Marine Forum

Best boat to buy??

Anonymous user

13 August 2011 04:49:55

Joined: Unknown | Posts: Unknown

Hi i am Craig am 28 i have got a girllriend and beautiful daughter and i have decided i would like to get a boat for us to spend some time on as a family and i was hoping that maybe i could get a little bit of advice and get to know some of you.

I would like a boat that i can do some work on myself, mainly cosmetically, not so much mechanically. I dont mind a little work but dont really know alot so would rather know that mechanically the boat is sound

I live in Lincolnshire and will be mooring my boat on the river ancholme, i want a cruiser for use at weekends round rivers and canals i also would like plenty of space like a 4 berth??

I would ideally like to spend 2-3k on the boat then maybe another 1-2k tidying her up...Is this realistic ?? Also what suggestions do you have on which boat i should go for do you think??

All the boats i see in this kind of price range are pre 1980 is this ok??

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thankyou

Re: Best boat to buy??

Anonymous user

24 August 2011 13:32:49

Joined: Unknown | Posts: Unknown

Hi Craig,

you should be able to find boats at that price that are structurally sound, but you will have plenty of cosmetic work to do! If you plan to stick to rivers and canals, the choice should be easier - you'll never be far from shore and can avoid bad weather and strong tides, so your little boat will not be subject to the same stresses and strains that on off-shore yacht is.

Go for fibreglass - wood looks lovely so long as it's someone else's boat, but a boat the size you are looking for at £3k - £4k in wood is going to need an enormous amount of work. You can easily learn to do major repairs and strengthening on a GRP boat in your garage with simple tools that you can buy from Halfords.

Buy something with an outboard, if possible - in-board boat engines are a pain to work on and expensive to change. The engine in a twenty or thirty year old boat will be getting very tired - if your outboard gives up the ghost, you just take it to the scrapyard and buy a new (or young second-hand) one from eBay!

Think carefully about dimensions if you are planning on sailing on rivers and canals - some bridges can be quite low - make sure that you can get everywhere that you want to. I'm guessing that there must be books published that list the clearance hights of bridges on all major inland waterways - Reeds does for coastal river estuaries, but not extending far inland.

Finally, be prepared to get hooked and end up mortgaging your life. We started out like you a few years ago with a little old yacht off eBay. Now we're about to upgrade for the third time and signing a six figure cheque!

Martin