Merry Fisher style boat as cruiser?

I thought I'd put a link to the boat but it just goes to the Liberty website. it's the 22' JEANNEAU MERRY FISHER 645 that he's selling for £29750.
 
Our first boat was the MF645 with 115hp Yamaha (max 29 knots) and we did 1,600 miles in 10 months. It slammed a little even in the Solent and was a little compact. Now we have the MF855 with twin 150hp (max 43 knots) and have done 700 miles since November and it is just about big enough for longer trips. We are off to France & the Channel Isles for two weeks in June. These are a little pricier than you were after but well worth the money. I'm cashing in some pension lump sums to pay for ours.
MGM have an 855 with single 300hp in stock at Hamble Point which whilst being a 2013 model, was apparently only used once by the first owner and a bit of a bargain at Less than £70k.
 
(I used to sell Jeanneau and Beneteau) Both Jeanneau and Beneteau stopped under 8 meter inboard diesel versions of Antares and Merry fisher a few years ago for lots of reasons to do with build costs but mainly as the hull purchase price for the dealer was cheaper and they could shift more units with the outboards being fitted once they had a buyer. So in answer to you question, the inboards are a much better sea boat. They don't slam as they do not have the planning aft section to the hull. Problem is the don't make them so you need to look second hand and for £35,000 you will get a nice 2005 ish Beneteau Antares 760 or an older Merry Fisher 805 with a Nanni. Not much between the engines really although the Nanni back then used to go through engine mounts quickly.
I saw a nice Antares in Plymouth for £35,995 might still be around.
Merry fisher was the name of the French man whom designed the first cruiser and is pronounced "Marry Fisher" it was never intended to have anything to do with fishing its just a coincidence that they make great fishing boats as they have self draining decks and a some rod holders.
 
I am looking at either a 695 or a 725 instead of our Ocean 37. I like the idea of being able to trail it (although leaving it in the water most of the summer.) Am I right in thinking that if it has an outboard, there is no hot water as a calorifier runs off the cooling pipes of an inboard? Is there a way around this to provide hot water while having an outboard?
 
Yes, you are correct, as outboards are cooled by sea water, so no engine fresh water cooling is available for passing through a calorifier.

The only possibility would be to install an electric calorifier, which could be connected to shore power when alongside, but you would have no possibility to heat the domestic water when at sea.

The other problem would be finding a large enough space to install a calorifier, as these size boats don't have large lazarettes.
 
Thank you. So would it not be possible to put an electric immersion style calorifier (if space were to be found), run from an inverter sometimes? I assume an outboard of this size would have a charging circuit?
 
This could be a possibility, though you would have to check the power rating of the calorifier heater element, and compare this to the inverter outputs. Outboard engines for these size boats do have an alternator, which is used to charge both the domestic and starter batteries.
 
Or perhaps you could look at one of those diesel water heater things.. They look quite compact and since they have outboards there is lots of space around the boat to install one..
 
I had a small inverter and an extra house battery installed on my Antares 8.8 with outboards. The boat came with a calorifier. Unfortunately, when we use the immersion heater in the calorifier running off the batteries, it flattens the batteries pretty quickly. We kept the outboards running whilst heating the water in the morning at anchor, but that's expensive.

It runs just fine in a marina when plugged into shore power.

I can only think of three possible solutions:

1. Install a small eber/webasto water heater.
2. Install more batteries.
3. Install a small diesel genny (I think that a petrol one will be too noisy).

Since we already have a small Webasto air blower with a diesel tank, we have diesel as well as petrol on board.

I'd be interested if you come up with some other alternative.

Garold.
 
Thanks chaps. Good ideas.

Heating up on shore power is fine although on our current boat, the water stays hot for a couple of hours when heated electrically, as opposed to a day when run from the engines.

I like the idea of a genny, although it would take up space and yes would be noisy; however completely independent which would be great. Do you think diesel would be louder than petrol?

The Webasto/Eber idea is also great. Thinking about it, none of the adverts I have seen mention heaters. If I was to buy one of these boats I would certainly put a heater in. I have a Webasto Airtop 5500 at the moment which is very reliable. If installing one from scratch, I would look at the hot water/radiator system which could do both. Looking at JPC Direct, they have a Webasto Thermotop system which does both. I think this would be the way to go.

Good calls - thanks again.
 
My own personal experience of boat heating systems has left me to conclude that the Airtop blown air type heater are the best for heating, and the Thermotop water circuit type heater do a great job of heating the water in a calorifier.

But, starting from fresh, trying to organise a system using the Thermotop with perhaps a couple of fan matrices is worth a try. I'm not sure that there's enough space for radiators on small boats.

Garold.
 
My 6m Finnmaster is fitted with a Propex HS2000 gas heater, which is very efficient, and very compact, so ideal for installing on a small boat. The only slight downside is the fan is a little noisy, but I think this would be the same with an Eber/Webasto heater.

Personally, I don't need hot water on my boat, and if I do I just boil a kettle.
 
Beyondhelp said:
No one else seems to do this, but I'm about to take a water feed from my outboard for some on-board heating... No reason why this can't be done on other outboards.
Click to expand...

Are you taking the outboards sea water cooling water? If this is the case, then I'm very surprised it would have enough 'heat' in it to provide for onboard heating.
 
Well I get water temps of 70-90deg from the thermostats, I'm going to 't' of that to a 4kw heater matrix and see how well it works. If it works well, then further improvements may happen...
 
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