New Boat

rubberduck

rubberduck

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Joined
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Location
essex
www.atlas-courier-express.co.uk
We may be looking to upgrade yet again. Looking for a boat with lowish air draft & the abillity to live on board for a month or so. Needs proper oven/ microwave,good sized fridge / freezer, washer dryer, good waste disposal etc etc.All the home comforts, Stabs would also broaden Nicky's horizons. Would be putting it in various marinas & staying there till we get bored, then putting it somewhere else. Starting at St Kats, then Isle of Wight, then who knows. Recomendations pleabs.
 
rubberduck said:
We may be looking to upgrade yet again. Looking for a boat with lowish air draft & the abillity to live on board for a month or so. Needs proper oven/ microwave,good sized fridge / freezer, washer dryer, good waste disposal etc etc.All the home comforts, Stabs would also broaden Nicky's horizons. Would be putting it in various marinas & staying there till we get bored, then putting it somewhere else. Starting at St Kats, then Isle of Wight, then who knows. Recomendations pleabs.
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I think you will either be looking at a Broom/Haines/Westwood from the UK, or one of the many Dutch boats. Any of these would be fantastic for you.
 
rubberduck said:
Also like to go fast when the mood dictates, Air draft would be nice to get under Hammersmith bridge, but not essential. Min size at least 50 foot.
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Minimum 50 foot is interesting. Years a go a friend who had a 52 foot Princess said that going bigger than 40 feet was a mistake, primarily because 40 feet give most people what they need in terms of space and it is around the maximum length at which you can just rock up in most places and get a mooring. The fifty footer meant that he had to plan everything in advance and relied upon a hammerhead being available to get a mooring.

Might be worth thinking about the accommodation you want/need and looking at what kind of boat fits the bill. Aft cabin boats (Haines/Broom/Westwood etc) will deliver better accommodation in a forty footer than a the average flybridge will in fifty feet. I speak from experience....our Broom 41 is very comfortable both inside and in the very spacious cockpit. Cabins at each end of the boat are also good as guests have their own en-suite cabin far enough away for both us and them to enjoy some privacy. Bonus is that having a well designed planing hull with a small keel she will potter along quite nicely at an economic 6 or 7 knots but will pick her skirts up and plane at around 18 knots cruise. We have twin 300 hp and there are larger options that wil give higher speeds but at a cost.

Being designed for both coastal and inland cruising our 16 ish foot aircraft can be reduced to around 10' 8" by dropping the mast and canopy. We did the non-tidal Thames this year and got under Hammersmith with no problem. Worth saying that we were a big boat on the Thames and another nine feet would have made mooring etc a lot more difficult.
 
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SWMBO thinks Princess V62 looks quite good, looking to buy in about two years time. Events will be dictated by childrens career decisions which might blow a hole in idea of a retirement apartment in London. So next idea is a halfway to retirement apartment wherever, whilst keeping the house for the time being.
 
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Sleek and sporty boats aren't usually the best liveaboards. Sounds like you're looking for a compromise between the two, in which case a deck saloon hardtop may fit the bill.
 
rubberduck said:
Got it in one. Absolute 56 is looking quite good, love the finish on our 41. Will start nosing seriously at LIBS.
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Absolute 56 has an open cockpit iirc. Personally, if I was considering regularly spending a month on board in the UK, i'd far sooner have a deck saloon with patio doors, so you can lock the weather out, but still have natural light and look out of the windows. It's all personal choice of course, but it's something to at least think about.
 
Its going to sound potty, but I have a thing about steering wheels in the living room. My preference is to drive upstairs but live downstairs. The 56 has plenty of space & light down there. The next question being, how good is IPS now its been tested for a while ?
 
rubberduck said:
Its going to sound potty, but I have a thing about steering wheels in the living room. My preference is to drive upstairs but live downstairs. The 56 has plenty of space & light down there. The next question being, how good is IPS now its been tested for a while ?
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If you want to keep the saloon/wheelhouse clear of the helm, you are back into a Broom, or similar, with the raised cockpit over the aft cabin.
 
As said you will have more space inside a 40ft aft cabin grp design than most 50ft flybridge boats (Eg Atlantic, Haines, Broom, etc). Most of these are low airdraft, but not sluggish either. Just as happy at displacement speeds as planing. The Dutch aft cabin boats tend to be limited to displacement speed.
 
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