Windy boats

[Job Done]

Hi all,

I also posted this on the Thames forum and am a Very infrequent poster here but wanted to pick anyones' brains on Windy boats and useage on the river. My current boat is an s38 Sealine kept at Bray which I know many of you will say is a pretty impractical river boat though have to say we have loved using her on the Thames for the last few seasons and my family and I love the cockpit and social space.

We are looking to downsize a bit but still want the cockpit space and open sports boat type approach and a couple of people have recommended having a look at either a Windy Ghibli or Tornado. Reviews seem to be really favourable on build quality and re-sale value etc but wondered if anyone out there had first hand experience.

Cheers

Al

 

[julians]

I have a Windy 25 Mirage, and my dad has a Windy 37 grand mistral, he used to have a sealine s34 before the Windy.

I'd imagine there are much more suitable boats for river use compared to a windy,would seem a bit of a waste of a good hull just to use on rivers, but cant really think of any reason that would make them hugely unsuitable, certainly no more unsuitable than a sealine s38

 

[Whitelighter]

Id have a look at the new English Harbour 27.

Its just the first at SIBS, but the quality is excellent and it looks perfect for the thames

 

[spannerman]

Its a bit having a greyhound and using it as a guide dog, they are best suited to highspeed cruising where they rapidly put the miles behind you. Also it will be a pig to steer at river speeds as all stern drives are at low speed, they hunt around the straight ahead position until they get to about 10 kts, as they have no keel. You will be happier with a proper displacement boat for river use.

 

[landlockedpirate]

I'm in a very small monority of actually using a sportscruiser on the river, I like sportscruisers for a lot of the reasons you mention. However, sticking a Windy on the river does seem like a massive waste of a great boat.

You pay a premium for the Windy mainly because it has one of the best hulls available on a standard sportscruiser, a attribute thats totaly lost on the river.

 

[ontheplane]

I'm in a very small monority of actually using a sportscruiser on the river, I like sportscruisers for a lot of the reasons you mention. However, sticking a Windy on the river does seem like a massive waste of a great boat.

You pay a premium for the Windy mainly because it has one of the best hulls available on a standard sportscruiser, a attribute thats totaly lost on the river.

+1 agree with all above posts.

Windy's are beautiful, but the premium asked is for the build and the performance hull which won't work well on a river (but no worse than any other Deep V sportsboat hull).

FWIW I'd try and find something more suited.