Newbie looking for advice - Which Boat?+1 million other questions..

[jimbrailey]

Hi to everyone.
As a newbie, I would like to pick your brains and use your hindsight for my foresight! This is only a seed of an idea, but I would be really grateful for your advice, idea's and input.
I am looking for a motor boat to act as a live-aboard for me during the week (I work in Holland, but the family is in the UK), and for family cruising and holidays the rest of the time.
I am looking at main criteria of 2 berth minimum / ideally 2 heads & showers / @40ft / twin diesel. Should be suitable for European river cruising as well as crossing the North Sea or Channel. Budget loosely @GBP50k.
I have looked over a number of boats to get a feel for layout and space, and am erring towards a Trawler Yacht type vessel.
There are probably a million specific questions, but I have tried to list the main ones below. General comments are also very welcome!
1) Any recommendations on specific boat types to look at? Is a Trawler Yacht the right way to go?
2) Better to buy in Holland or UK?
3) Anything special to look for in live-aboard?
4) What levels of training would be recommended?
5) Everything else!

I realise this is a wide open topic, but looking through the forums I know there is a huge amount of knowledge out there and I'm sure any input will be useful.
Thanks in advance, I look forward to your thoughts!

 

[mainshiptom]

Trawler in my onion is a good choice I had a Mainship and lived on board and loved it,

My advise would be look at as many boats as possible and maybe hire oine for a while?

iN hOLLAND YOU HAVE LOADS OF OPTIONS DEPENDS ON BUDGET? the elling is a great boat loads in Holland,

also look at yacht brokers in holland, I have used Devalk and they are great they are all over holland,

The dutch are very paassoinate about their boats so you will meet some nice people as well

good luck !

 

[Peanuts]

"Budget loosely @GBP50k."

I cannot help but feel this could be the stumbling block in the search for your idea boat, but as always stand to be corrected.

 

[jimbrailey]

Re: Newbie looking for advice - Which Boat?+1 million other questions.

Hi Peanuts.. Thanks.. what kind of budget figure do you think i should be looking at?

 

[coliholic]

Welcome to the forum and good luck in your search.

IMHO as Peanut said, the £50K is going to be a bit limiting for the type of boat you're after. With the euro now where it is, that's around 60,000€ and I think you're going to have to make some compromises.

Personally, since your main requirement seems to be for somewhere to live, I'd go for a Dutch steel cruiser and there's loads of them for sale in Holland. Don't know where you are in Holland but there's a couple of good dealers at Nieuw Loosdrecht near Utrecht and one at Sleeuwijk on the A15 just over the river from Gorinchem that are definitely worth a visit. The Dutch definitely love their steel boats and refer derogatorily to GRP as tupperware boats.

Last time I looked there were loads for sale in Holland and I've visited a couple of dozen dealers there on more than one occasion - I used to go to Holland every month or so on business so got to know a lot of the dealers etc. Dutch boats tend to be big inside with small engines since they're designed for the slow rivers and canals and it's very rare to find twin engines, so not sure that you'll find the dual purpose boat you're after though, i.e. one that's good for the Dutch rivers AND for cross channel but you'll have fun searching.

 

[Deleted User YDKXO]

The problem you have buying in Holland is the €/£ exchange rate. £50k doesn't buy many € these days. Worse than that, if the £ strengthens against the € over the next few years, as many predict, any boat you buy in € in Holland will depreciate in £ terms due to the exchange rate movement alone. For that reason, it might make more sense to buy a boat in the UK and take it to Holland. In fact, it probably makes most sense to buy a Dutch built boat in the UK and take it to Holland as this will give you the option of selling it in either Holland or the UK when you've finished with it, depending on where you think you might get the best price at the time
IMHO, you should be looking at Dutch steel built motor boats, preferably with an aft cabin as this will give you the most interior living space, something like a Pedro, Stevens, Aquanaut etc which are popular in the UK. I do think that £50k is a bit optimistic for a 40 footer though, possibly 35ft being more viable. Another consideration is that if you are going to moor the boat in Holland in fresh water, despite the fact that the eco mentalists say we're all going to fry, you might find the water freezing over. Ice will definitely damage a grp boat more than a steel boat.

 

[coliholic]

Found one of them. Have a look at this

http://www.sleeuwijkyachting.nl/E/detail.asp?id=520

 

[blueglass]

trawler yacht style may be no good for the inland waterways because of ther airdraught. check out the bridge heights for the waterways you want to cruise. Certainly on french waterways anything more than 3.5 meters and your snookered.

 

[oldgit]

50k ? This has got a decent channel crossing sized engine and looks in nice nick to boot.Everything you need to livaboard already there ...
Offer around the very low £ forties and watch the fur fly......
Just one thing to watch out for..these things will rust away from the inside as you stand and watch /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif.....get a good survey from somebody who knows their tin boats to check out for previous plating efforts .