Sadler 25 advice!

[Zagato]

Hi I am new to the forum and sailing really, even though I have sailed sporadically over the last 30 years with my father - you know simple day sailing, always keeping land in sight - he can't swim!

I currently have a Drascombe Longboat and currently sail form Chichester Harbour. The Solent has been a BIG shock to me having sailed mostly from Falmouth all these years. The tides/swells/choppy sea and the traffic, going out from The Hamble one day was like being on the M25

Anyway I would feel a lot safer in a bigger boat especially with the kids. My budget is 10K and would love an old Folk Boat or Elizabethan29 but a fin/long keel would scare me silly so I am thinking about a Sadler 25 bilge keel.

What should I look out for and are there any alternatives. By the way my Father has a Mooring in Mylor so to avoid high storage and mooring fees at Chichester I might keep it in Cornwall and travel down 4-5 times a year. (Drying out mooring so has to be bilge keel, and cannot justify 2.5K on Solent fees each year!) Sounds crazy but it is only 4.5 hours from Reigate if you travel late in the evening! I don't sail more times than that at the moment due to other interests classic cars, stationary engines, rebuilding a Land Rover etc...

Thanks for the advice in advance.

 

[Little Five]

Sadler 25 a great boat and will look after you just fine.
there are loads of bilge keel alternatives Sabre 27, snapdragon, hurley 24,
trident 24, achilles 24, cobra 750- google Yachtsnet and go to archive-you will find a long list of boats with photos and guide prices. Good luck

 

[aquaplane]

Sexy boat the Sadler 25, I love the curves.

Obvious bilge keel alternative is the Centaur, it depends on your comfort/performance compromise. Same sort of era though, loads of others too but I like to speak about what I know.

 

[Tranona]

Sadler 25 is a very nice little boat, but is very short of room for a family.

At the £10k price point there is a vast choice of 23-27ft bilge keel cruisers from the 60's to 80's most of which make successful boats for your purpose, but perhaps with differeing blends of accommodation and performance.

However, for the type of usage you are considering, the key criterion is condition. Buy the very best ready to go boat that you can so that you spend your limited time sailing and not fixing.

 

[robertj]

Had a sadler for 12 years fantastic boat. Sails beautifully, fast, and nice looking little yacht that will look after you even in a blow.
One big draw back is internal space, it's very cramped and headroom quite low.
Good luck.

 

[Zagato]

Thanks for the replies and suggestions folks. I spent quite a bit if time Googling last night and seem to fall in love with fin keel boats each time I also received a suggestion about a Nichloson30 which does look gorgeous and a lot of boat for the money so back to Googling

 

[Slow_boat]

Why not keep it on the east coast, Essex or Kent. Much cheaper than the south and near enough for weekends.

 

[Zagato]

Yes I am open to suggestions. Do you know any area in particular?

Oh by the way have fallen in Love with a Nicholson 32 for sale in Cornwall twice my budget but sheer quality and I would never need to buy another yacht. I cannot afford it this year but might be worth waiting a year until next winter to hopefully pick one up - yes I know I am all over the place. I should really get somthing like a Jaguar 27 but it just doesn't float my boat! Hmm Elizabethan 29 for 10K seem to be going full circle zzzzzzzzzzzzz I need to get out and look at some.

 

[Tranona]

You also have to decide what you want the boat to do. All very well imagining yourself in a boaty looking old style long keeler - but they arent made anymore because in reality they are not the most practical thing for family sailing such as you describe. That is why boats like the Centaur, Sabre, Snapdragon, Sadler and so on sold in the hundreds rather than in the tens!

A Nic 32 is ideal for a serious long distance cruising single or couple who would love a new Vancouver 34 or a Rustler 36 but only have 10% of the money available to buy such a boat - and lots of time to keep it going. But half that money spent on one of the old favourites will give far more pleasure to a family - and easy to move on when you want to move up.

 

[Zagato]

Thanks for the guidance Tranona, it is all very helpful and sensible.

The Nicholson 32 or Elizabethan 29 is my style of dream boat. If I had one of these I would not want to move up to anything else. They are just so beautiful and this is part of the problem, I love anything of quality with classic lines to the detriment of practicality. I chose a Jaguar XK120 because it is simply breathtaking, however my wife has to follow on behind me with one of the kids half the time as it is only a two seater

The interior alone as you can see from this link is superb, http://www.yachtsnet.co.uk/boats/d23710/d23710.htm

I could spend a LONG time in there in the Fal Estuary where the pics were taken very comfortable by myself or with the family. My sister has a Kat, speed boat , dinghy, canoes etc for her children in the same estuary so I can always go out for a blast on something quick if needed but I don't mind older stuff - my daily drive is a 1962 Series 2A Land Rover It is a tractor but I just LOVE it, and enjoy working on it - sometimes

 

[Tranona]

Love the XK - never understand what people see in Land Rovers as everyday transport though!

Anyway I have a Morgan and a Focus C Max and a Bavaria and a 50 year old wooden "classic" boat. Why? because I use them for different things. If I were looking for a sailing boat for a family to use 4 or 5 times a year several hours drive from home I would not look at something like a Nic 32.

My Bavaria spent most of its life in the Med as a holiday base. The wooden boat is 10 minutes drive from home and a constant source of opportunities for a bit of sailing a bit of fiddling around and from time to time (as now) a big refit project.

Likewise the Morgan is for pootling round the Dorset lanes and the odd longer trip when you can forecast more than 2 days without rain. Focus is transport.

Unless a boat is the centre of your universe buy something practical in good condition. Leave the other sort for your dreams.

 

[SailBobSquarePants]

A Nic 32 is ideal for a serious long distance cruising single or couple who would love a new Vancouver 34 or a Rustler 36 but only have 10% of the money available to buy such a boat - and lots of time to keep it going. But half that money spent on one of the old favourites will give far more pleasure to a family - and easy to move on when you want to move up.

I don't know whether we Nic owners should take that as a compliment or an insult...or both! Certainly, the Rustler 36 is one of the boats that I would want to trade up for, and the Vancouvers are lovely boats (but not substantially larger than my Nic 32, so not worth moving up to). And many of us own one with no intention of single-handing it down to the Azores or across the Atlantic. But it certainly COULD...and I know people who have in one.

I sent the OP a PM with a list of all of the things that I thought are deficiencies of the Nic 32 as an owner - low freeboard, less than stellar upwind performance, poor manueverability, etc. I did not include limited interior space, because frankly compared to the proposed 25 foot boat it has it in spades. Compared to a modern 32 footer, it is smaller by a noticeable margin. But I do know families that sail them as weekend boats, even the early marks with smaller cabins. The later marks have slightly larger cabins and a double berth at the settees, rather than a two singles and a pilot berth. For my gf and I, as a couple that like to sail with toys (TV, DVDs, lots of books, wetsuits, etc.) it is just the right size as a couples boat...

 

[Tranona]

Realised as I was writing I was in danger of stereotyping, but was really trying to point out that your boat would probably not be first choice for the kind of use he was proposing. Of course people buy boats for all sorts of reasons, not just practicalities and tolerate the shortcomings because they like the looks or image or whatever - I should know having owned what many would regard as a totally impractical wooden boat for over 30 years.

Affordable practical family sailing with reasonable sized boats really took off in the late 60's when boats like the Snapdragons, Kingfishers, Westerlys, Sabres etc came on the market. They still perform that role as an economical means of getting sailing, although as with any 30+year old boat you have to be careful to buy one in good condition.