What cruiser shall we buy?

L

Lee Chambers

New Member
Joined
6 Oct 2010
Messages
10
Visit site
Can anyone give me some advice on what make/model of boat to buy. I have up to £50,000 to spend on a family cruiser. There is only 3 of us but I would like a boat with a spacious living area but one that we can still use for fun ie water skiing and a bit of fishing without it emptying my wallet in running costs.

What engine do I go for diesel or petrol?
Single or twin?

I have been offered a Four Winns Vista 258, 26ft with single 190hp diesel, any reviews?

I have also been looking at the Bayliner 285, any reviews.

Any help would be much appreciated.
 
Lee Chambers said:
Can anyone give me some advice on what make/model of boat to buy. I have up to £50,000 to spend on a family cruiser. There is only 3 of us but I would like a boat with a spacious living area but one that we can still use for fun ie water skiing and a bit of fishing without it emptying my wallet in running costs.

What engine do I go for diesel or petrol?
Single or twin?

I have been offered a Four Winns Vista 258, 26ft with single 190hp diesel, any reviews?

I have also been looking at the Bayliner 285, any reviews.

Any help would be much appreciated.
Click to expand...


For a fun all round sportscruiser then look at USA style models (and Doral). However even with a decent sized SINGLE Petrol lump in the back you should not be paying over £40k (second hand). Think Fourwinns 268 Vista, Doral 250SE, Regal 2665, Bayliner 265/285, Monterey 250/270 and maxum 2700sse.

However you should also consoider a move into the next size up and go twin Diesel. Think Sealine S28, Doral 280SSE, Chaparral 270/290, Monterey 310, Searay 315.

At the end of the day it is dependent if she will be a day boat with ocasional overnight or cruiser with sports fun facilities!

Let us more details about where you will use her and we may advise better!

Cheers and welcome

Paul
 
As much as it pains me to say this. The US boats will probably have a layout that suits your needs better, with a midships berth plus another fixed berth in the bow.

Uk boats of the same size tend to have a midships then a makeup bed in the bow which although offering more living accomodation will probably become a pain having to make up the bed every night you want to spend aboard.

As said above if you give us more details of how you want to use the boat then im sure more examples to look out for will be provided. Of the ones you mentioned i would go for the Bayliner 285 which offer a lot of boat for the money when fitted with a single petrol. Depending on your useage of the boat a petrol will offer you better value for money but will cost you to fuel it up.
 
Good post with lots of info on what you want, but would also be useful to know:

Will you use it on sheltered waters or coastal?
Do you want newish and reliable, or are you mechanically minded and happy to keep an older boat maintained?

If you can provide this info, I think you'll get lots of useful advice and suggestions on here
 
Another vote for the Bayliner. If it's accommodation and bang for your buck they are great. IMHO, don't waste your money on going for a 24fter. I did for my first pocket cruiser and lost a fair whack after just 10 months when we realised that it was just too small with not enough room to store stuff etc.
 
An important consideration regarding petrol v diesel will be where you keep the boat, how much fuel you anticipate using and how easy it is to get fuel. Along several hundred miles of East coast, i only know of one marina that sells petrol.

An argument that is often put forward for petrol boats is that they are cheaper than diesels and you'd need to use a fair bit of fuel to recover the extra money you paid for the boat. This is in fact a flawed argument. You pay more for a diesel, but it's worth more when you come to sell it and it will be much easier to sell. Plus, all the time you use it, it's cheaper to run and fuel is vastly easier to obtain.

This recent thread gives an insight into the problems that can be encountered with a petrol boat, obviously depending on your area of use : http://www.ybw.com/forums/showthread.php?t=249600&highlight=boston
 
I would suggest you look at a twin Deisel US sports boat as it would tick all the boxes. I had a Chaparral 280/90 for 8 years and did all those things with 3 kids. lot of money new but 50k buys you a lot of boat at the moment if you avoid the UK and european stuff which is very good but usually overpriced talked up beyond their capabilty and usually slow.
ie max 30 Knotts

all my opinion BTW and running for cover now as all the sealine and ben/jens come and have a go.
 
Further consideration: there may be three of you but would you plan to bring friends? A boat that feels spacious for 3 can feel crowded with 6, especially if the weather closes in. And of course there are real considerations with overnight stays.
 
Lee Chambers said:
Can anyone give me some advice on what make/model of boat to buy. I have up to £50,000 to spend on a family cruiser. There is only 3 of us but I would like a boat with a spacious living area but one that we can still use for fun ie water skiing and a bit of fishing without it emptying my wallet in running costs.

What engine do I go for diesel or petrol?
Single or twin?

I have been offered a Four Winns Vista 258, 26ft with single 190hp diesel, any reviews?

I have also been looking at the Bayliner 285, any reviews.

Any help would be much appreciated.
Click to expand...
Could you give some feedback on your experience, where you will boat, and the make-up of the three?
24-25ft would be fine for dayboating, but seriously cramped for overnighting other than the odd occasion. Its not just the people, its the amount more clobber you end up needing to store. If you have to re-organise downstairs every time you change its use (eating,washing up,beds and so on),it wont be long before you decide the boat is just too small.
On the other hand, do not get carried away by the cruising idea. You do surrender an aweful lot in a smaller boat just to sleeping ;)
26/27 ft will start to make more sense, but have a good think about what you are REALLY going to do with the boat. By all means ask if that is realistic. If for example no3 is a child, you might feel you dont fancy smashing about in poorer weather, and in UK, we get alot of that ! If you are in the Solent, you can spend years exploring in relatively safe waters, however, without really travelling more than 15 miles. Its the most expensive place to boat, so make sure you have done some sums on top of your capital outlay.
One thing is almost certain. If this is your first boat, you probably wont keep it long, as you understand more what you want from boating-or dont want, more often. To that end, its sometimes wise not to plump to far outfield, or you ll have a nightmare selling the boat to change.
And the best weather for boating in passing (ie sunny and long days!) so dont rush in to buy in winter! You have plenty of time to make your mind up.
 
Thanks for the info.
Definately needs to be a comfortable weekend boat to use for occassional week away on coastal rivers but also need to have capabilities to ski, doughnut behind, so dont want to go too big so cant be used for the later and also dont want to break the bank filling up!
 
Thanks.
Definately needs to be a comfortable weekend boat to use for occassional week away on coastal rivers but also need to have capabilities to ski, doughnut behind, so dont want to go too big so cant be used for the later and also dont want to break the bank filling up!

Any further advice would be good
 
Lee Chambers said:
Thanks.
Definately needs to be a comfortable weekend boat to use for occassional week away on coastal rivers but also need to have capabilities to ski, doughnut behind, so dont want to go too big so cant be used for the later and also dont want to break the bank filling up!

Any further advice would be good
Click to expand...
Where will you be based?
Under way you will be using something like 30 litres an hour with diesel, maybe double with petrol.. Very roughly. Diesel is about 95p a litre, petrol..dunno..140p waterside? Just remember that alot of time on a boat isnt actually underway..marina,anchor,lunch etc. Average hours over a season is 50-100 .
And underway, I mean cruising, not going up a river at 3 knots.
 
40 & 42 yr old with 8 yr old daughter. Keeping boat on Essex coast (North Fambridge). Really looking for a weekend retreat on the water to have fun in summer weekends and odd week going further afield. Had speed boats before but fed up with the hassle getting in and out. My view is it will be like having a caravan on the water, like fishing, water sports and hoping for a boat that does all. Am I deluded?
 
Lee Chambers said:
40 & 42 yr old with 8 yr old daughter. Keeping boat on Essex coast (North Fambridge). Really looking for a weekend retreat on the water to have fun in summer weekends and odd week going further afield. Had speed boats before but fed up with the hassle getting in and out. My view is it will be like having a caravan on the water, like fishing, water sports and hoping for a boat that does all. Am I deluded?
Click to expand...

i know exactly where you are coming from here being a former caravan owner, you want the space and luxury of the modern day van, but would prefer to be on the water, something that can take on a few waves and perhaps even make a safe crossing to france?

Unfortunately i have no experience in boats of the size and budget you have, but a member is/was selling one of these

http://motorboats.apolloduck.co.uk/image.phtml?id=166808&image=1

Just going by the price and size of that i would gues you will get a fantastic cruiser:D
 
You may need to lose some of the items from your brief!!

You will easily get something in your budget that will provide comfortabe weekend living and weeks away for the three of you. Again the Bayliner 285 springs to mind. If it will be used more as a caravan then petrol engines would be the way to go as they offer great value for money but when you do use them the fuel will have to be accounted for and will cost some. The equivalent boat with a diesel engine would though be out of your budget.

To have a boat that will comfortably sleep you all though you would lose the ability for serious watersports. A 285 or similar is never going to be a good ski boat however hard you tryt.
 
Lee Chambers said:
40 & 42 yr old with 8 yr old daughter. Keeping boat on Essex coast (North Fambridge). Really looking for a weekend retreat on the water to have fun in summer weekends and odd week going further afield. Had speed boats before but fed up with the hassle getting in and out. My view is it will be like having a caravan on the water, like fishing, water sports and hoping for a boat that does all. Am I deluded?
Click to expand...

OK, dont know Essex coast myself. Might be worth a visit to Essex boat yards; at least they might be able to give input as to what works/doesnt work on those waters. 250 Doral seemes popular, superceeded by Montecello or something. Not a huge fan of their hulls, but you do get the accomodation, and it might give you a starting point.
 
I would suggest a trip to Essex boatyards http://www.essexboatyards.com/ they not far from you and they have loads of differant boats, you can walk from one to another easily and see what you like, then get ideas of owners of those boats. It will alos let you know what you can get for your money.


Our first boat was a Larson they are ok not top range and you get a bit for your money.

I would also suggest you get advice from people here on who to buy from and who to avoid, I can advise not to buy from Simco/Powermarine if your looking for Doral, there will be others who would advise you not to buy from..
 
I'd put a small amount of money on the fact that in two years you will want a bigger boat so why not go for it now. I'm a Sealine fan so was drawn to the S28 recommendation. How about throwing more cash at it and going for the S34....you will be extreemly happy. Doral have gone bankrupt so I would expect this to have some impact on secondhand boat prices but with no particular dissadvantage on maintenance spares availablity.
Tough decision.
My path was
Sealine 195, Sealine 240, Sealine S37
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Share this page

Top