What boat for £10k

[Fr J Hackett]

Let's look at it dispassionately GRP / wood common maintenance, antifoul, anodes? engine service, sails and rigging. All should be a similar cost and time relative to the size of the boat.
GRP hull polish vs paint for a wooden boat, I don't know how long or often you have to paint the topsides etc but it's a longer job than polishing a GRP for sure. Varnishing is another matter and seems to be an annual chore.
Specifics, wooden boats do require woodwork.replacement and that requires a certain amount of skill and tools if the repairs are not going to be bodged. GRP rarely requires such intervention and if required laminating is not difficult requires little in the way of special skills or tools.
So whilst routine maintenance of a wooden yacht is probably not a great deal more onerous than a GRP yacht it does require a little more time. The difference comes with the fixer upper or old neglected boat when a wooden yacht is far more likely to require more than the cosmetic fettling of a GRP yacht which is why I suggest it's not suitable for a first yacht that someone wants to go sailing in right away.

 

[Sea Change]

The thing that would put me off a wooden boat is that you only get so many good days a year when the stars align- you're not at work, you don't have other commitments, and the sun is shining.

I want to use those days to go sailing, not make my boat look pretty.

A lot of the maintenance items that are common between grp and wood are not really weather dependent. Even polishing the hull of a grp boat doesn't need to use up precious unbroken days of good weather. If the weather turns, you can just stop, and pick up again where you left off. But when you're looking at painting a large area of a boat hull, you really need to be sure that the weather is set to stay fair for the rest of the day, without risk of dew forming as soon as the sun goes down, etc.

I prepped and painted my 33ft boat outdoors one summer. It looked great but it was so stressful and took up so many of the few decent days that year. Never again.

 

[potentillaCO32]

I also find it is like a club I don't want to join where the members have their own secret language.
Scarfing, garboard strake, mast carling, knees, ring bolt, king plank etc etc.

Just tedious. Far better the white blandness and IKEA clean design of a modern awb and normal names for things.

 

[winch2]

7 - 8 m dayboat class boats

Ah music to my ears. Our little gaff day boat with nifty fold down cubby is just so jolly easy to own, can go anywhere locally and dare I say, is the prettiest craft in the channel and, is 100% not what the OP is looking for.

 

[Wansworth]

I also find it is like a club I don't want to join where the members have their own secret language.
Scarfing, garboard strake, mast carling, knees, ring bolt, king plank etc etc.

Just tedious. Far better the white blandness and IKEA clean design of a modern awb and normal names for things.

Ok,let’s just call things …left and right front,back,wall,roof……thingy,bit,what’s it,pointybit ……