What was the first boat you bought with your own cash?

Not sure if this qualifies, but perhaps as sweat equity? I said something about wanting my own boat. Father said 'So build it' and sketched a little pram on the back of an envelope (really!) and I did, but was given the plywood. It took a week, working all hours, including the appendages and sail, a bit of parachute. I was 11. I had a huge amount of fun with it over a few years, untill my much younger bro drilled a row of large holes across the bottom. (too young to appreciate what he was up too..)
 
Leisure 20 and kept at West Mersea .

With my income and family responsibilities there was no way I could really own a boat.

I gave up smoking (which I really wanted to do anyway) and borrowed £5k , payable I think over five years. Little did I know then that parking and maintenance were going to be the real costs.

I'm still sailing and never had a cigarette since.
 
A plywood GP14 in about 1980. Sailed it at Benfleet YC and Hill Head SC. Sold after about a year to get a GRP Wayfarer which we kept for 18 years, added a boom tent and started cruising.
 
Kukri said:
It was half my cash. I spent the summer of 1969 after my O levels picking strawberries at Tiptree to get to £50, which my father doubled, and I bought a Mumbles YC OD, a nice 18ft gunter rigged centreboard dayboat, called ‘Kay’, which I kept at West Mersea.
I have often wondered what became of her.

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Looks similar to a Barry16 OD that I sailed at Barry college of education way back in the eary 70s. Lovely ?
 
A fascinating thread. All small craft, which is reassuring. My first boat, after my father's Firefly, was a Westerly Cirrus, in 1971. It cost about £2400 and I had to get a £1000 loan from the bank, having had a pleasant interview with the bank manager (remember them?). Here arriving at Heybridge basin.

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^^^^ £2400 in 1971 equates to roughly £37.5k today (according to thisismoney.co.uk).

Would you get a new boat this size for £37.5k nowadays (assuming they still made cruising boats this small)?
 
This may be a cheat, as although all of my saved up money went towards it, I did have to badger my Dad into funding about half of it (IIRC, the kit cost about £200; can that be right ? )

We went to the 1976 London boat show and bought a kit for one of the first Jack Holt Streakers. IIRC the prototype was sail number 100, mine was 103. I was 13 at the time, and really lusted after a laser, but that was never going to happen, way too expensive, and as my Pop not unreasonably pointed out, rather too powerful for someone of my age and weight. The Streaker seemed like a decent alternative, and as I recall, we were quite taken with the young lady on the brochure (see below). I built it over the long summer holiday, which in itself was a huge learning experience; all reasonably straightforward, it really allowed me to develop my carpentry skills, and was a first step into the mysteries of working with fibreglass (on the joins). I painted the hull dark blue, with the deck and cockpit finished in varnish. She was really pretty, very light indeed, and great fun to sail. She came to a sad end whilst I was away at Uni. While chopping logs, the head came off my father's axe on the backswing, and came crashing down on the boat, going straight through the upturned hull on one of the chines and out through the deck underneath. We put her on top of the bonfire on 5th November, giving her a proper Viking send-off.

EC1FFCA0-A807-457D-8C33-C2CEE1337611.jpg
 
Frogmogman said:
This may be a cheat, as although all of my saved up money went towards it, I did have to badger my Dad into funding about half of it (IIRC, the kit cost about £200; can that be right ? )

We went to the 1976 London boat show and bought a kit for one of the first Jack Holt Streakers. IIRC the prototype was sail number 100, mine was 103. I was 13 at the time, and really lusted after a laser, but that was never going to happen, way too expensive, and as my Pop not unreasonably pointed out, rather too powerful for someone of my age and weight. The Streaker seemed like a decent alternative, and as I recall, we were quite taken with the young lady on the brochure (see below). I built it over the long summer holiday, which in itself was a huge learning experience; all reasonably straightforward, it really allowed me to develop my carpentry skills, and was a first step into the mysteries of working with fibreglass (on the joins). I painted the hull dark blue, with the deck and cockpit finished in varnish. She was really pretty, very light indeed, and great fun to sail. She came to a sad end whilst I was away at Uni. While chopping logs, the head came off my father's axe on the backswing, and came crashing down on the boat, going straight through the upturned hull on one of the chines and out through the deck underneath. We put her on top of the bonfire on 5th November, giving her a proper Viking send-off.

EC1FFCA0-A807-457D-8C33-C2CEE1337611.jpg
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That's the best sailing brochure iv'e ever seen.

Also on the plane as well. Heaven......................................
 
Dolphin 19 marine ply cabin cruiser with a Perkins outboard yes Perkins. in 1974

I modified it by fitting a Ford 1100 cc engine and a jet drive.

We were living in Halesowen and used it on the BCN down to the river Severn then when we moved to Northampton moved it to the river Nene via the canals.

Sold it in 1982 when we moved to South Africa.
 
Tradewinds said:
^^^^ £2400 in 1971 equates to roughly £37.5k today (according to thisismoney.co.uk).

Would you get a new boat this size for £37.5k nowadays (assuming they still made cruising boats this small)?
Click to expand...

Actually, they do, and yes. There was a very nice one indeed on the pontoons at last year’s SIBS. We had a look and she looked well made and well thought out:

Just found the brochure :
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Struer K1 kayak, £45 plus £3 shipping crate from Denmark. Picked up from Tooly Street, put on top of Fathers car, couldn't wait to get home to unpack. 5mt. X 500mm. (16'6 x 20") 1957.
I had more pleasure from that boat than any other boat or car I have owned.
 
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