Starter boat for those with limited finance's

Ubergeekian said:
Blinking expensive for a Corribee - particularly a Mk 1 GRP - though. I appreciate that she is loaded down with electrical gadgetry, but a nice Mk 2 GRP one sold at my club for £1,600 recently, and you can get a respectable amount of geegaws for £2k. Good luck to Nathan, but I think he might do better to transfer the whizzery to his new boat and sell Kudu for a lot less.
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A bit of "artistic licence" in the description?

"he has covered many thousands of miles on her in the past year" :D
 
There you see, a whole raft of ideas...blimey...build a RAFT. It was good enough for Thor Heyerdahl and its only fifty quid from B&Q for the wood and string and a few plastic drums nicked off a farm.

I'm only being flippant as I cannot better the many and excellent suggestions given to you already.

Good luck, and come back and tell us when you have bought your new boat..or time and money conversion unit..as SWMBO calls mine..which is unfar as I don't spend enough of either on my boat.

Tim
 
Starter boats........

My two pennyworth - The Seal 22, centreboarder ,quite quick and a good trailer sailer can take halftide moorings or the soft ground ;with a trailer ,around £2500-3000. Enough room below and race-able ,with a good Seal Association for fitting /sailing advice .

ianat182
 
it can be very cheap

My first boat was a wrecked hurley or talisman 20 (i never got to find out what it was) with a crack in the hull by the bilge keel, paid £50 for it. Got it home, removed the keel repaired the crack, painted it and sailed it (total cost of repairs and tidying up was £300. sold it a year later for £900. Next boat was a Caprice 19, a bit more of a 'proper' yacht in need of tidying and paid £950. Spent £200 tidying and making her look pretty and sold her for £1800.

Total cost to own 2 boats for 4 years sailing was £600, so pretty good going. Both boats were looking neglected in a river in North Devon, a bit of asking around found the owners and they were prepared to sell.

My next boat, and the one i have now is a Half tonner, Golden Shamrock, Same story really, i found her in a field with no interior and a complete mess. 4 years later and many thousands of pounds and she is almost perfect with all the toys.

Prior to owning my first boat i had no skills whatsover, However i have learnt a lot along the way and if you get it wrong on a cheap boat, so what!! take it apart and try again, it's the best way to learn
 
I think the best approach would be to look around and find a boat at the right size and price, then ask for opinions on here. If you settle on a couple of designs and go looking for just those it could be a very long process. Boats in the price range you want won't be listed in brokers' lists, you won't find them in Yachting Monthly either. You might be lucky in PBO but more likely Exchange & Mart, Boats & Planes for sale or most likely by hiking around boatyards (not marinas) looking for 'for sale' notices. Often asking at boatyards will produce answers like 'I think old Fred wants to sell his....'

I bought my first cruiser as a result of spotting a for sale sign when I sailed past its mooring in my dinghy.
 
There are plenty of small boats in the 20 foot range that will cost less that a half decent car, the more you are prepared to do the cheaper. Most are solidly built, some are faster than others some ar more comfortable than others. My favourite is the Seawych, mainly because I owned one. If it on a trailer and you are not an expert, try to get the seller to deliverit can save you a lot of bother.
 
Could do a lot worse than a Trident 24; solidly built, very seaworthy - Transat capable in the right hands - roomy below. Good ones go around £5-6k, but one needing TLC can be picked up for £1k or less, and a quite reasonable one for £2-3k:

Picture005.jpg


This one (mine!) sold for £1400, and about the same again to put her to rights. Spent more since, of course... :)
 
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oldharry said:
Could do a lot worse than a Trident 24; solidly built, very seaworthy - Transat capable in the right hands - roomy below. Good ones go around £5-6k, but one needing TLC can be picked up for £1k or less, and a quite reasonable one for £2-3k:

Picture005.jpg


This one (mine!) sold for £1400, and about the same again to put her to rights. Spent more since, of course... :)
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Nice looking yawl !!:D
 
Many thanks

to all who posted here.
I have purchased a small 15' bilge keeled boat to learn with, with a view to updating next season to something a little larger 20 - 25 ft ( subject to being competent enough !!! ) I am using some of the advice from this thread as a guide, so will come back for more of the wisdom you guys have shown.
Derrick
 
Lakesailor said:
Don't look at boats without trailers. It can cost more than the boat is worth to have it transported.
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I went the other way and consciously went for a boat without a trailer as a lot of trailers I saw were going to need as much spent on them as the boat plus I don't run a car anyway. I bought in Essex and sailed back to the North East. I spent over a month in Wells waiting for bits with the rig down though.
 
EdBeynon said:
I went the other way and consciously went for a boat without a trailer as a lot of trailers I saw were going to need as much spent on them as the boat plus I don't run a car anyway. I bought in Essex and sailed back to the North East. I spent over a month in Wells waiting for bits with the rig down though.
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I have designed and built (nearly) a multi boat trailer so that with minor alteration will take any boat up to 25 ish ft what ever keel set up, so that whatever boat I get next will fit.
 
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