Should I buy a Saga 26?

[Sagapippa]

A great ~65NM passage in the sunshine today delivering the boat from where I bought it at Essex Marina down to London. Also had a super peaceful first night onboard last night to allow me to catch the last of the morning ebb out the Crouch and then the flood up the Thames. Everything ran faultlessly for the duration, although I kept to to an average of ~9kn/2700RPM given the amount of growth on the hull from the Crouch and I didn't want to push the engine until I've hauled out and thoroughly cleaned/checked underneath. Some slightly lumpy conditions between the Crouch and Thames given the northerly winds which meant the windscreen wipers and washers got good action, but nothing particularly exciting and she handled beautifully. Lovely to open the front of the sunroof on the stretch up the Thames, and overall was just a very comfortable boat to be on! Now it's back home I can start picking off some minor improvement jobs particularly on the electrics, hopefully get a lift out asap to remove the garden from underneath, and start regularly using .

What a great update and fab pictures of your adventures. Glad all is well

 

[paulbrown22]

This hopefully explains why we were a bit slow on the maiden voyage delivering my new to me Saga 26 HT the ~65NM round to London a couple of weeks ago! A year on the River Crouch and she'd grown a 10cm beard the whole length of the hull and loads of barnacles... Lifted out this afternoon, took quite a long time with the pressure washer but all the beard has now been blasted off and barnacles removed, will touch up the antifoul first thing in the morning and we relaunch in the late afternoon at high tide. Will be interesting to see if it goes any faster now...

 

[paulbrown22]

And it works - almost like a new boat now! After a 24 hour pitstop, haul out and clean we were back in the water and effortlessly hitting a comfortable 12kn cruise at ~3100RPM and easily going beyond 14kn. Now very responsive to both throttle and rudder, and the engine is running 10+ degrees cooler too thanks to the now clear sea water intake. With a surprise school inset day last week, Maksim and I took the boat on an 18NM round trip to Erith Yacht Club at lunchtime, hung on a buoy there for the afternoon while I worked on the laptop and he played. We cooked our first meal on the Wallas stove which worked perfectly and then drove home after work in dreadful restricted visibility and fog with the wipers going constantly, thankfully just clearing up as we approached the Thames Barrier. Finished fitting the rest of the colour-matching pontoon fenders, and looking forward to further adventures.

 

[Sticky Fingers]

Did you not have an out of water survey and full sea trial, I’m surprised that you’ve bought a boat with such a lot of fouling? Would have made the sea trial pointless.

Nonetheless, great to hear she’s now performing well! And congratulations on actually buying the boat, plenty of people don’t take that step. Your little man looks happy too.

 

[paulbrown22]

Did you not have an out of water survey and full sea trial, I’m surprised that you’ve bought a boat with such a lot of fouling? Would have made the sea trial pointless.

Nonetheless, great to hear she’s now performing well! And congratulations on actually buying the boat, plenty of people don’t take that step. Your little man looks happy too.

No, having seen a load of photos and videos from 12 months ago when it was last out the water and knowing it was very fouled up, I sea trialled in it's fouled state and inspected everything mechanically as best as I could in the water. Given the price we agreed on I decided not to do a lift/clean, out of water survey and further sea trial on the Crouch as it costs me a fraction of the commercial price to do the lift/clean at Greenwich. So after a lot of discussion and reviewing the boat's history I took what I considered to be a very minor risk to buy "as is" and bring to Greenwich for cleaning and any remedial work. Thankfully as expected, other than the beard growth she's in amazing condition underneath and performing perfectly after a deep hull clean.

I was in two minds given I still have my Hardy Navigator (it's predecessor) and am about to start a house extension, but this boat came up fairly locally on the East Coast, seemed to be in amazing condition and open to offers, so given I use the boat every week I decided to jump for it - you only live once!

 

[Scubadoo]

I like the Series One Land Rover next to your boat, looks in good condition considering the age, interested to know a little more about it

Boat looks great too

 

[paulbrown22]

I like the Series One Land Rover next to your boat, looks in good condition considering the age, interested to know a little more about it

Boat looks great too

Thanks! That's my 1955 Series 1 107" - the perfect daily driver for London, ULEZ exempt, I throw all the clobber for the yacht club in the back and quite often use it to tow boats around. I've owned for 14 years now and slowly replacing anything non-standard, used to keep it in Dorset where I trundled round Poole and the Purbecks, but moved it up to London when our daughter arrived 2 years ago as I realised I wouldn't get to use it otherwise. Rebuilt all the braking system while on paternity leave, new interior last year and some chassis/spring bushes, and currently mainly just enjoying using it!

 

[Sticky Fingers]

No, having seen a load of photos and videos from 12 months ago when it was last out the water and knowing it was very fouled up, I sea trialled in it's fouled state and inspected everything mechanically as best as I could in the water. Given the price we agreed on I decided not to do a lift/clean, out of water survey and further sea trial on the Crouch as it costs me a fraction of the commercial price to do the lift/clean at Greenwich. So after a lot of discussion and reviewing the boat's history I took what I considered to be a very minor risk to buy "as is" and bring to Greenwich for cleaning and any remedial work. Thankfully as expected, other than the beard growth she's in amazing condition underneath and performing perfectly after a deep hull clean.

I was in two minds given I still have my Hardy Navigator (it's predecessor) and am about to start a house extension, but this boat came up fairly locally on the East Coast, seemed to be in amazing condition and open to offers, so given I use the boat every week I decided to jump for it - you only live once!

That’s good to hear; not unknown to use ‘as-is, where-is’ as the basis of a cheeky offer. Sounds like you got a deal you’re happy with!

Nice one.

Plus one for the Landy too!

 

[Scubadoo]

Thanks! That's my 1955 Series 1 107" - the perfect daily driver for London, ULEZ exempt, I throw all the clobber for the yacht club in the back and quite often use it to tow boats around. I've owned for 14 years now and slowly replacing anything non-standard, used to keep it in Dorset where I trundled round Poole and the Purbecks, but moved it up to London when our daughter arrived 2 years ago as I realised I wouldn't get to use it otherwise. Rebuilt all the braking system while on paternity leave, new interior last year and some chassis/spring bushes, and currently mainly just enjoying using it!

Interesting, thank you, must be a challenge sometimes driving around London.

 

[paulbrown22]

That’s good to hear; not unknown to use ‘as-is, where-is’ as the basis of a cheeky offer. Sounds like you got a deal you’re happy with!

Nice one.

Plus one for the Landy too!

Thanks, yes - so far exceedingly happy with the 26 HT and looking forward to lots of time afloat on it this summer! The same for the Landy too, my regular driver to the yacht club .

 

[paulbrown22]

Interesting, thank you, must be a challenge sometimes driving around London.

I always thought that which is why I kept it in Dorset for years. But having moved house and got a larger garage, I moved it up to London so I could much more easily and regularly use it and work on it, and discovered it's actually the perfect car for London. The whole place is basically one big 20mph zone (if you're lucky!) which is perfect speed for a Series 1, and no issue with all the speed bumps. With no ULEZ (or Blackwall/Silvertown Tunnel charges...), it is by far my most used car!

 

[paulbrown22]

Last weekend we had our first ever family overnight trip on our Saga 26 HT (and first time for the children overnight on any boat) with a visit up to Hurlingham Yacht Club at Fulham/Putney, going underneath 17 bridges each way through Central London. Thankfully all went really well - the boat performed exceptionally, all the equipment on board (including shore power/hot water/hob/fridge/battery charger which are normally never used) worked perfectly, the sleeping arrangements were great and most importantly there was the lovely Hurlingham Park right beside the pontoon with two sets of play toys! A great success for our first family stay onboard, hopefully we can repeat in the future and try out some other places along the river.

 

[paulbrown22]

We had an amazing weekend taking our Saga 26 HT to St Katherine Docks in Central London for the first time, with the whole family onboard too for an overnight adventure. A great location, loads to entertain two small children, shops and cafes a plenty, lovely modern and clean marina facilities. The staff were all super helpful and I was surprised that we were the only vessel movement through the lock all weekend. We were pretty much the smallest boat there too! Winter rates started in October as well so whilst still an expensive berth, can't really complain for the experience over the half term holiday and both the wife and children loved it. Will hopefully have another visit before the end of the year.

 

[Sagapippa]

We had an amazing weekend taking our Saga 26 HT to St Katherine Docks in Central London for the first time, with the whole family onboard too for an overnight adventure. A great location, loads to entertain two small children, shops and cafes a plenty, lovely modern and clean marina facilities. The staff were all super helpful and I was surprised that we were the only vessel movement through the lock all weekend. We were pretty much the smallest boat there too! Winter rates started in October as well so whilst still an expensive berth, can't really complain for the experience over the half term holiday and both the wife and children loved it. Will hopefully have another visit before the end of the year.

Great update on your continued adventures.

 

[paulbrown22]

Some early Christmas presents fitted to my Saga 26 HT today which made me very happy, along with a lovely ride in the sun along the Thames to the Old Royal Naval College at Greenwich and back this afternoon. Random old switch actuators some with graphics, some blank, some with 20 year old Dymo labels. Now all fitted with illuminated actuators with both graphics and labels so anyone can work out what they do and they are all the same style. A new matching Roca locking swivel for the port anchor locker, as previous owner had replaced with some dodgy thing from a DIY/shed shop I imagine combined with a bit of wire to keep it closed... And a shiny new engine hour meter!