Recommend me a Sailboat - please?

[Jason14]

Ok so im looking for a new boat, something a little larger than my last boat and something a little more sea kindly.

My previous boat was a bav 32 holiday and im happy to go up to 40ft ish

It will be myself my partner and our teen child on board for the first year or two before we venture off as a couple towards the med then across the Atlantic and to the pacific etc. so it needs ocean capability.

Budget, max £50k but id rather spend 30-40k on the boat and customize it how i want it.

i thought i wanted something older like a nicholson 38... but having saw one today i cant live with the small fore cabin access and tiny aft cabin and the amount of work required is bonkers... i also looked at the 39 but its not much better if im honest and its still a little tight especially for a 39ft boat!

Ketch / sloop don't mind, ideally just two cabins otherwise it will be wasted space, i hate coffin berths though, i did have in my head i wanted a centre cockpit, but im happy to conceed and stick a cockpit tent on the boat when its colder, many others have done it and coped fine so i just need to get on with that one!

open to suggestions because im lost among the list of many AWB boats and need to narrow it down somewhat so i know what to search for.

 

[Goldie]

Something like Westerly Sealord 1984 – – ?

 

[steve yates]

That looks like a very good option

 

[pvb]

In your previous thread, I suggested "Why not do a search on Yachtworld, or similar, to see what your budget would buy you in a more recent boat?" Don't take too much notice of asking prices, so you could search up to say £55K. If you and your family have been happy to use a Bavaria 32 Holiday, I don't think you're going to be too impressed with the 40 year old Westerly/Moody boats which many on here seem to consider the pinnacle of boat design! As you found with the Nic 38/39, accommodation can be rather cramped and dismal.

 

[Quandary]

Any one with a £55k budget looking to buy a forty year old boat is nuts unless they are into history and romance. About 15% of yachties are obsessives, maintaining everything just so. When these guys sell they may get a bit closer to their asking price but probably less than they will have spent in one year. So you look for one of these with the boat you want. Rigging will be fresh. sails good, woodwork and grp sparkling and engine maintained to perfection. Do that rather than holding back £20k to make her how you want her

 

[ryanroberts]

This Oyster looks pretty well looked after if you fancy a classic plastic ketch. 39K, lots of trimmings but in Greece

Indigo Yachting

 

[Kelpie]

Sounds like similar requirements to ourselves. We kept a fairly open mind and lined up viewings with anything over about 37ft under £40k.
What we found was that Moody and Westerly dominated the shortlist. This wasn't by choice, it was just what we found on the market. If we'd been willing to travel outside the UK we would have had a wider choice including French AWBs.

It was very instructive to see how boats are different in the flesh to how they may appear in photos. Notably, it can be hard to ascertain the storage volume available, and the ergonomics of the various spaces.

We drew up a spreadsheet to record the details of each boat, and put a value on their equipment to allow a fair comparison. All of the boats needed extra equipment to be added, or outdated gear replaced, so the cheapest boat on the list may not be best value when you have finished kitting it out. Be wary of ascribing too much value to end of life gear, e.g. antiquated instruments, middle-aged batteries, etc.

We ended up with an older 1978 Moody 39. Not fancy, quite basic inventory suitable for coastal cruising, but very well maintained and a clean slate ready to upgrade to bluewater spec. A ridiculous amount of space, cavernous stowage.

We viewed a couple of Moody 376; whilst more modern in design, they have a fraction of the stowage, and were more expensive. Also viewed a couple of Sealords and really liked them, but wasn't able to reach a deal on either.

Good luck, maybe see you out there one day!

 

[Jason14]

This Oyster looks pretty well looked after if you fancy a classic plastic ketch. 39K, lots of trimmings but in Greece

Indigo Yachting

Looks great on the pictures, but might just be another Nicholson and be cramped?? unless im wrong?, and its a long way to fly to find that out. i think pvb is right after living in a Bav 32 i cant compromise, its needs to have the same if not more room, especially as most things are charged & costed by the meter.

while i want to cross a couple of oceans i will spend 90% of my time coastal hopping or at anchor so while crossing an ocean in a lightweight boat is not ideal, its not actually dangerous, i've never felt unsafe in our Bav when caught out, a little sea sick yes... a little cold & wet too perhaps, but i was fine, thousands of others cross in AWB too. (i watched someone on YouTube cross the atlantic in a bav 32 too..)

The list is looking like another Bavaria to be honest a 38, newer than my old one and a fair amount bigger especially in the saloon, i know the boat well as i chartered one about 7 years ago.

bit disappointed with the 3 cabins and would prefer a "state" room of sorts for the times we arnt at sea, but financially its alot of boat for the money and still only 15-20 years old, the only other one cropping up is a benneteau oceanis 36 CC, although i think the living areas are squeezed for the aft cabin so unsure on that one.


the problem i find with searching is the amount of boats that come up, most sites you can only filter Europe or the UK, but im happy to collect from north france and west spain / portugal, further south... if it really was the right boat but anyway, this means if searching i have to manually click on each advert for france to find out its on the south coast, or if i leave it just as the UK its not showing those models, so im just a little overwhelmed and need to focus a little on a few brands to narrow it down.

If i've learned anything from looking at boats and speaking with owners... They will say anything to get you to view it, and 9/10 when you get there its not in the condition they paint it in over the phone, so i need to 100% decide what i want before i go travelling long distance to get it.

out of interest does anyone live aboard a charter style boat, i.e. with more cabins than they need, and what do they do with them? it dont feel an efficient use of space for a live aboard? equally the same with two heads, i only need the one heads...

The answer is probably buy a Bavaria ocean 38, that looks like the perfect boat, just out of my budget though

 

[ryanroberts]

Looks great on the pictures, but might just be another Nicholson and be cramped?? unless im wrong?, and its a long way to fly to find that out. i think pvb is right after living in a Bav 32 i cant compromise, its needs to have the same if not more room, especially as most things are charged & costed by the meter.

Aft cabin looks huge (by my standards anyway), and she's a lot beamier than a Nicholson. Hard to find good interior pictures of the marque online.

 

[Jason14]

Aft cabin looks huge (by my standards anyway), and she's a lot beamier than a Nicholson. Hard to find good interior pictures of the marque online.

i found a video walk-through, the saloon looks a little small, same with the fore cabin, and im not sure of the walk-through, its hard to tell from pictures / video especially with wide angle lenses and nothing for scale, those large windows would be like a greenhouse too i'd imagine in the aft.

i'm quite adverse to chain inside the boat too the more i stick my practical hat on, our locker over the years has been a festering pit of mud, seaweed, and other sea stinks unless we religiously hosed it down after each anchoring and washed it all out (easy to do if self draining, and you have use of that magic hose at the marina etc), which will be difficult to do when cruising full time - so its not something i would want inside the boat really.

although it looks like an easy fix to seal the locker up on the oyster, i think its the pirate look of it that puts me off, almost captain Ron's boat?

 

[ryanroberts]

Yeah it does have that wannabe Brig look

 

[Norman_E]

Whilst the photo appears to show a teak deck in good condition, my advice is to avoid teak decks like the plague. They are far too hot underfoot in the Med, and when they wear out the replacement cost is horrendous.

 

[TLouth7]

Many yachts in your size range will come in more than one configuration. It sounds like you would prefer a 2 cabin layout, this tends to give you decent forecabin and quarterberth, and also a proper sized heads. For example there are several examples of the Dufour 38 Classic for sail at the top of your price range:

https://sailboatdata.com/sailboat/dufour-classic-38

The 36 has similar layouts. Other marques will have boats of the same era and size.

 

[Airscrew]

Doing a similar search myself, so some suggestions.
Agree that you can look at prices around 50k and expect to offer much lower, esp on the more 'abundant' models

Assumptions:
1. youre happy with the Bav, and woudl consider similar brand/type
2. cruising, so no need for 'first' or 'fast' branding
3. newer is better
4. family friendly and relatively spacious

V. Large aft cabin (but therefore only 2 cabins)
1998 Beneteau Oceanis Clipper 36 CC Sail New and Used Boats for

3 cabins and TWO heads
2007 Beneteau Cyclades 39 Sail New and Used Boats for Sale -

Standard 3 cabin layout (so much choice here from Ben/Bav/Jen)
2002 Jeanneau Sun Odyssey 37 Sail New and Used Boats for Sale
2002 Bavaria 38 Sail New and Used Boats for Sale - www.yachtworld.co.uk

A little older, faster, quality, potentially better brand
1995 Dehler 37 CWS Sail New and Used Boats for Sale -
Some CWS have 2x electric primaries in place of the 'odd' central winch

Then you will need to choose/prioritise some major options like in-mast or slab reefing, keel depth, etcetc

Enjoy...

 

[Buck Turgidson]

Doing a similar search myself, so some suggestions.
Agree that you can look at prices around 50k and expect to offer much lower, esp on the more 'abundant' models

Assumptions:
1. youre happy with the Bav, and woudl consider similar brand/type
2. cruising, so no need for 'first' or 'fast' branding
3. newer is better
4. family friendly and relatively spacious

V. Large aft cabin (but therefore only 2 cabins)
1998 Beneteau Oceanis Clipper 36 CC Sail New and Used Boats for

3 cabins and TWO heads
2007 Beneteau Cyclades 39 Sail New and Used Boats for Sale -

Standard 3 cabin layout (so much choice here from Ben/Bav/Jen)
2002 Jeanneau Sun Odyssey 37 Sail New and Used Boats for Sale
2002 Bavaria 38 Sail New and Used Boats for Sale - www.yachtworld.co.uk

A little older, faster, quality, potentially better brand
1995 Dehler 37 CWS Sail New and Used Boats for Sale -
Some CWS have 2x electric primaries in place of the 'odd' central winch

Then you will need to choose/prioritise some major options like in-mast or slab reefing, keel depth, etcetc

Enjoy...

If I was buying for an eventual couple venturing far afield I would choose the benny OC36 out of that bunch because If you are living full time you want a decent cabin and a good sized heads.

 

[pvb]

If I was buying for an eventual couple venturing far afield I would choose the benny OC36 out of that bunch because If you are living full time you want a decent cabin and a good sized heads.

Hmmm... it's not the prettiest boat though.

 

[Buck Turgidson]

Hmmm... it's not the prettiest boat though.

No, but I've already got the prettiest boat

If I was planning to go adventuring as a couple my little Twister wouldn't really be practical but she suits me for single handing. Personally I would be looking at an oyster 45 at 3x the OP's budget if I was planing globe trotting as a couple.