Total newbie to power boating

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Hillsey45

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Hi, I'm currently in search of my first ever power boat purchase and looking for a little friendly advice. I'm looking to buy a sports cabin cruiser upto £12,000, which'll be used for family trips within inland rivers and possibly coastal use when I'm ready.
Are there any important issues/questions I should be looking for or asking when viewing/purchasing my boat.
What's best for a beginner, an inboard or outboard motor?
I have a few options of moorings as I live in Gillingham Kent. My local marina is the Chatham Maritime Marina which works out roughly £190pm for the boat size I'm looking at.
Appreciate any help and advice.
Many thanks
 
Welcome to the forum, sometimes your first post takes some time to appear.

I am sure someone will make a comment soon. If it's for the river no need for a big engine as you won't be able to travel to fats anyway. I am sure you will be able to get something in your price range
 
I'm sure more replies will follow and add extra advice. Here's a few points to ponder to get you started.

For your budget you'll need to look at the second hand market.
Allocate a chunk of your budget for safety gear such as life jackets, fire extinguishers, etc that may not come with a second hand boat.
In general small boats are cheaper, bigger boats are more sea worthy. A slow plodding displacement hull will need a relatively small engine which keeps costs down; OK on a river where there are speed limits but it may not suit you if you'd prefer a little speed at sea.
Deciding how many people you are likely to have aboard and if you want to stay overnight will help guide selection.
Ladies aboard prefer proper heads (toilet) to a bucket or hanging over the side.
 
For most newbies their first boat will likely be out grown and will reveal their preferences, and this process can be remarkably brief. Selling on, however, is not always such a brief experience.

So whatever you decide upon, remember you may well be wishing to sell it within a season or two, so as you look at boats that draw your interest try to find out how sellable they will be to others. Key to this is how long they have been for sale by the current vendor, are they a marque that is known, and is it clean and presented. Take off the rose tinted specs and always, always be prepared to walk (or sometimes run) away if there is anything that you do not like - this is a buyers market, and there will always be another along the next pier.
 
Chatham maritime and Gillingham marina are probably the most expensive place to moor your boat locally, but they are very nice places indeed.
Lots of other places to moor you boat for less cash on the Medway, for a smallish boat Port medway will be 1k cheaper and you may find cheaper.
Medway bridge marina has loads of boats on the hard to look around you can just wander in, not all for sale but always good to look at the undersides out of the water, get up close and see some well looked after machinery and some real bits of crap.

We still have our first boat, but if I was doing it again it would be diesel, hard top and no bloody canvas!
You have to weigh up the diesel v petrol cost as if you are local only or low usage the petrol wont skint you with expensive diesel problems.
I would defo take someone with you to look at any boat so you dont buy a potential money pit, theres quite a few people on here local to you.
 
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If one the river take note of what types of boat other people are using, small petrol outboard will be quiet, vibration free, sip fuel and cheap to service
Make sure you have a loo, portapoti maybe? And the means to cool a beer and make a cup of tea!
Be prepared to upgrade after a year or so :-)
 
You mention family trips, which is important as relaxing cruises at 6 knots on the non-tidal Medway will be very different to heading out into the Estuary.

We had a 4.8m RIB which we kept at Gillingham, however we felt it limited our options in terms of trips, so we sold it on.

Essentially think long and hard about what type of trips you are likely to be doing for the next couple of year before committing to a purchase.

In terms of marina choices, there are plenty round your way, so make sure you check them all out to see what suits you best. Things to consider are:

Fuel availability (I seem to recall not all have fuel available, could be wrong but Gillingham and Chatham definitely do however), also do you need diesel or petrol?
Cost
Winter storage (will you keep it in the water, on land, on trailer etc.)
Does it have a useable slipway for launching (check this out, don't just look at the website...the term usable seems to be misinterpreted by some)....this is of course only if you have a trailer.
Availability, are any of them full and can't take new boats?
Facilities...toilets, showers etc
Location v cost...sort of a cross over of points, but some of the marinas further from the sea can be cheaper, but with the 6 knot speed limit will take you longer to get out to sea. Not a problem potentially, it depends on your mission profile.

As for the boat:

Diesel or petrol?
Trailerable?
Open or closed (RIB or hard boat too)?
Seating (how many seats)?
Berths (if any)?

Plenty of other things too, it all comes down to what you will be using it for as a RIB for example is handy if you want to go out to sea in all weather, but rubbish for river cruising with the family!
 
At that budget and with those ambitions I would suggest you do not look at young and fancy but look at old and solid. Make sure it is fiberglass with a vey thick long lasting hull. Don't wory about osmosis, get a discount for it, but do not worry about it, if your hull is 1/2" thick (as on older boats) you just sand it out and recoat. The engines in these boats are old but very reliable with no fancy electronics, BMC, Perkins etc. Easy to maintain and if you do get a dud, recon units are a couple of thousand. (Volvo Penta = expensive). Shaft drive is preferable and diesel essential. You say you have sea ambitions - Do not make the usual mistake of going to small, most people after their first purchace soon realise they wanted something different, usally bigger, and at sea two engines give confidence. I would recomment you look at things that are solid, reliable, comfortable, seafriendy and keep their resale value. Seamaster/Freeman/Birchwood 25/27/28. Ocean/Seamaster/Freeman/Princess/Broom 30. Princess/Project, 31/32/33. They have all stood the test of time. I crossed the channel many times and cruised Europe in a Seamaster 30 with 2 British layland taxi engines that never let me down. OK not fast, but six berths in 30 foot and good seakeeping. For the the last 12 years I have done the same with a 40+ year old Princess 37 with 2 Ford lorry engines, safely, reliably and cheaply. Just had an insurance survey and my hull is still 13mm minimum with no osmosis. And last year she did not look out of place in St Tropez where I met a 75 year old Brit on a Princes 32. He paid 11K for it 3 years earlier in UK and it had taken him those 3 years to get there. He was on his way to the Greek Islands. Could not do that on an 11k modern boat.
 
Thank you very much for all your help this is great. Sorry took so long to reply but been away in Cambrils, Spain. See some great boats in the port and took the family out on a few boating trips and even self-hired a small bowrider for half a day which has given us all the boating bug. Thank you all again for the time you took to reply to my post.
 
I think you need to decide on your definition of trip, day trips or holiday trips.

If its holiday trips then its the accommodation you need, so this is where people are recommending the older style boats where at this price you get somewhere to sleep.

If its day trips you need then this opens up the more sporty boats you have seen when you took out the bowrider. Even with these the capability to have a small toilet and tea making facilities is good.

Perhaps a good compromise is something like this......

http://www.valwyattmarine.co.uk/boa...cy=GBP&length-min=&length-max=&length-unit=Ft

I think these are a good compromise. They do have accommodation for short breaks, they retain an element of sports and can go to sea as the engine is powerful enough,
 
Thanks and yes this is the sort of boat I'm going for. I think the open sea boating would be a bit ambition in this from what I read, but for cruising rivers I think this would be ideal for us.
 
I bought a Jeanneau Leader 705 as my first boat - loved all the cuddy space - but the cuddy meant there was alot less space to seat people 'on deck'- 5 or 6 at most.
Have just bought a much smaller boat (5.5m) with small cuddy - but enough for Porta Potti - but I sat 9 on it this weekend.
Think carefully about the cuddy space - mine just filled up with rubbish on the bigger boat.
Good luck !!
 
Some form of shelter is very useful and generally appreciated by family members! You tend to use the boat more when you have some shelter from rain showers, wind etc.
 
There are many nook and cranny boatyards on the Medway should you wish to keep berthing costs to an absolute minimum.A diligent search might halve those mooring costs.They also have the advantage of no lock gates in between you and the river.You can come and go as you please.
The really cheap stuff will be tidal and on a mud berth but you can soon arrange you life round that.
Many boatyards will have a social scene or you can join a boat club such as RCC.
http://www.rochestercc.co.uk/
Whats the point ?. Well if you take a shine to the boat world at some time you will want to widen your horizons or need advice on your next step up or perhaps somebody will be there to provide tea and sympathy should it be needed.
Do not forget to have look at brokerages above the lock at Allington,Wateringbury and Yalding.
The Medway is an ideal river to learn the ropes,you can get all the way up to Tonbridge on the non tidal section and lots of sheltered creeks to mess about in without having to risk open water and all within an hour or so of home.
If things progress, you can tackle the amazing trip through central London and the Thames plus on your doorstep many interesting east coast rivers and finally Ramsgate and the delights of the continent less than a day away.
 
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This is great stuff and I'm really appreciating all the help. I've got a lot to look into and my dream is in sight.
Thank you all
 
deepsix said:
Some form of shelter is very useful and generally appreciated by family members! You tend to use the boat more when you have some shelter from rain showers, wind etc.
Click to expand...

depends on what conditions you intend to boat in and the type of boating you want to do. I definately wouldn't swap my open bow for a cuddy (on 5.5m boat) as it effectively doubles the deck space and in my opinion deck space is more useful on a day boat. But I only go out in decent weather as that's when it's fun!...plus living a few mins from the marina means we can decide to go out at the last minute.
 
currently have 20 footer up for sale since buying another 18 months ago. If interested pm me I am in the West Malling area. It is also on trailer

Regards Dave
 
Welcome to the world of boating! Feel free to download a copy of my book, it is aimed at anglers but it will have a lot of information of use to anyone starting out with boats. Just ignore the fishing references! It's free anyway. One word of advice - have plenty of spare money in addition to your budget because you will keep on spending. Book link is here:
 
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