Retired and fit - looking for a boat. Advice?

I do no deny defending Westerly boats, for in their time they were considered to be better constructed than most of the other boats on the market. They generally still command a premium over similar age boats, because of it.

However if you read all of my posts you will also find I have not made any comment neptis should buy a Fulmar or a Westerly. I even commented that many of the more modern boats offer good value for money. Just because I do not have an opinion that "modern boats are far better than old boats", it is wise to educate those new to the sport from those who always spout "buy a new boat like me" (not my words but doug748). With yachts on the secondhand market stretching back over 50 years, it seems that to restrict a newcomer's choice to only boats made in the last decade or so, seems rather restrictive.

I feel sure that neptis never thought his question would result in such a wide ranging discusion and hopefully has learnt a lot about potential answers to the many questions he has not asked but has received answers to increase his confidence in making the important decision of what yacht to buy. He needs to decide the approximate length of boat, the general type of boat e.g. fast cruiser, traditional cruiser, wheelhouse, etc., the general age range and finally exactly how much he wants to spend on buying and how much for post purchase work. Another big decision he has not mentioned is where he plans to keep his boat. The South Coast has plenty of expensive places to berth. As he is based in N London, he should consider the East Coast. Generally marina berths are half the cost of the South Coast. The Orwell has plenty of choice and I love the Medway. The only sound advice that everyone has given is to avoid a fixer upper and to buy a boat that is in top condition as it will save money in the long term
Brilliant, that's all good stuff and to be honest I quite like fairly wide ranging opinions to be expressed - I'm learning and will make up my own mind. No idea where I will be based in the longer term, part of my funding is from selling up in London but the East Coast is quite appealing.
 
I suspect that many of us posters would be more than happy to have you onboard for a day sail, this season as our destinations are likely to be restricted. Take your partner and have some fun, in a variety of UK destinations. If you are swayed by the glowing recommendations posted, try sending a PM to them asking for daysail. I am sure that you will be rewarded. You have the time now and also incentive to view/compare the market.com. You may also make some new friends.
You are an outstanding bunch. As soon as we're liberated from lockdown I will take some of you up on the kind offers.
 
I went to my boat & was pleased to find the interior dry clean & everything fine. It is 17 years old. One thing about my AWB is the interior laquer finish.
it is perfect ; apart from a scratch on the door, which I have covered with an adhesive label, reminding me to turn the gas off before retiring.

Westerly were lacquering boats over 40 years ago.

My first boat which I had from new in 1968, I sold in 1978, had a varnished interior with some painted panels on the cabin ceiling. It certainly needed re varnishing & the white panels had been touched up a couple of times.
Looking at pictures of second hand pre 2000 boats a lot show very tired surface finishes. If one is happy with that, then fair enough. I know that i would not be. That in itself would involve hours of awkward muscle straining work.. When looking at pictures of second hand boats, one should really study the woodwork. Some show some really bad staining beneath the finish coats.

Good advice, I always look for something that hasn't had a million updates, different pictures, antique looking oil lamps etc and the woodwork doesn't look like a sieve.

Concerto has refinished his Fulmar, using the original laquer that Westerly used. How feasible will it be to refresh a tired looking interior in one of todays new boats, when it's 30 years old ?

Perhaps in a few years we'll see racks of Fablon in the chandlers, labelled "2018 Bavaria", "2019 Bavaria", 2018 Jeanneau", "2019 Benneteau" etc :):)

Maybe Ikea will introduce some replacement panels too :)
 
Concerto has refinished his Fulmar, using the original laquer that Westerly used. How feasible will it be to refresh a tired looking interior in one of todays new boats, when it's 30 years old ?
Dunno about 30 years but my second boat, a Tucker brown built 35 year old boat had to have the decks & entire interior stripped out. So the re varnishing to the new timber was actually small beer in the end.. I cannot imagine that I would have to do the same to my current boat at 35 years.
As for westerly's lacquer-- I doubt that it was a decent sprayed & de nibbed one to any specific level of quality control. Possibly a geezer with tin & a 2 inch brush. Items that are pre fabricated prior to installation allow the manufacturer to apply finishes mechanically & control the standard of application. Materials have improved over the years I am sure.
 
Oh, you mean like this :)

(To be fair, I was only moving the boat in the river but it was blowing old boots so I decided to go for a sail :) Shame on me that I got carried away and forgot to stowe stuff before I left the river!!)

View attachment 110979
The answer is of course that when your Hanse was borne someone had worked out that sailing fairly flat was far more comfortable whereas in the days of yore when say a Centaur took form the greater angle that it healed at the more the bilge keel dug in. I well recall our test sail out of Portsmouth with full sail up and bouncing around outside the harbour at an alarming angle but all part of the sales pitch then I suspect. We have the same problem with our cushions but the tip is to have larger ones which cannot escape so easily when the table leaf is raised .
 
.
Brilliant, that's all good stuff and to be honest I quite like fairly wide ranging opinions to be expressed - I'm learning and will make up my own mind. No idea where I will be based in the longer term, part of my funding is from selling up in London but the East Coast is quite appealing.


Did you bin the idea of a cheap boat and working on it? I think I would; if you took on a big house move, lifestyle change and a needy boat all in one swoop, you might feel happier to be back at work.

With your stated budget there are a huge range of possibilities, even if you keep back 25% for contingencies, 35k will give you an embarrassment of choice. Maybe broad requirements are the first things to sort out: Max length, headroom, keels, berths - whatever. And take it from there.
One thing to watch is mission creep..............you start off thinking about a nice 26ft plastic boat and end up with a bargain 45ft steel trawler conversion....silly but you get the idea.

.
 
.



Did you bin the idea of a cheap boat and working on it? I think I would; if you took on a big house move, lifestyle change and a needy boat all in one swoop, you might feel happier to be back at work.

With your stated budget there are a huge range of possibilities, even if you keep back 25% for contingencies, 35k will give you an embarrassment of choice. Maybe broad requirements are the first things to sort out: Max length, headroom, keels, berths - whatever. And take it from there.
One thing to watch is mission creep..............you start off thinking about a nice 26ft plastic boat and end up with a bargain 45ft steel trawler conversion....silly but you get the idea.

.
Get that entirely. Skill set sailing is limited by experience. My skill set working on boats extends to maintaining a mirror dinghy.
 
My last boat I bought from a man that had bought her new and sailed her extensively including an Atlantic circuit. In the 8 years he owned her he never added a thing nor did he do any maintenance which seemed to have been limited to the yard antifouling her every year. So when I bought her she had sat on the hard for 2 years unloved and uncared for sails and canvas still on the furler and boom. and in a generally dirty and tired state. As an indication what passed as an anchor chain was a solid rusty heap that needed a lump hammer to break it out of the anchor locker.
I won't say that I had more pleasure or even near more pleasure in the continuous refit than I did sailing her the thousands of miles whilst I owned her but I did get an enormous amount of satisfaction gradually seeing her become a "new" boat again in fact better than new. I also knew the boat from stem to stern there was nothing that I couldn't repair or fix since I had done it all myself.
 
Dunno about 30 years but my second boat, a Tucker brown built 35 year old boat had to have the decks & entire interior stripped out. So the re varnishing to the new timber was actually small beer in the end.. I cannot imagine that I would have to do the same to my current boat at 35 years.
As for westerly's lacquer-- I doubt that it was a decent sprayed & de nibbed one to any specific level of quality control. Possibly a geezer with tin & a 2 inch brush. Items that are pre fabricated prior to installation allow the manufacturer to apply finishes mechanically & control the standard of application. Materials have improved over the years I am sure.
Looking at the original lacquer finish on many Westerlys, I suspect it was sprayed as the finish is so perfect. The lacquer maker Morrells say it is best sprayed and that is how it is used in the furniture manufacturers, but it can be brushed for an acceptable finish. I am taking all the interior wood back to bare woodand brushing the lacquer. Three coats are being applied and after the first and second coats it is being lightly sanded to remove any nibs. The lacquer is exactly the same as Westerly used over 40 years ago, so this material has not beenn improved over this time.
 
Looking at the original lacquer finish on many Westerlys, I suspect it was sprayed as the finish is so perfect. The lacquer maker Morrells say it is best sprayed and that is how it is used in the furniture manufacturers, but it can be brushed for an acceptable finish. I am taking all the interior wood back to bare woodand brushing the lacquer. Three coats are being applied and after the first and second coats it is being lightly sanded to remove any nibs. The lacquer is exactly the same as Westerly used over 40 years ago, so this material has not beenn improved over this time.
Presumably to do that ( spraying) the joinery must have been made out of the boat & fitted as separate manufactured structures. Like modern AWBs . Not built in situ
 
My last boat I bought from a man that had bought her new and sailed her extensively including an Atlantic circuit. In the 8 years he owned her he never added a thing nor did he do any maintenance which seemed to have been limited to the yard antifouling her every year. So when I bought her she had sat on the hard for 2 years unloved and uncared for sails and canvas still on the furler and boom. and in a generally dirty and tired state. As an indication what passed as an anchor chain was a solid rusty heap that needed a lump hammer to break it out of the anchor locker.
I won't say that I had more pleasure or even near more pleasure in the continuous refit than I did sailing her the thousands of miles whilst I owned her but I did get an enormous amount of satisfaction gradually seeing her become a "new" boat again in fact better than new. I also knew the boat from stem to stern there was nothing that I couldn't repair or fix since I had done it all myself.
I can understand that. it took me 3.5 years working every weekend to rebuild my second boat, But I did that, not because I wanted to sail her. I wanted to have a go at building a boat. I suspect that at his time of life, the Op wants to go sailing. I certainly would not want to do it again.; mainly because I have sold my joinery business so no longer have the facility. principally, because I do not have many years of sailing left. It all seems great at 55, but suddenly 75 creeps up & fettling boats becomes far less important.
 
Presumably to do that ( spraying) the joinery must have been made out of the boat & fitted as separate manufactured structures. Like modern AWBs . Not built in situ
The woodwork was made in their own workshop to a very high standard and the fit is better than I normally get and I work to 1mm tolerance. All the plywood panels were fitted after the deck was fitted with everything fitting through the main hatch. The full and half bulkheads are the support for fixing the the plywood panels. Modern boats have preassembled box units, a bit like kitchen units, dropped into slots in the hull stiffening matrix and glued in place. This is so much faster to do than building in place, not to mention the use of computer design and CNC machinery which was never available 40 years ago.
 
Surely there must have been advances in lacquer technology in 40 years?
Take your pick with these lacquers. Morrells | Interior Wood Finishes Then check out the other products they sell. They are a massive supplier of wood finishes and are supposed to be trade only, but I find their local trade counter have no qualms in supplying in trade quantities.

However the lacquer I am using is this one with 30% sheen. Morrells | /450 Low Odour High Build Acid-Catalyst Lacquer It has the advantage I can apply 3 coats in a day, so far faster drying than any varnish. 5 litres with catalyst and 5 litres of thinners was about £60.
 
I'd buy that... primarily because its bloody different to all the usual suspects! ?
.



Did you bin the idea of a cheap boat and working on it? I think I would; if you took on a big house move, lifestyle change and a needy boat all in one swoop, you might feel happier to be back at work.

With your stated budget there are a huge range of possibilities, even if you keep back 25% for contingencies, 35k will give you an embarrassment of choice. Maybe broad requirements are the first things to sort out: Max length, headroom, keels, berths - whatever. And take it from there.
One thing to watch is mission creep..............you start off thinking about a nice 26ft plastic boat and end up with a bargain 45ft steel trawler conversion....silly but you get the idea.

.
Yes, I have binned the project boat idea - it was never a runner. There are some interesting older boats which would need a bit of work in the frame. Scope creep is an issue, the reason for the initial question was to gather ideas, not only boats but criteria.
 
(y)

On thing I forgot in the last post.

If you decide to look at newer boats it's probably wise to keep to the smaller sizes. An immaculate Dehler 29 was sold on the same pontoon as me last Autumn, asking 25k. It was a fairly late build and I think the owner just wanted rid of a boat he could not sail; a great bargain in an unfashionable size range,
As you look at larger boats, for the money, they tend to be older and more used. You can end up with an item that is neither one thing or the other, under 20 years old yet needing first attention to big ticket items like rigging , propulsion, electronics and maybe sails.

Has anyone mentioned the Sadler 29, it would be worth looking at one.

.
 
(y)

On thing I forgot in the last post.

If you decide to look at newer boats it's probably wise to keep to the smaller sizes. An immaculate Dehler 29 was sold on the same pontoon as me last Autumn, asking 25k. It was a fairly late build and I think the owner just wanted rid of a boat he could not sail; a great bargain in an unfashionable size range,
As you look at larger boats, for the money, they tend to be older and more used. You can end up with an item that is neither one thing or the other, under 20 years old yet needing first attention to big ticket items like rigging , propulsion, electronics and maybe sails.

Has anyone mentioned the Sadler 29, it would be worth looking at one.

.
Thanks, that’s useful.
 
I went through and penned the 'list' of boats which suited myself, my type of sailing, and swimbo.
Honed it down to a list of 2 brands/model.
viewed as many of the 2 types I fancied in the flesh (pre lockdown) or online
SO I knew exactly what I wanted when one popped up for sale. I was there within 24 hours to view, and offered on it after stepping off her.
Brokers have it easy! Good luck.
 
Top