What cruiser shall we buy?

Lee Chambers said:
Paul, just so I can get more of an idea if I was to go say 50 miles in a weekend just poodling as at say 5 knots what would it cost in your Bayliner v285? I would like to cruise down the Thames and from where I am thats a good 100 mile round trip, obvioiusly not every weekend but if i get one i will want to use it. £100 a weekend is in budget but £500 a weekend regularly would hurt.

Please let me know?
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Doing the Thames from where you are, you'll not do much of the of the journey at 5 knots. Until you get to the Thames Barrier, there isn't a great deal to see. Pretty much all the famous land marks are from the barrier to the houses of parliament, about 12 miles of river. I agree with Paul though, it's a very special trip. We recently did it from Shotley (Harwich). 160nm trip in a single engined diesel boat, used about 360 ltrs of fuel.
 
Hi Lee,

Last year I sold my Monterey 250, it had the D4-260 Diesel, firstly it was superb for wake-boarding, skiing and towing ringo's, with fuel/passengers/kit we would top out at 36knts but there was plenty of low down grunt to pull boarders out of the water quickly!

Fuel consumption was great, our average given mixed use was around 3-4 gal/hour, although on a longer run at a steady cruise (25-30knts) we were getting ~6 gal/ hour.

While alot of the time we only had 2 on board we did on occasions have guests, our forward berth was a convertible dinette, however we rarely had the issue of converting it because we simply left it made up as a berth. Eating drinking and was I think always done up top in the cockpit, with the camper covers up it could be quite cozy, especially with a small fan heater!!

The other benefit was plenty of storage under the forward berth for overnight bags and other kit.

The reason we picked the size we did were:
- Mid Cabin berth was actually bigger than some of the slightly larger boats as they had larger engine bays to accommodate a bigger single engine.
- small enough and (just) light enough to stick on a trailer if the need arose.
- Performance was superb with the D4 engine and offered the perfect balance between caravan on the water and fun sportsboat to chuck about.
- Not so big it became difficult or expensive to berth.

I sold mine at 3 years old with just over 200 hours last year for a fair bit under your budget.

Good luck with the search :)
 
Lee Chambers said:
Paul, just so I can get more of an idea if I was to go say 50 miles in a weekend just poodling as at say 5 knots what would it cost in your Bayliner v285? I would like to cruise down the Thames and from where I am thats a good 100 mile round trip, obvioiusly not every weekend but if i get one i will want to use it. £100 a weekend is in budget but £500 a weekend regularly would hurt.

Please let me know?
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If you go petrol and decide to do the Thames you'll need to think carefully about fuel. Assuming you fill up at Essex Marina and visit St Kats, or one of the other London marinas, you won't be able to fill up again until you are back in Essex, or divert to Kent and fill up in Gillingham. If you are going all the way onto the non tidal then you will be able to fill up around Shepperton.
 
You may find a Bayliner 3055/305 for £50k. Big boat for the money - either with 170hp Volvos or 250 hp mercruisers (diesel), some petrols around for around £45k - Westaways in Plymouth
 
Lee Chambers said:
Paul, just so I can get more of an idea if I was to go say 50 miles in a weekend just poodling as at say 5 knots what would it cost in your Bayliner v285? I would like to cruise down the Thames and from where I am thats a good 100 mile round trip, obvioiusly not every weekend but if i get one i will want to use it. £100 a weekend is in budget but £500 a weekend regularly would hurt.

Please let me know?
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I filled Rafiki up on Saturday. I used 70 litres of fuel this year to date. Shameful I know, but we did not get onto the Bristol Channel through work pressures, so this represents a season's trundling up and down the R Severn, generally about 25 miles in a weekend, or 10 on a day trip.
 
Only two boats fit the bill IMHO. Fairline T29 or Sealine S2

A classic KISS,when you climb onto to boat how does it react,hardly move like the Fairline Targa ,or go into some sort of violent see saw from side to side for 10 bilious mins.like most colonial soap dishes:)
 
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oldgit said:
Only two boats fit the bill IMHO. Fairline T29 or Sealine S2

A classic KISS,when you climb onto to boat how does it react,hardly move like the Fairline Targa ,or go into some sort of violent see saw from side to side for 10 bilious mins.like most colonial soap dishes:)
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What's actually stopping the Fairline rocking from side to side? Counter balanced by two heavy engines, reduced deadrise aft or massively heavy construction method?
 
Targa 28/29

Have to agree with Pete here, however I do admit to being slightly biased (we have a Targa 28).

I don't think you can go to far wrong with the Targa 28/29, residuals are rock solid as well as the ride, comfort, construction and practicality.

£50k will buy a decent enough twin diesel example, only thing that will not be to your liking is the age which at best will be 10 years old, however don't let that put you off, there are some nice examples to be had if you look carefully.

A quick look at the £50k market in general will find many newer examples of lighter built, single petrol engined pocket cruisers, with newer design and fancy cockpit arrangements but make no mistake, they will be left in the wake of the T29 when out at sea and as Pete commented, a few years down the line the Targa should if looked after repay your outlay, can't say the newer single petrol engined cruiser would..
 
Fairline 29 Vs Bayliner 285 Ciera

Thanks everyones for your advice so far.

From what I have heard the Fairline 29 seems the ideal boat however I cant see one for sale locally to me in Essex! If anyone hears of one around £50K please let me know, in the meantime I will keep hunting.

I have still not dismissed the Bayliner 285 and i am going to have a look at the Ciera model as this is slightly wider than the standard 285 and might be a little more stable than the standard 285? I know the Fairline 29 is the Rolls Royce of pocket cruisers and the Bayliner has a petrol lump but I cant find one and there are quite a few Bayliners for sale and £10k under a Fairline price plus the Bayliner offers 6 berths with 4 permanent so there are advantages and disadvantages, but do the advantages outway the disadvantages?
Thanks again Lee
 
Fairline v Everything Else.

From what I have heard the Fairline 29 seems the ideal boat


You know the feeling when you pull into the club car park and its full of nearly new bright Red Kias and Hyundai something or others ( and very cheap to run what with depleted pensions an all) but parked in the corner is a classy 10 year old german estate of some description looking as good as the day it was made and set to do another 100K. :):):)
 
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Lee Chambers said:
I hear what you say. I will keep looking!
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Forget about looking for the ideal boat on your doorstep mate. It aint like buying a car, if you wanted car X, there'd be dozens for sale within walking distance, boats you generally have to do some miles for the right one.

To be honest though, you'll be hard pushed to find a T29 for 50k. I'd push the budget rather than have the Bayliner though. You WILL regret buying petrol, if you made that mistake.
 
Go and check out as much as you can Lee, and as Paul says, if its away from home a bit, make the effort.

Make sure you have a decent run in each of the options, you may find some issues not to your liking, such as excessive noise at cruise speed and lazy performance etc.

Happy hunting.
 
oldgit said:
You know the feeling when you pull into the club car park and its full of nearly new bright Red Kias and Hyundai something or others ( and very cheap to run what with depleted pensions an all) but parked in the corner is a classy 10 year old german estate of some description looking as good as the day it was made and set to do another 100K. :):):)
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or waiting for someone to come along and spend 100k on it.......:)
 
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