The Perfect Bristol Channel Boat

steveej

steveej

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Is it a 30 year old MAB bilge keeler?

Is it a 15 yr old shallow draft AWB fin keeler?

These seem to be the possible choices available, one has half the entry cost of the other but probably twice the maintenance costs.

I'm talking everywhere east of a line between Tenby - Lundy - Ilfracombe.

Discuss.........
 
It's possibly not a 35 yr old 6.5m mobo, i can tell you that ;).

Choppy water on Sunday with 16kts nortwesterlies, waves reportedly only 0.4m, but still somehow managed to drench everybody onboard.

That said, it was an experience everybody will remember!

Actually, aside from this one bad instance, even something so small is still a lot of fun (check out the vids in my signature for proof!), just gotta pick the days carefully.

I reckon to get the boat which you like best. Anything goes :).
 
Go on then, it's quiet at work... and in the interest of keeping the forum alive and discussion flowing....

Personally I can see why a 30 year old bilge MAB is the perfect Bristol Channel boat, however it may not be the perfect boat for a persons long term sailing ambitions, if you want to venture further afield (athough many bilge boats would get you across the Atlantic) or if you wanted a newer spacious AWB. I have a 45 year old fin and I do sometimes think a bilge would be good to be able to dry out in little harbours for the weekend but I don't think I would put drying out above a strong and safe boat on the list. For me I wanted something with an encapuslated keel (no keel boats to worry about) and a full skeg to protect the rudder (yes I know spade rudders and keel bolts are fine). I couldn't afford anything newer than what I have, and I didn't want something smaller with the family/friends plus there's not a huge amount of bilge boats 30ft ish for the money I had with encapsulated keels and a skeg that I actually liked.

I would rather spend my time sailing, or have the ability of sailing by staying in deeper water. I don't see myself drying out for days at a time, and who wants to wade across mud to get to shore once you've dried out, a fin will stand up against a wall if needs be with a ladder next to you ;). When you're sailing you shouldn't be hoping the -30cm (?) draft will save you from running aground in a bilge in the channel, you shouldn't really be cutting it that fine. There's plenty of places to visit in a fin but a the ability to dry out does open up more if you're only ever going to be sailing in the BC.

I plan on keeping the boat for as long as I can sail and I have a lot on my sailing bucket list (if i'll ever tick any off is another thing), I wanted a forever boat now rather then the hassle of selling a boat and buying another in a few years, so I knuckled down and waited a year to get the Ballad. I have no issues in spending money on the boat, In my eyes a 15 year old boat needs as much money spending on it as a 50 year old boat and if i'm honest I enjoy tinkering with them.

Most boats will do most things, just find something you like, can afford and in the best condition possible (engine/sails and spars) as well as the hull itself. If you're only every going to be sailing to little harbours for the weekend then a bilge might be better.

Sorry if my reply is higgledy piggledy, as expected work gets busier when I try to skive.

EDIT

I suppose what I'm trying to say in simple terms is if you plan to sail to lots of little harbours moor up for the weekend then sail back get a bilge, if you'll be doing more sailing then "visiting" it doesn't really matter what the keel is.
 
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steveej said:
Is it a 30 year old MAB bilge keeler?

Is it a 15 yr old shallow draft AWB fin keeler?

These seem to be the possible choices available, one has half the entry cost of the other but probably twice the maintenance costs.

I'm talking everywhere east of a line between Tenby - Lundy - Ilfracombe.

Discuss.........
Click to expand...

Something that copes well with the wind over tide in the channel. A decent size, reliable engine for those times when you need it.

Comfortable at anchor. That is sits well to the anchor and is comfortable below decks. Good ground tackle.

A good cockpit cover for the odd rainy days.

I would prefer a bilge keel.
 
steveej said:
Is it a 30 year old MAB bilge keeler?

Is it a 15 yr old shallow draft AWB fin keeler?

These seem to be the possible choices available, one has half the entry cost of the other but probably twice the maintenance costs.

I'm talking everywhere east of a line between Tenby - Lundy - Ilfracombe.

Discuss.........
Click to expand...

Do you race? If you do then thats the only sensible reason for having a fin.

I have had 4 boats in the channel - two bilge , one cat and the current fin. The fin is a PITA if you want to go anywhere in the area you mention.
 
You don't want encapsulated keels if you want to dry out occasionally in harbours with stony bottoms, and there are some.... You don't want a modern fin/bulb keel and spade rudder at all, unless you only want to sail in and out of the few marinas. Either a moderately longish keel that will dry out happily against walls or in soft mud, or a boat with iron bilge keels. You don't want too big or you can't easily get into Porlock.

As the near perfect Bristol Channel boat, how about a bilge keel Sadler 290 ?
http://www.yachtsnet.co.uk/archives/sadler-290/sadler-290.htm

BC pilot cutters are wonderful boats, but they were never conceived as yachts that might go in and out of lots of harbours - essentially they went from Pill or Barry etc out to sea and back home again.
 
thread resurrection........

Anyone got any experience of the Sun Odyssey Lifting keel boats, 29.2, 32, 32.2.

Apparently these can be dried out so may be the answer to a new boat that make it easier to visit watermouth cove, and ilfracombe etc?
 
steveej said:
thread resurrection........

Anyone got any experience of the Sun Odyssey Lifting keel boats, 29.2, 32, 32.2.

Apparently these can be dried out so may be the answer to a new boat that make it easier to visit watermouth cove, and ilfracombe etc?
Click to expand...
Both Beneteau and Jeanneau have built lifting-keel twin rudder boat intended to give a 3-point drying out option. Whilst these seem fine for gentle drying out: I'd be worried about drying out in places that may have a swell coming in. I've experience quite bumpy drying/floating moments in some of the more seaward moorings (though still behind breakwater) at both Watermouth and Ilfracombe.
 
jwilson said:
Both Beneteau and Jeanneau have built lifting-keel twin rudder boat intended to give a 3-point drying out option. Whilst these seem fine for gentle drying out: I'd be worried about drying out in places that may have a swell coming in. I've experience quite bumpy drying/floating moments in some of the more seaward moorings (though still behind breakwater) at both Watermouth and Ilfracombe.
Click to expand...

That's good information, thanks for sharing
 
I admired the lifting keel boats when I first saw them but my small lift keel boat suffered hull damage drying out at Lydney, so not suitable for the turbulent highly tidal Bristol Channel. Even a semi lifting bulb keeler like Anderson 22 didn't pickup right on rising tides. Only ever take a bilge keeler (or Mobo) into Watermouth, and I would hate to take a fin keel into surging bouncy Ilfracombe to tie up along side the wall. So its long keel or bilge keel for Bristol Channel
 
My two peneth worth, a solid twin bilge keeler, displacement hull with a big, high torque slow revving normally aspirated diesel engine, capable of pushing through big seas and taking the ground at the many drying harbours we have
I wish, but SWMBO insists on white, shiny and pointy, rather than big and solid and built like the proverbial!
Bet she'd change her mind next time we get caught out in a wind against tide f6 or f7
��⛵️��
 
Something with no sails and 2 x 300hp diesels - I've seen the Bristol Channel! ... alternatively a Bristol Channel Pilot Cutter, preferably brand new! (and keep it somewhere else - anywhere would do!) ..... :encouragement:
 
Kingfisher 3 said:
Something with no sails and 2 x 300hp diesels - I've seen the Bristol Channel! ...
Click to expand...
Completely overkill except for the RNLI. All those noisy motors drinking money at £60 or more an hour. Now a decent sailing boat enables you to turn that wretched noise off at least half the time and my more modest engine uses perhaps £4 an hour. And yachts are inherently more stable than mobos which is a great reassurance in rolling seas
 
Each to their own but I want to go sailing not motoring. And as far as a bristol pilot cutter is concerned it must be close to the top of the list of the worst possible boats for cruising the channel. You would spend you whole life only being able to get into to 2 or 3 places. Boring.

I want to be able to visit places and the wife would prefer a newer AWB (and I would also prefer to go sailing rather than tons of maintenance and a dicky engine).

Maybe a shallow draft fin is the way to and just accept there will be no visits to Ilfracombe or Watermouth.
 
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