What make and model of boat?
I am new to boating and soon intend to take my Yachtmasters cert. Although I have read loads of reports in magazines, I am still not clear as to what boat I would require. It will be needed to cruise from the North of England, to the Med, cruise the Med, be good in marginal weather, live aboard, give good fuel consumption and not cost a fortune to berth. Obviously I am looking for practicality; fancy Tupperware hulls, cherry and walnut, hydraulically operated,shoe racks and 30 knots @ 1000GPH are not what I am looking for. Good solid engineering, day to day live aboard practicality (I am not a pampered type) and reasonably cheap running costs are the order of the day. (servicing costs not required as was a diesel engineer for over 20 years), not bothered about hypersonic speeds nor cocktail party surroundings, yet comfy enough for family to visit for a week. Reasonably affordable too (sale of semi detatched house to finance). Or am I expecting too much?
Public Comments
- Best bet is a Bavaria Ocean 38, or a westerly GK series. Otherwise there are several older models available, you want to have a minimum of 36 foot to cruise that far, google it for secondhand yachts for sale. Out of experience, go for the Bavaria as the fuel economy is amazing, thy are comfortable, handle well and if you can get the furling main as well as the Genoa your going to have fun! plus a Bavaria isn't too badly priced and where the ocean 38 is also quite wide its livable, cruisable and we came second in our class on the round the island race! Need I say more!
- Our boat is a "Sea Otter" which we use just for canal cruising. I know they build pleasure and livaboard boats which are licenced (can't remember the Class numbers) to do cross Channel cruising. (see their web site - just google Sea Otter Boats). Beauty of them is that they are fabricated in a Marine-grade aluminium alloy to the same spec as the Cross Channel Ferries, so if you are looking for something which doesn't require much hull maintenance you might be interested in one of their boats. Looking at the awards they've won, it's quite an impressive firm - based in Chesterfield. We've found them very welcoming when we've visited the factory.
