MG Spring 25

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shaunb

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15 Apr 2006
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Cardiff, Wales, UK
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Hi all
anyone know much about these boats? I believe they were made by northshore among others. what years were they made, most i.ve seen have been 1988 models. How are they as sea boats?
thanks in advance
 
Don't know a lot, I'm afraid, but a good friend (serious sailing freak !) had one - first cruiser after Shearwater and Hurricane dinghy cats) and reckoned it sailed well but a bit tender and lacking in mod cons (e.g. gas bottle gimballed under cooker in galley not self-draining). But if he reckoned it sailed well .... !

Penny
 
Hi Ian
I am looking at a boat called springbok for sale at cardiffbayboatsales.co.uk, it is up for £18k, we had a quick look today externally and she seems quite nice

http://www.cardiffbayboatsales.co.uk/Boatdetails.asp?name=Spring%2025

We have been chopping and changing a bit over the last few weeks on what we are going to buy. It will be used mainly for day/ weekend sailing, myself, the wife & 2 young children. We are also hoping to do part of the celtic goodwill raid in July from cardiff to penzance and back over a week.
We are going to look at it again tomorrow, so any advice appreciated. As a note, we are upgrading from a jeanneau sun fast 20.
Thanks
Shaun
 
Had a look at the photos and it looks like a tidy example. Difficult to see interior condition. If Springbok has a saildrive leg then it is probably a Northshore model built around 1990. Earlier models built by Jaguar had Yanmars1gms as standard and were all built around 88/89. Northshore ironed out some initial design faults when they took over production. £18k is top end price. For that I would expect it to have good sails, instruments, heating etc. Make sure the liferaft isn't due for a service as this will set you back a bit. The spring has the aft cabin which can be good with kids as you can pack them away in there and still be able to stay up yourself without keeping them awake. Like i said , read through all the old messages in the spring discussion forum and you will get an idea of what you should be looking for.
 
I have no experience of sailing the MG Spring, but was warned off by several 'experts'. At the time I was quite disappointed because we had our heart set on having one ... Firstly, their trick keel doesn't work very well. Like I say, I haven't sailed one, but we have embarraced several with our twin keel 245 ... which shouldn't be so? Pay lots of attention to the chain plates .... there are two sorts, ones that have been fixed (often with new masts!) and ones that need fixing! First sign is lots of gel coat cracks around the chain plates. The last one we looked at needed fixing and changed hands for 11.5K!
 
Seen this one, a very tidy example and seems well priced
web page Can't seem to put a link to the exact boat but you can find it by doing a search for MG
 
Interested in the comments but who are the .. experts that advised against? Website recommends a beefed up mast... In what way? Chain plates can be a prob in other boats and the Hanse 30 comes to mind. Looking for a smaller cruiser racer and tender is not a problem.
 
This may be a mute point as you are probably only interested in the used side, but I do have the original YM with the Spring 25 test in - five pages of write up.

Only is you are interested. Billed as 'Tom Howards' MG Spring - those were the days eh...
 
Mark,
I have sailed my MG Spring extensively from Lancaster down as far as La Rochelle over the last few years... If there is anything you want to know about them I can generally give you an informed opinion... Dave Griffin 07866 432481
 
I almost bought a new Spring when they first came out. About £12,000. Went to Kip marina for a demo but the salesman kept finding excuses why we couldn't go out. It was a good 5 and me and my wife would have been quite happy in our eboat in a 6. I have since sailed one from Carrickfergus to the Clyde and can understand his problem.

The twin rudder gives very little feel even when the boat is on it's ear until it looses grip completely.

The first masts were liable to break and had to be strengthned.

The hull flexed so much that the single ply panel doors swing open and shut on a seaway.

Saying that they are quite nice to sail and are very responsive because of their light weight.

I personally would not want one for cruising and can think of many other craft more suitable.
 
I race & cruise my Spring out of Cowes mainly along the south coast. And im very pleased with her however I have had to do a few fixes. The main one being the chainplates. When I purchased her the chainplates had been modified by a previous owner and not very well The way it was configured put a high compression load on the deck sandwich where the chainplates are fitted. It also allowed water to get into the ply core at that point and caused some cracking around the mountings. I removed the ply and replaced it with epoxy and glass I also beefed up the inner deck laminate and repaired the area of the deck surface where the hainplates fit and used an epoxy gel-coat that I had colour matched to the deck(a fair amount of green in the colour) I had new chainplates made up that transferred the load directly to the tie rods with only lateral loads applied to the deck. The box structure where the tie rods connect was also beefed up. The sign of a beefed up mast is a sleeve fitted internally to the mast at the spreaders and pop riveted in place.
I dont think these boats are ugly You get a lot of boat for your money. Its not a blue water yacht. We race in some pretty lively conditions. Yes she does keep you on your toes a bit like a big dinghy. I find reefing early is always a good decission. I tend to reef the main first and keep a full genoa. OK the keel wont let you point realy high but off the wind she flies. If your considerering taking the ground it needs to be fairly solid so the rudders dont dig in. as theirs quite a bit of weight on them when she dries out. Any wiring mods that require new cables above the roof lining are a nightmare as the builders didnt put the wiring in tubes and bonded the inner and outer mouldings with resin/glass paste and all of the wiring got glued in. Ive had to run some new cables. very frustrating. £18K is a bit steep for anything thats not first class.
I paid £13.5K for mine from a mate. and now think with all the work done its worth possibly £16K
 
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