taking the plunge, advise in buying my first boat.

[Siena84]

Hi!
I have recently decided to take the plunge and buy my first yacht but since I'm new-ish to boating some advice would be great!

My yachting experience is limited to chartering a megayacht once in the French Riviera for a week and then 3 more weeks in motor yachts around 50ft in Greece, Croatia and the Caribbean. All from the Every Yacht Charter guys. (Big thank you for everything) http://www.everyyachtcharter.com/

During my last week of charter I got the ICC for motoryachts up to 24m.

I have been looking at yachts for a little while and I think the Ferretti 510 is the no1 in my list at the moment. I think the stabilizers, the RCD Cat A, 28 knots cruising speed, good range and helm visivility are all above it's competitors.


I will be using the boat for long periods at the time, Wummer in the Med and then shipping the boat to the Caribbean for the first Winter, after that we will see...

I like the huge windows in the owner's cabin and the rest of the cabins are good sized too. I like the position of the galley that can serve Martinis and cocktails when in a fancy port or be used for serious cooking when cruising.

I will take a skipper as crew for the first season until I gain some confidence, so I think I'll get the crew cabin and the controls in the cockpit for easy berthing.

If anybody has got any suggestions I am open to listen what the most experienced sailors have to say, so any feedback is welcome!

Kss.
Siena

 

[maybh1]

Is this what they call a troll or just a trollop?

May
xx

 

[Chris_d]

Sounds legit, you've got to spend that bonus somehow you know /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[Nick_H]

Well you did some charters to make sure you liked boating, you did some training to make sure you could drive the boat, and you're going to hire a skipper until you gain confidence, so you're doing everything right so far.

Choice of boat is quite a personal thing, but Ferretti are one of the leading brands, and the boats are amongst the best built planing boats in the world, so if you're happy to pay the price premium and you like the styling, you should be very happy with it.

If you want to look at other similar boats to compare, then from the UK builders there is the Princess 50 or 54, and the new Fairline Squadron 55, all of which will be cheaper than the Ferretti I expect.

I don't know why someone thinks you're a troll, your post seemed perfectly sensible to me /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif

edit: As far as I know you can have a gyro stabiliser on a Princess or Fairline, they also have full beam cabins with big windows, and they will be a bit faster, in excess of 30 knots. There is some difference of opinion about how important the Cat A rating is, as it doesn't necessarily mean that a boat has better seakeeping, sometimes it's more about the cost of gaining the classification if it's not important to the customers. Most gin palaces don't go out above a force 4, especially in the med.

 

[poltergeist]

[ QUOTE ]
Is this what they call a troll or just a trollop?

May
xx

[/ QUOTE ]

If anyone comes across as trolling, it's you!

How about giving people the benefit of the doubt before posting- eh!

 

[ValleyForge]

[ QUOTE ]
Hi!
I like the huge windows in the owner's cabin and the rest of the cabins are good sized too. I like the position of the galley that can serve Martinis and cocktails when in a fancy port or be used for serious cooking when cruising.

Siena

[/ QUOTE ]


Have no idea about such things I'm afraid but I think any pictures of the dolly birds behind the bar / in the swim would be most appreciated this Friday 13th /forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif

 

[stefan_r]

suggest a look at magazine reviews, Motor Boat & Yachting
Apr 2008 p88-95 appears to have a 510 review (you can download them from the Boat Reports section of this site (see abover or here http://marinedirectory.ybw.com/reprints/results1.jsp?tem= ).

Are you cruising with family, if so how many/how old? That may determine stuff like cabins and layout...

Do you want to work on board? If so that might also lead you to think about cabin configurations...and other (expensive) stuff like satellite comms.

Shipping to the Caribbean sounds like a great plan...I have no idea of costs but it could easily be £10-£20,000 one way...though money well spent if you're going to get real year-round use. I am based partly in Greece (Adriatic) and had a woeful year last year).

RCD Cat A...unlikely you will ever need the "assurance" that gives you. It's not so much like an NCAP rating for the ability for cars to withstand accidents...with proper planning you shouldn't find yourself in an A rated situation; the Ferretti and its ilk don't have the range to be real "ocean" passage makers (like a Nordhaven)...you will always only ever be 100 miles offshore or so (assuming a 200-odd mile range??) which is very different to being mid-Atlantic for a week!!

Do get the crew cabin, always useful.

Do get a skipper for experience. You will be surprised where you can go and in what weather if you have someone experienced on board.

Buying new or secondhand?

Good luck, and welcome, and ignore the sometimes "odd" posts you may see from some. There is a wealth of information on this forum from a wide cross section of the water-based community - sail and power.

 

[jadeflyer]

Ferrettis are fab. boats, but they do have drawbacks. I may not be up to date but there were (5 years ago at least) the following points. They are (or were) far more beamier that equivalent british boats such as Princess or Fairline. Sounds great until you want a mooring in the Med which is beam limited. You may need a larger mooring, I remember a 60ft princess could use a 18 mtr berth but the Ferr.60 needed a larger mooring which is usually 23mtr. This is massively more expensive. Also I found Ferrettis had a flatter hull so in a head sea they don't handle anything like as well as their british counterparts, lots of slamming. As I say I may be out of date on present models but worth a look.

BUT, they do look fantastic.

Regards

 

[henryf]

As a company my experience of Ferretti has not been superb, so much so that despite 2 attempts I have yet to see the inside of a 510 ! Usually the marketing dept is a company`s finest hour and it goes downhill from there so if my experiences are anything to go by I`m not sure I`d be investing my hard earned pennies in Ferretti`s direction. Having been delighted with Princess as a company I`d be going down the route of a 50, 54 or 58 flybridge. Delightful interior spaces both for living and entertaining, well planned plant installation and a dealer back up to die for. I would imagine re-sale would be to a wider audience at that size as well.

I`m sure different people will have different views but certainly for me it would be one of the above 3 choices.

Good luck on your hunt.


Henry /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif