Nimbus 305 or Marex 330

[EricJ]

Good afternoon all,
We are orientating ourselves on a 30-35 ft cruiser that we want to use for weekends and longer coastal trips. It is most of the time for the two of us and a few guests, but rarely guests that stay over. We are based in The Netherlands and once we have some experience we also want to go down the coast to France, Normandy and Brittany. Perhaps a crossing to the UK. Our experience so far is only with a 22 ft day boat. I have ICC coastal but will need some practical training. Budget around 350k EUR (second hand). I know that you can buy much larger boats for this budget, but I am conscious about the running costs as this will not be the only way we spend our holidays and weekends.

Although fuel is not the largest expense I do think it is important and will probably become a more important factor in the future. We would like to cruise economically at a speed of 10-15 knots, which also puts a limit on the size of the boat.
Having had open boats I really want something that allows for comfortable helming also in less favourable conditions. I want to use the boat in the winter too. Hence a coupe style boat should work well.
We have been looking at the Nimbus 305 and Marex 330. The new Swift Trawler 37 is also an interesting one, but too new for the budget and also bigger and thirstier as the MBY test this month showed.

The Marex is a bit longer, but certainly taller than the Nimbus which gives a lot more space, headroom, storage space, separate shower cubicle etc etc. I think the Nimbus is a very clever package for two people, but storage space looks very limited compared to the Marex. Are there any Nimbus or Marex owners on here that could comment on that?

The Nimbus was powered by the VP D3-220 until that engine was discontinued. Since 2022 they have a D4-270. From the comments on here about the D3 I read that the old D3 was certainly to be avoided. The D3-220 is new generation but as I understood from recent posts this engine with aluminium block and adjustable valves is also not the first preferred option in marine applications. The D4 fills the engine room of the Nimbus completely. Both the Nimbus and Marex have V drives and I wonder if the shaft seals can be serviced without lifting the engine if that is ever needed. Is that something that you have to accept with V drives?

The Nimbus is certainly very frugal with around 1.8 l/mile (23 l/u) at 13 knots. At this speed we could do two days of 4 hrs each and after that the 250 l tank will be empty! I am very interested to know what you think of that; the tank looks small to me or is it normal to fill up every two days when cruising?

The Marex is available with outdrives and V drives. I have only seen fuel figures for the outdrive version. In the V drives version a single D6-480 is installed, quite a different beast and this boat has a 650 l tank.
Also water tanks of the Marex are larger than the Nimbus. The top speed of the Marex is I believe closer to 30 knots so has some more options for cruising at different speeds.

What are the thoughts of the forum on these boats for these cruising requirements? Any others boats I should consider? And what about these engines, definitely no D3 or perhaps still an option and is the Nimbus suitable for this type of cruising given the size of the tank?

I have followed the forum for many years and found this always a great resource. I hope you can help with these questions.

Cheers
Eric

 

[Aardee]

I've no real experience of either, other than to say the marina I work in seems to be slowly filling up with Marexes, so they must be doing something right!

Be careful cruising at 10-12 knots as it's generally the least economical way of getting around in a boat of that size - You're above hull speed but not quick enough to be planing. We have a 35' foot Viking Aft Cabin running twin Yanmar 240s which is definitely at it's least efficient between 8 & 15 knots when we're attempting to defy physics

 

[Rickard]

I would go for the Marex 100 %. Smarter built and much better quality

 

[paulbrown22]

I'm a massive fan of the Scandinavian design motor boats as the owner of a slightly smaller Norwegian-built Saga 26HT. The long standing UK Saga dealer (Wessex Marine) switched to Marex a few years back and the new UK Saga dealer (Boat Showrooms) seems to have given up recently, so we sadly don't have a Saga dealer here any more. But Wessex do seem to be moving a lot of Marex boats in the last few years which must say something! If you have a Saga dealer close by definitely worth considering e.g. the Saga 330 as well - I think they are very nicely made boats, incredibly well thought out and great use of every possible inch of space (whilst also still facilitating very good service/maintenance access for a boat of this size).

Especially with your budget you could clearly get a much larger boat if you so wanted, but I think there's a lot to be said for a very nicely built smaller boat with good seakeeping and good access, particularly for use by a couple or a small family, and as you point out means less maintenance, lower running costs, much easier to find berthing, hopefully less downtime, etc. I also love the Botnia Targas, particularly their sea keeping, but personally wouldn't want twin outdrives in the water full time.

I haven't yet been onboard any of the Marex boats, but regularly admire them in all the Poole marinas given the UK dealer is at Salterns, and certainly from the outside and peering through the windows and into the cockpits they look beautiful and nicely made. If/when I wanted to upgrade my current Saga for a similar concept I'd definitely be considering Marex high up on the list.

A good friend bought a Nimbus 320 that I was so excited to see as you always hear good things about them, but I came away a bit disappointed by it - for some reason just nothing stood out to me. The tankage (fuel, water hot water and waste) on the Nimbus 305 seems identical to my Saga 26HT despite being a larger boat with a larger engine - the fuel tank especially would worry me as it massively limits the range. It seems to sit around 1.9l/NM between 12-16kn according to the manufacturer graphs and increasing consumption after that, which gives a range of 130NM with no reserve, so realistically a 100NM planned range which seems far more suited to a day/weekend boat than something doing more serious cruising.

The Marex 330 has significantly larger tankage all round, as does the Saga 330. The Saga 330 I think is still a traditional shaft drive with the engine slightly further forward, although clearly Marex move the engines aft and use V-drive or outdrives to gain more interior volume and space options, so it's always a trade off.