

Really? What?

 

[sighmoon]

Swan 371? Headroom doesn't quite make it, and he'll have to haggle 30% or so off the asking price.

I don't know at what point the freeboard becomes too high, but maybe:

http://uk.yachtworld.com/boats/1985/Finn-Yachts-Maestro-35-finn-351-2119679/United-States

 

[purplerobbie]

Really? What?

Warrior 38 i have seen them going for slighty over 50k
Rival 38 i have seen them for less than 50k
Moody 333 well under 50k
Moody 346 are available for under 50k

Rob

 

[purplerobbie]

Swan 371? Headroom doesn't quite make it, and he'll have to haggle 30% or so off the asking price.

I don't know at what point the freeboard becomes too high, but maybe:

http://uk.yachtworld.com/boats/1985/Finn-Yachts-Maestro-35-finn-351-2119679/United-States

Thats only up for £53k so thats about 6%
Looks a nice boat though.
Would like 6ft of headroom in the saloon and the galley and heads i understand the if i want 6ft throughout it will have to be bigger than 38ft
I also understand if i want aft cockpit the aft cabin my be no better than a quarter berth with a door on.
Rob

 

[sighmoon]

Thats only up for £53k so thats about 6%
Looks a nice boat though.

Yes, but it's a Maestro 35. I meant the cheapest (at the moment) Swan 371 is about £75k. It is indeed rather nice looking though, isn't it?

 

[LadyInBed]

Not have a high freeboard and Over 6ft of headroom tend not to go together!
Have a look at Colvic Countess 37, but your pockets will have to be a bit deeper.

 

[PeteCooper]

Moody 333 and 346 are both excellent boats, but you did say aft cockpit and they both have centre cockpits.