Motor boat choice

R24Cloud said:
Hi
My wife and I are experienced sailors with over 60 sailed transatlantics between us.

But we are new to motorboats and plan to buy one. It would be kept on the Norfolk Broads (air draft consideration - max 11ft 6), be used to cruise Scandinavia and the W Country.

Mainly 2 of us with occasional additions.

Upto 3 weeks cruising at a time.

Looking at around 36ft: Hardy 36, Sargo 36, Nimbus 38 Commodore (or similar Nimbus).

Does anyone have any feedback on any of these boats including build quality, sea keeping ability, engineering and staying onboard for prolonged periods?

Thank you.
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We have a Hardy Commodore 36 that we have done extensive refurbishment work to as well as cruising the southern Broads and East Coast so I know the boat well. If you want to chat drop me a message.

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oldgit said:
Talking 11m here, not much bloat on the boats mentioned. and comparison twixt Broom hulls to the later Oleniski designs and also hull designed by a chap called Bill Dixon.
Have owned a Broom 37 and a Princess 35. Sea keeping ......chalk and cheese. :)
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yeah but yours was an old broom, the 38s are a totally different animal.
 
SimonX said:
The only brand I have looked at from those ones was Nimbus, we looked at a 320 and a 305 but were too small for what we wanted. Build quality was superb with even the older 320 still in excellent condition.
Once we’d seen a Broom though, the extra space pushed us to looking at them (and later to the Linssen we bought).
The other Scandinavian “feel” boat we looked at as Aquador 32 and it was impressive, we know someone who has one has done hundreds of miles in it.
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Hi Simon,
We have an Aquador 32C; a great boat as you say. Typical Scandi build quality.

Matt
 
Also, R24, have you looked at Marex. All the Scandi build quality but very modern and cleverly thought out. I was on a 360 a couple of weeks back and I was very impressed.
 
When my children leave the nest and its just me and my missus, I will def "treat" myself to a boat with an aft cabin, all that space is hard to get on a sub 45 foot boat planing boat.
 
Sticky Fingers said:
I’d suggest a Broom, absolutely ideal for the use case suggested, and a wide range of models of different sizes and prices to pick from.
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I'd second, third and fourth this suggestion, Brooms are brilliant for seakeeping and if you pick the right model can give you a decent low enough air draught to explore a good portion of the broads, built well with lots of room with nice wide decks and sheltered helms
 
marcusgillies said:
I'd second, third and fourth this suggestion, Brooms are brilliant for seakeeping and if you pick the right model can give you a decent low enough air draught to explore a good portion of the broads, built well with lots of room with nice wide decks and sheltered helms
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And me, despite not buying one, I looked at a lot and would have been happy with a 36 or 38CL before the wife decided she wanted more space and we looked at 42 before eventually getting a 43ft Linssen.
The 36 can get down to very low airdraft of 2.82m but it means folding the screens which can be tricky to get to seal again. With them up it is about 3.1m
Never heard a bad word about Brooms
 
Bouba said:
Norfolk Broads boaters 'marooned' as railway bridges fail
I think you might need to lower the specs on your air draft
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We had a similar problem on the Dessel Canal last year, the heat expanded the metal on the lifting bridge and jammed it shut, they could not even get the locking pins to withdraw, airdraft was down to 30cm :)
Then once they got it open they couldn't close it.
Other places the tarmac on the roads over the bridges was melting and gumming up the works.
 
marcusgillies said:
I'd second, third and fourth this suggestion, Brooms are brilliant for seakeeping and if you pick the right model can give you a decent low enough air draught to explore a good portion of the broads, built well with lots of room with nice wide decks and sheltered helms
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As a long standing Broom aficionado who has owned two (an Ocean 37 and a 41) I would agree - well built and great accommodation but with a couple of downsides from our perspective - cockpit seating varies from superb (our 41 was in this category) to very average depending upon the model and many are have quite a high freeboard so climbing aboard can require a bit of effort. Friends had steps fabricated that hang off the bottom of guardrail stantions on their 39.
 
Greg2 said:
As a long standing Broom aficionado who has owned two (an Ocean 37 and a 41) I would agree - well built and great accommodation but with a couple of downsides from our perspective - cockpit seating varies from superb (our 41 was in this category) to very average depending upon the model and many are have quite a high freeboard so climbing aboard can require a bit of effort. Friends had steps fabricated that hang off the bottom of guardrail stantions on their 39.
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I would agree with this, we have a 1978 "Mk1" type Ocean 37 which while having a reasonable sized cockpit the seating leaves a lot to be desired, the "Mk2" version changed the seating arrangement and entrance to the cockpit and is a lot better. Newer Brooms have a much better layout for the cockpit, as do other versions of layouts with the older 37ft type hull.

Greg2 said:
quite a high freeboard so climbing aboard can require a bit of effort. Friends had steps fabricated that hang off the bottom of guardrail stantions on their 39.
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Yup the freeboard is a bit high at the moment...
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As you can see from this the entrance to the side deck on the port side is where the exhaust for the diesel heater is and it does get quite sooty in use and pouring out hot exhaust while stepping aboard is not nice.
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The step up can be quite a stretch and the footplate on the rubbing strip is directly under the exhaust, we keep a small set of folding steps onboard for those lower pontoons, it was one of the first items we bought for the boat, they also double up as an occasional table for me while at the helm underway.
 
Greg2 said:
Friends had steps fabricated that hang off the bottom of guardrail stantions on their 39.
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A few of the ones we looked at had those, I thought they must have been an option at build? Other brands had insets into the hull to climb on but they didn't feel very safe.
 
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True enough of course. But IMHO the combo of the low freeboard and the step make side boarding far safer than (say) a fender step on a boat with high freeboard.

On a river or canal, side boarding is pretty much your only option so it has to be as easy as possible.
 
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