Sailboat Market under £20k

dgadee said:
My complainant was whingeing that the harbour would not renew annual moorings if the boat didn't leave the harbour. Sensible approach to have that as a requirement.
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obmij said:
I'm guessing the same people are the ones who would be on a committee tasked with considering such a rule, and turkeys generally do not vote for Christmas.
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It seems like a logical rule at first glance, but the thing about logical rules is they can have unintended consequences:
- someone launches in April, but gets sick and doesn’t sail all season, are the banned from the mooring the following season even if healed?
- what if they have an engine problem that prevents them going anywhere but they replace the engine over winter?
- or having not been used for the season the owner dies but his wife/child wants to use it the following season?
- or does it mean that people do one trip a year just to qualify - regardless of capability, fitness, seaworthiness etc. with consequent increased risks.
- or evicted from his mooring is he likely to clutter the yard ashore preventing his new replacement on the mooring from finding winter storage?

It might actually be better to put prices up so that people need to think about whether they are wasting money and reinvest the surplus in better facilities / programmes that get a wider audience into boats!
 
ylop said:
It seems like a logical rule at first glance, but the thing about logical rules is they can have unintended consequences:
- someone launches in April, but gets sick and doesn’t sail all season, are the banned from the mooring the following season even if healed?
- what if they have an engine problem that prevents them going anywhere but they replace the engine over winter?
- or having not been used for the season the owner dies but his wife/child wants to use it the following season?
- or does it mean that people do one trip a year just to qualify - regardless of capability, fitness, seaworthiness etc. with consequent increased risks.
- or evicted from his mooring is he likely to clutter the yard ashore preventing his new replacement on the mooring from finding winter storage?

It might actually be better to put prices up so that people need to think about whether they are wasting money and reinvest the surplus in better facilities / programmes that get a wider audience into boats!
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Well, I think there is always a need for come and go. But don't be putting up prices ...

I can add another problem. No one wants to buy their old boat.
 
Maybe 10-20K is too much to be considering. Maybe realistically the market for new people is for the ones moving up from paddleboards (with dogs and children) to quite useable little boats they can sleep over on half tide mooring in the price range £0-5,000, so similar cost to a holiday and much cheaper than a beach hut. If they want to splash out, £8-10,000 will give them a quite useable 26 footer. The little boats are the ones that seem to be most in use by new people.
 
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Egret said:
Maybe 10-20K is too much to be considering. Maybe realistically the market for new people is for the ones moving up from paddleboards (with dogs and children) to quite useable little boats they can sleep over on half tide mooring in the price range £0-5,000, so similar cost to a holiday and much cheaper than a beach hut. If they want to splash out, £8-10,000 will give them a quite useable 26 footer. The little boats are the ones that seem to be most in use by new people.
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Yep. That's my point about two keels being potentially more valuable than one.
 
Egret said:
Maybe 10-20K is too much to be considering. Maybe realistically the market for new people is for the ones moving up from paddleboards (with dogs and children) to quite useable little boats they can sleep over on half tide mooring in the price range £0-5,000, so similar cost to a holiday and much cheaper than a beach hut. If they want to splash out, £8-10,000 will give them a quite useable 26 footer. The little boats are the ones that seem to be most in use by new people.
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That's exactly me as it happens - looking at something like a Westerley GK24 for around the £5k mark as our first family boat, and in my most ambitious moments wondering about stretching the budget closer to 10.

Never realistically going to get above 10 without a lottery win or unexpected inheritance.
 
finestgreen said:
That's exactly me as it happens - looking at something like a Westerley GK24 for around the £5k mark as our first family boat, and in my most ambitious moments wondering about stretching the budget closer to 10.

Never realistically going to get above 10 without a lottery win or unexpected inheritance.
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My first boat (1982) was a GK24 and I had lots of fun in it (as well as terrifying myself). It was £5,000 then and I think most are less now. I don't see it as a family boat. No headroom. Quite tender.
 
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