Motion at Anchor

[James59]

First off hello everyone, I'm totally new to this site but looking forward to reaping the benefits of other peoples experience.

In a nutshell, my wife and I are thinking of buying a powered boat, probably around 45ft, flybridge, twin engine, around 10 years old. We are looking at Princess, Fairline or Sealine (F43, F42/5, P43, etc). We would live on the boat for maybe 5 or 6 months a year in a tropical location (SE Asia). Both of us have several years experience on yachts, again around the 45ft mark, but we have very little experience on motor cruisers.

My questions is, compared to a yacht, what is the motion of a similar sized motor cruiser like at anchor? I'm concerned that the movement of the boat at anchor will send us nuts after a short period of time and then drive us back into a marina.

Your thoughts / experiences please?.

 

[Medskipper]

Hi James,
I have been boating almost 30 years with motor cruisers but my brother is a yachtsman and has sailed most of the Med in the last decade. I mention this because it has given me the experience of both types of vessels at anchor. I am afraid that you are correct motor vessels do roll more than sailing yachts and there is not much one can do about it. The vessels you mention that you are considering have hulls which plane, and in my humble opinion can feel far worse than a semi displacement or displacement hull. As you are coming from a sail boat do you really need a 25-30 knot boat? A semi displacement hull can still be pretty quick but more comfortable at anchor and in heavy seas.
Barry

 

[MapisM]

I am afraid that you are correct motor vessels do roll more than sailing yachts and there is not much one can do about it.

+1, though of course there is something you can do: either fit zero speed stabs, or anchor in quiet spots.
The latter is my preferred strategy, not just for the very good reason that I don't have zero speed stabs, but because I prefer quiet spots anyway...!

Besides, in fairness, what you are saying is actually true also for D and SD hulls, not just planing ones.
The roll can be a bit more gentle with D and SD boats, and more hectic with P boats.
But the roll angle can even be higher with the first than with the latter.
I surely wouldn't base my choice on the different behaviour at anchor alone, anyway.
Heavy seas cruising is a different story, of course.

PS: welcome J59 to the asylum!

 

[henryf]

Could you build some custom flopper stoppers ?

Compared to the cost of stabilisers they will be peanuts and I would imagine the flybridge layout would lend it's self well to suitable mounting points.

Where are you thinking of cruising ?

Henry

 

[rafiki_]

Welcome James. There are folk on here with the experience of the boats you are considering, and also some with cruising experience in Asia. Not everyone checks into this forum daily, so you might need to bump your post back to the top every now and then, to give all a chance to see it and comment.

 

[Hurricane]

Yep planing boats are essentially flat bottomed - well in comparison with sailing boats anyway.
And yes - even the larger ones can roll at anchor.
However, any boat rolling is uncomfortable and the advantage of a fast planing boat is that you can make a quick "get away" to somewhere where it doesn't roll.

Henry
We ought to ask NickH's view on Flopper Stoppers
I know he tried a homemade set up but has now moved on to something far grander (and expensive!)

 

[James59]

Thanks for the replies. Our cruising area will be west coast Malaysia (based in Langkawi) and up to Phuket (mainly Phang Nga Bay). We've been up there and cruised around on a yacht a couple of times before. From what I've seen so far the weather is pretty good (Dry Season only, not Wet season) and given the number of islands dotted around it's fairly easy to find one that is sheltered. Certainly on the yacht life was pretty cruisy and we had some spectacular little bays to anchor in with no problems. MapisM, I prefer your idea of finding the quiet spots and anchoring there, however there's not a lot you can do when it blows up a bit in the early morning. And as Hurricane said, if there's a hint of heavy seas kicking up then we wouldnt be very far away from the nearest marina.
We love the life up there, very laid back and fairly cheap. Maintaining a boat is expensive but thats true of almost anywhere. Diesel is relatively cheap compared to Europe too. The last time I looked I think that diesel was about 60 pence a litre in Langkawi and 85 pence in Phuket (that was a couple of month back though).
However there isn't a lot of choice when it comes to buying a cruiser, plenty of sail boats but not a lot of reasonably priced motor boats. Australia is just as bad, very expensive to buy a modern boat. After spending many years sitting in a cockpit with a winch / winch handle, traveller, cleat, etc sticking up my bum, I've had enough of sailboats and I would like to have some luxury. We can afford it (I think) and the idea of living up there for a few months then coming back to Oz to work for a few months, ticks all the boxes.
So the plan is to head off to Europe a little later this year, see if we can find a boat that we like, buy it, chuck it on a ship and have it delivered to Singapore where we will pick it up and drive it up to Langkawi.

What's that about the best laid plans of mice and men? Yeah, I know.

 

[Bertramdriver]

I would support the argument for semi displacement hulls. Not as fast but much more steady.
As regards the wave movement at anchor. You may consider using an anchor damper. Basically you slide a heavy weight (@15 kilos) down your anchor chain on a recovery line. Let it bottom and then haul it back up the chain three or four meters and secure on the retaining line. The effect is to provide the anchor line with a "shock absorber" and very noticeably smooths out the motion of the boat. My yachty mate uses his spare anchor for this purpose. I have a great lump of old chain I rescued from the boatyard.

 

[blueglass]

we spent 3 months of the year at anchor in our s/d atlantic 38 in the Med quite happily. Yes we rolled slightly more than than adjacent yachts in the same conditions but thats just part of the trade off between power and sail. As you mentioned earlier, at least you will roll in comfort!
Really though the difference is small and heavily outweighed by other advantages

 

[kashurst]

Planing boats do roll a bit more than equivalent sailing boats at anchor. however the motion stops quicker too. should be easy to pick a quite protected spot in those beautiful waters - I'm green with jealousy and cheap diesel too. To minimise the movement you need to be sitting as close to the water as possible - so you might want to rethink the F43 as the cockpit is quite high above the water line compared to the sealine 425 & princess/fairlines. otherwise all great boats.

 

[Alboretto]

I used to have a fly bridge boat and could not bear the motion at anchor when a swell set her into a pendulum rocking. I discovered my favourite place for comfort sunbathing was the bathing cockpit or my friends Gobbi 425. In the end I sold her for a sports cruiser.

 

[Deleted User YDKXO]

James59 welcome to the forum. I've owned several planing boats and as a general rule, I've found the more beamy they are (ie the wider they are) the less they roll. Also the heavier they are, the less 'snappy' the rolling action. FWIW, I've had 2 Ferretti boats and they are a bit beamier and heavier than the average planing boat and as a result they seem to roll a bit less at anchor (and under way as well) so maybe include Ferretti on your list of marques to look at.
Going completely left field here but have you considered a power catamaran? With 2 widely spaced hulls, a powercat will roll considerably less at anchor than any monohull. You could probably pick up something like a Lagoon 43 http://www.yachtworld.co.uk/boats/2002/Lagoon-43-2461508/Greece for the same kind of money as the other boats you've mentioned. These boats are simply enormous inside compared to similar length monohulls too so they would make a good liveaboard boat. The downside of course is that marina mooring charges will be higher, maybe 50% higher than an equivalent length monohull

 

[James59]

Deleted User, we've thought about powercat - Lagoon and Fontaine Pajot, but given the cost of shipping a mono from Europe to Singapore, the cost of a cat would be prohibitive I think. Probably have to chop off both arms and legs rather than just one arm and a leg. Mooring fees are 50% here and I would imagine haul out and putting it on the hard would be a lot more too.

So, who has a really nice Phantom 43 they'd like to flog me at a good price (or a Princess, Sealine, Cranchi or Ferretti)?