Small yachts (under 30') for charter around the Solent?

[semisimple]

Wow, some great suggestions - and I thought I'd done a pretty thorough trawl of the charter companies.

While you ponder these, I'll still be out sailing on the boat I settled on while dreaming of the boat I'd still like to own.

Thanks lustyd, I am very jealous that you've done all that on a boat that (and I checked the price ) is about a weekends charter. I think I'm slowly coming around to your way of thinking.

We looked around for smaller boats to charter for a while to no avail. We eventually bought a 22' Newbridge Venturer, & although she won't win the RTI this year, she is a great fun boat for familly sailing & weekending.

A good budget option we looked seriously at was Yacht Fractions. You'd be amazed just how affordable some of the older boat syndicates are. Some just want someone to share the running costs.

Hmm, suppose yacht fractions aren't too good if you want to move the boat around. But I will have a look at the Newbridge Venturer now that you mention it. As I said earlier, torn between a boat that I can afford (but will leave me with almost no money to spare) - Centaur/Sabre 27 and one I can afford very comfortably like a small 20'.

You could look at these. Might be the cheapest you'll find in the Solent.

http://www.sigma33yachtcharters.co.uk/

Chartered from them once quite a while back. Boats OK. Not luxury, but solid enough boats. I remember the mooring warps were old sheets but I've seen much more expensive private boats tied up like that.

dt4134! That's a brilliant find - a few hundred quid for a weekend in the winter. Thank you so much.

How about this?

http://www.wb-yachtcharter.com/index.html

That looks nice, and Hamble based.

Pembrokeshire Cruising hav a Hunter Horizon 273 for charter?

The Hunter Horizon looks like a good deal but restricted to 20 miles which is a bit of a shame.

But thanks very much to the panel. Didn't expect so many options. The crabbers and the sigma33 look like particularly good deals for students, crabber for the beauty of it and sigma33 for the price.

 

[semisimple]

I've been on Supertacks for a weekend, and wouldn't call her any of those things. Certainly not in comparison to some of the heaps we chartered

Pete

It's nice to see that there are still heaps to be chartered - I was worried that all these mca requirements meant that everything was all suitably large and fancy (code for expensive).

 

[cgull]

Hamble Point Yacht Charter www.yacht-charter.co.uk have a small Oceanis (Bugsy2) for charter, I have sailed the boat often, its quite a new boat, worth looking at.

 

[Little Rascal]

...As I said earlier, torn between a boat that I can afford (but will leave me with almost no money to spare) - Centaur/Sabre 27 and one I can afford very comfortably like a small 20'....

There's plenty to go at in between! There are quite a few capable 22-24 footers that might suit you? Halcyon 23 has a good reputation as a sea boat, as does the Achilles 24. Both come in around £3-5k.

It all depends on what you want to do with it!

 

[prv]

It's nice to see that there are still heaps to be chartered - I was worried that all these mca requirements meant that everything was all suitably large and fancy (code for expensive).

I'm not sure there still are. I'm talking of 2002 - 2004 or so, which is a surprisingly long time ago now. Certainly our main purveyor of tatty student boats in the Solent has been swallowed up by a big shiny company and I very much doubt they still run his old yachts. The Falmouth outfit is still going, but even their old Sadler was our "going a bit upmarket" for the last trip, once some of us were in employment and had a little more cash.

Pete

 

[Scotty_Tradewind]

I used this guy a few years ago. 32' One of the smallest boats I know of that's up for charter and is out of Brighton.
www.lovesailing.co.uk
No association. Just a happy customer.