New Boat 26ft Bilge Keel under £10000

hurley

hurley

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HI I wonder if I could possibly ask the forum for some advice on buying a new yacht.

We are looking to move up from a Hurley 22.
My Wife and I have two children aged 12 and 8
We require a 26 ft Bilge keel yacht that can live on a drying mooring.
Our Budget is £10k Max We would need something that would be easy and cheap to maintain and sail.
Also something to accomodate us comfortably for weekends and two weeks in the summer.

I have located two boats locally that appear to be in very good order and well kept, but dont know a terrific amount about them.

1) Seamaster 815 Bilge Keel
2) Colvic 26 Family Sailer Bilge Keel.

I would be grateful for any advice on either of these two boats.

Thanks in advance Nick
 
HI Yes we have a mooring on the River Deben that is described as a wet mooring, but that is by using the criteria " can a seagul walk around it at low water" We basically get whatever the tide is at LW ie on a spring about .25m Neap upto 1meter.

CPD Do you have details of the Centaur ?
 
Seawolf 26 would probably be the best 26ft bilge keeler, mark 2 has lots more headroom and by all accounts sails very well.

Also consider a Cobra 750 or 850.
 
As the owner of a Colvic 26 you can guess what I am a fan of.

What the Colvic lacks in performance & it does sail pretty well, it makes up in pure solid safety in the water. This is a well moulded solidly built boat that will take a big sea. The Colvic is great on a drying mooring & with its encapsulated Balast & Keels it won't suffer from the Keels needing rebedding every so often.

My advice would be "Don't be afraid to offer silly money". I was talking to a boatyard owner recently who told me he had a good Centaur advertised for £11,500 & he would accept £6500. Colvics sell for less than Centaurs because many of them are DIY fit outs. Look for a good inventory & a good Engine. Remember, as is so often the case "its a buyers market".

Good luck

Martin
 
As Bigmart said a lot of the Colvics were fitted out by their original owners and the finish could be patchy. The Seamaster would probably sail better upwind. Here's another boat to throw into the mix, a Sadler 25. As with the Colvic some were finished by their owners from kits supplied by Sadlers.
 
Hunter Horizon 26, sails very well and room enough for the family, lots live on drying moorings and you may be able to get them down to £10k in the current environment.
We have a Hunter Delta 25 a proper lift keel yacht with a decent ballast ratio, the predecessor to the 26, not quite as big but sails as fast and ours lives on a drying mooring with its lift keel up. Here is an example well under £10k. http://yachts.apolloduck.co.uk/display.phtml?aid=102120
There are other considerations for a lift keel yacht but generally IMHO they are more than a match for the bilge keelers of similar type.
 
I'm a fan of the under-rated Colvic. watch for home-completed especially if they didn't use the contract yard system and packs.
Put a Centaur and Colvic 26 alongside each other and little between them really - ok they are distinctly different with hull knuckle etc. - but pricing ? Colvic gives you money still in pocket.

Beware of some that skimped on engine size. Quite a few had the small Petter 6 fitted - adequate just, but prone to trouble and needs to be run hard to get best. Some had the Petter 12 - much better size.

There's also Sunrider / Searider / Searover ... all well within budget ......

With kids - you're looking for boat that can take it and get home safely ... family chooses boat with accommodation - you get to compromise on sailing ability !! /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif
 
The Sabre 27's are well worth very serious consideration. The are well built and well designed and far far better than any Colvic 26 that I have ever seen.

I moor on the Deben and with a wife and kids I would ensure the boat had a decent reliable diesel engine. The cost of having to replace an engine will be around £5,000, about half your budget!

I would not consider any boat with an outboard (like the Hunter mentioned above) as you lack drive and power and also lack the ability to generate any decent level of electrical charge. The last thing you want when bouncing over the Deben bar is an outboard motor delivering intermitant power as it comes out of the water as each wave passes!!

Your mooring is in a very good position on the river. Let us know what you buy so we can give you a wave someday.
 
[ QUOTE ]
this Hunter Horizon 26 was advertised at 10,500 but open to offers, it needed some work doing but I felt they would have accepted a low offer. The boat is a the Ridge boatyard at Wareham and may still be for sale via their brokers there.
A good performer with good accommodation

It was on the market for quite a while

[/ QUOTE ]

It has an outboard engine so that is why it is cheap. However the beds will be moulded in so an inboard could be fitted later.
 
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