Powles 46 1978-going to buy, Opinions anyone?

She's lovely inside, and being able to crawl easily all round her engines and in between is great. A fair bit of cosmetic grp work to do and a radio to replace on the flybridge but that seems to be all. TAMD70C's with rebuilt turbos apparently producing 300hp each. Drives lovely with hydraulics instead of cables.

Glad to hear someone else has heard of them!! Any idea where else I could get further stuff about how many were made etc?
 
There exists a excellent site which goes into all the details of Jack Powells boatbuilding history.Think it is on a french site somewhere.It was mentioned on here not long ago,but for the life of me cannot remember site address.
Only word of warning,these boats may be well made but all are a bit long in the tooth now and unless previous 10 owners were all millionaires with money to burn,a money pit of previous neglect may await your wallet.
A decent survey will hopefully prevent you paying any more than the boat is worth.
 
Agree with Fred, get a good survey on everything, and do a thorough sea trial, not an out for ten minutes and back again.
Our boat was built in 72 and we did get it for a good price. Luckily in a former life I was a marine engineer. If I had paid for someone to do the work needed since I bought it........
Mostly mechanical and systems with a bit of creative wiring thrown in!
If you have a mechanical/electrical background you will probably be ok, if not tread very carefully.
Where is it by the way, as forum member may know it.
Hope this helps.
 
She's in Gosport (Royal Clarence) right now, Dream Finder is her name. Very striking looking for her years. I've had 3 hours inspecting her plus the benefit of last years survey.

Some plonkers at a marina took an angle grinder to the flybridge about an inch in front of the radar arch-to remove it for transport. Wholly unnecessary and I'd have sued them-as it has a number of bolts, behind panels for this purpose.

Couple of small holes on the side where boat hook brackets have been, a load of crazing on the stern on the top half and also need for sanding and teak oiling on some wood that runs along ontop of the grp. The flybridge needs a good steam clean and a new radio, and the whole boat needs cutting back and polishing after a good pressure wash. Oh and the autopilot isn't functioning right now. That's the worst I could see, or see on the previous survey (Adrian White-apparently well known down there). The survey is quite thorough and I shall go back to him for a new one.

The owner thinks the engines have done about 1500 hours or so. No real records for this, however the turbos have been replaced and a fair bit of money spent on the engines. The engine room is immaculate apart from the usual bit of oil on the bottem. I went round and inspected everything that I'd need to know how to service including the hydraulic system and it does look well cared for. The interior of Dream Finder is lovely, and not at all "old" looking and I suspect the batteries (huuge!) appear to be no more than a couple of years old.

Our current boat, Silver Lady is in far better condition in terms of the GRP superstructure and I guess that alone is what is making me think a little harder about this. Just to note, there are two signicant bits of GRP that the owner is having done before sale.

The engines on Dream Finder sound good and don't sound any older than Silver Lady's and I can't find any significant things apart from cosmetics on Dream Finder to fault her on.

If anyone knows her, that would be fantastic to hear from you.

Unit18, what would you consider a good sea trial? We went out on the Solent for a while at 17 knots (needs antifouling!) and I think we were maybe half an hour or so.
 
Good morning all.
I thought I'd post a pic of Dream Finder up now I found somewhere to put it :-).
What do you think? I like her looks, they're unusual and quite pretty.

dfpowles46web7ch.jpg


We did, out of curiousity look at a 46' Sunseeker last night, as it was nearby-however nothing like the same room.
 
With the sea trial I would say long enough to give the engines a bit of a work out at max cruising revs for at least ten-fifteen minutes to watch the T's & P's. If you can its a good idea to have a look at the engine room with everything running, check the shafts for any run out, see how the shaft seals are... well...sealing!
Have a good go with the gears etc and try at different revs to see if you pick up any vibration.
Always sneak back down the engine room half an hour after you have tied up for a look.
Things like fuel tanks are always worth a good look at for corrosion
Check everything nav wise thoroughly, ask for manuals.
Try all the electrical systems, bilge pumps, fresh water pumps etc.
Make sure the shore power connections are ok and its not going to trip the supply.
Silly things can happen like our fresh water tank started leaking and the boat is built around it!
By the way, she looks lovely!
Al.
 
Wow, she's only 1 of 6? Rare lady then :-).

Thank you for that oldgit, I really appreciate the link.
Unit18 thank you for your recommendations. I did in fact go over the engine room at the end of our half our run learning how to service-and checking things out. I don't know anything about shaft seals (I wouldn't know what I'm looking at!!). However, most other things on your list I've done, apart from a couple of checks which I'll have to do when I go back down to her.
 
Have just spoken to a yachmaster qualified skipper from Gosport about the feasibility of cruising her round from Gosport to Portishead. Sounds like it could be a fair bit of work-for someone who's never done any night cruising or more than a few hours on open water.

I get a figure of about 345 miles to Portishead Quays marina and a rough cost of about £1400 in fuel!! Only a few hundred pounds more than a crane and lorry. Has anyone done this particular route themselves before? The skipper will be £125 a day-not unreasonable I thought.

Thoughts anyone? I haven't managed to find the proper fuel capacity of Dream Finder though i suspect it's about 1400 litres.
 
Your fuel estimation seems a little steep. Assuming you are not going to run flat out I would have thought the boat will probably use 15gph each engine for a decent 18-20knt cruise.

30gph total (or 0.66 mpg). 345/0.66 = 522 gallons.

522 gallons is 2322 litres, which at current prices (not Solent rip off ones, but average) of around £0.45/litre for bulk buying, would be a fuel spend of about £1000

Plus you get the fun (and experience) of doing the trip, which IMHO, is priceless.
 
I've had a look at my figures again, and I get the impression that 68 litres per hour is about right, and 17 knots should be her cruise speed. At that, 345 miles in theory is about 20 hours. I end up with a figure (@50p a litre) of around £690. Allowing a generous slippage for cockups, tides or just plain optimism, a figure of £1000 budget +£250 for the skipper (if it goes over 2 days) makes it directly comparable to road and crane for sure.
 
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