newbie looking for help

[gordmac]

Be careful, you seem to want an awful lot of boat for very little money. That has potential for major (financial) disaster and could put you off boating for life. I would suggest, to dip your toe so to speak, get something you can use for day trips and maybe basically camp overnight. After a season you will have a better idea of what you want and what it will cost. At any sort of speed a 30ft boat may do 2mpg, they are not like a car! Old outdrives are a risk, shafts used more fuel but less risk. If you are happy at 5kn You can get a reasonable displacement boat, speed costs an awful lot of fuel.
Have a look at something like a Channel Island 22.

 

[chillee]

I was in the same boat (no pun intended) as you a couple of years ago. Did not want to spend more than 20k, and I also wanted to keep a check on my running costs. This was not my first boat though, I gradually upgraded over the years.
I decided I wanted diesel for fuel efficiency and availability on the south coast. And wanted to keep to 1 engine to keep running and maintenance costs under control.
This limited me to approx 25ft boat.
Mine is 2 berth, but there are plenty out there with 4 berths.
I've ended up with a Hardy Seawings 254 with an AD31 diesel.

Mooring fees for me are under 3k a year in Southampton area. I've had to replace the turbo and the sump. The latter was planned for and costs negotiated into the purchase price. But to give you an idea, a sump from Volvo Penta is £750, and you then need to have the engine lifted out and back in. Turbo is usually over £1000. So you can see why people talk about quite high maintenance costs.

 

[Alicatt]

Before you go spending loads, why not go for a weeks holiday on something like a Norfolk broads boat?
A safe and cheap way of seeing if boating is for you and the family with no large financial outlay.

That's what I'm doing with my wife, I first took her out last summer on a 6.5m sloop for a day, weather was bad and the lakes in Holland were quite rough for their small size, and she loved it, from that we planned a trip for 2 weeks on a 43ft cruiser next summer with a couple of friends. I know that she gets seasick on the ferry from Ijmuden to Newcastle when it starts blowing so I had never pushed for her to try going out on a smaller boat. She knew I had a boat when we first met but I sold it and left it in Scotland with a friend when I moved to Belgium 15 years ago.

In 2019 a friend took her and our granddaughter out for a trip in a small boat around the islands and Inches of Loch Lomond, she oohed and ahed about it when she came back and said I should have been there I would have loved it, however I was stuck with the car getting it MOTed and am most peeved I missed it.

On a lead up to the trip next summer I'm brushing up on my navigation and colregs (collision regulations) and also the CEVNI regs. while strictly speaking I don't need it for hiring a boat in Holland I'm planning on what I hope is going to happen afterwards, so I'm keeping my head down and studying what I can during the lock down.