Looking to buy first power boat - considerations and advice?
Discussion
Chaps,
I've been mulling over getting a boat for a fair few years now (probably since I was about 13 in all honesty, ever since spending a teenage week with a group of Uni girls on a 50ft trader in Majorca!)...
Have decided to take the plunge for this season and see how we go. It's more than a minefield of information for a newcomer though!
Hopefully some of you may be able to shed some light!
Basically - the boat will be used for weekend gatherings with friends and family for a spot of wakeboarding/tubing/fishing and generally cruising around.
Where? Well, from what I can gather up to about 18ft we should be able to tow behind our camper, although not launch. Anything larger and we'll have to leave in the water for the summer months?
There's a certain flexibility with being able to tow the boat to inland waters during the summer evenings for a spot of wakeboarding (although we're pretty much land locked in Warwickshire), but equally - spending weekends away at the coast with the camper and a moored boat is also appealing! Obviously there are cost considerations too.
Budget wise, for a first boat I'm thinking no more than £20k. We may end up never using it!
I've been having a look about and it looks like the options are something like an 18ft Bowrider for the tow option or a 22ft Cuddy for the moored option.....am I on the right track here? Brands wise, no idea...plan to go and have a look at a few.
Fuel burn rate/storage/maintenance differences between two such boats I have no idea about! If we go the coastal route, I'm thinking the North Wales coast direction.
Any other considerations that I'm missing?
Thanks all,
I've been mulling over getting a boat for a fair few years now (probably since I was about 13 in all honesty, ever since spending a teenage week with a group of Uni girls on a 50ft trader in Majorca!)...
Have decided to take the plunge for this season and see how we go. It's more than a minefield of information for a newcomer though!
Hopefully some of you may be able to shed some light!
Basically - the boat will be used for weekend gatherings with friends and family for a spot of wakeboarding/tubing/fishing and generally cruising around.
Where? Well, from what I can gather up to about 18ft we should be able to tow behind our camper, although not launch. Anything larger and we'll have to leave in the water for the summer months?
There's a certain flexibility with being able to tow the boat to inland waters during the summer evenings for a spot of wakeboarding (although we're pretty much land locked in Warwickshire), but equally - spending weekends away at the coast with the camper and a moored boat is also appealing! Obviously there are cost considerations too.
Budget wise, for a first boat I'm thinking no more than £20k. We may end up never using it!
I've been having a look about and it looks like the options are something like an 18ft Bowrider for the tow option or a 22ft Cuddy for the moored option.....am I on the right track here? Brands wise, no idea...plan to go and have a look at a few.
Fuel burn rate/storage/maintenance differences between two such boats I have no idea about! If we go the coastal route, I'm thinking the North Wales coast direction.
Any other considerations that I'm missing?
Thanks all,
i liked the look of the monterey's as far as american affordable bowriders/cuddies go. fuel burn in this size boat is nothing to worry about,3.ol/4.3mpi inboards seem to do £50-60 up to 80 max for a day out with plenty of towing. get a tower for sure,makes the watersports so much more enjoyable.some of the new outboards are really fuel efficient now aswell,2 that might suit a bit of watersporting are the mercury optimax or evinrude e-tec,on the boat size you mention 130-150hp would be nice.
Firstly decide what you really want!
Do you want a cuddy, or an open bow, and decide what kind of length. Length is deceptive when it comes to towing, since the trailer length does not include the draw bar and look at the length of this on most trailers.
For the seas around Britain when I was looking at my first boat we were steered away from the Bayliner brand, the reason given was to do with the hull shape not being suited to the kind of waters we get around our coast. On inland waters the Bayliner is quite OK, since you don't get the same swells. That is not to say you couldn't use the Bayliner boats in UK coastal waters, just that other designs give a more comfy ride. Apparantly most American brands are the same.
Personally I have always liked Fletcher as a manufacturer. Built in the UK, they are well suited to UK coasts. I am not up to date on prices, but you used to be able to get a new 18foot Cuddy Sportscruiser for not much more than your budget.
If you are serious about wakeboarding, look at power levels. Back in the mid '90's my weight was around 12 stone. A 60horse Mercruiser outboard on the back of a 14ft Fletcher was what we used. Power was adequate, but not much more. I could if I tried really stop the boat from accelerating away onto plane. To get up on the board you really had to know just how to get it to pop.
The same 14ft outfit came as part of a package, boat, motor and trailer. Be wary of towed weights and the law. The boat as bought was sat on a trailer rated at 650kg that was unbraked. To stay within the law (as I found to my cost), that required a towing vehicle of at least 1300kg. I was using a car that weighed 1050kg. My bad, I didn't know the law. I was stopped in Cumbria by a copper that knew just what the law required. He took me to a weighbridge, and found the trailer combination to be over 750kg. Further investigation by the manufacturer founhd the hull to be overspec in the amount of fibreglass it contained, putting the hull at arounf 70kg over specified weight. Fair play to Fletcher, the combination now sits on a braked trailer. I believe the recommendation for towing the sportscruiser outfit was when I last looked something that is generally akin to a Defender or similar.
When budgeting, don't forget that the boat isn't all you need. We used to launch at Bridlington (great set of tractor drivers there will launch and recover you, you just drive the boat, they sort the trailer). You pay the Council man your slipway fee, pay the tractor man seperate. Part of the council requirements are an annual 'equipment check'. Required (from memory) are paddles/oars, a whistle, flares, lifejackets for all aboard, an anchor (and probably other stuff I have forgotten). It may not sound much, but back when we equipped ourselves the bill for all that was needed came to around £300. Prices will undoubtably have risen since then.
Not necessary, but highly recommended is a VHF course and radio. Again I'm not sure on prices these days, but basically you need (if things haven't changed) an operators certificate to say you have been trained and also a licence. As a veteran of an RNLI Rescue I would not leave shore without at least a handheld.
There are probably other things, but does this give food for thought?
Do you want a cuddy, or an open bow, and decide what kind of length. Length is deceptive when it comes to towing, since the trailer length does not include the draw bar and look at the length of this on most trailers.
For the seas around Britain when I was looking at my first boat we were steered away from the Bayliner brand, the reason given was to do with the hull shape not being suited to the kind of waters we get around our coast. On inland waters the Bayliner is quite OK, since you don't get the same swells. That is not to say you couldn't use the Bayliner boats in UK coastal waters, just that other designs give a more comfy ride. Apparantly most American brands are the same.
Personally I have always liked Fletcher as a manufacturer. Built in the UK, they are well suited to UK coasts. I am not up to date on prices, but you used to be able to get a new 18foot Cuddy Sportscruiser for not much more than your budget.
If you are serious about wakeboarding, look at power levels. Back in the mid '90's my weight was around 12 stone. A 60horse Mercruiser outboard on the back of a 14ft Fletcher was what we used. Power was adequate, but not much more. I could if I tried really stop the boat from accelerating away onto plane. To get up on the board you really had to know just how to get it to pop.
The same 14ft outfit came as part of a package, boat, motor and trailer. Be wary of towed weights and the law. The boat as bought was sat on a trailer rated at 650kg that was unbraked. To stay within the law (as I found to my cost), that required a towing vehicle of at least 1300kg. I was using a car that weighed 1050kg. My bad, I didn't know the law. I was stopped in Cumbria by a copper that knew just what the law required. He took me to a weighbridge, and found the trailer combination to be over 750kg. Further investigation by the manufacturer founhd the hull to be overspec in the amount of fibreglass it contained, putting the hull at arounf 70kg over specified weight. Fair play to Fletcher, the combination now sits on a braked trailer. I believe the recommendation for towing the sportscruiser outfit was when I last looked something that is generally akin to a Defender or similar.
When budgeting, don't forget that the boat isn't all you need. We used to launch at Bridlington (great set of tractor drivers there will launch and recover you, you just drive the boat, they sort the trailer). You pay the Council man your slipway fee, pay the tractor man seperate. Part of the council requirements are an annual 'equipment check'. Required (from memory) are paddles/oars, a whistle, flares, lifejackets for all aboard, an anchor (and probably other stuff I have forgotten). It may not sound much, but back when we equipped ourselves the bill for all that was needed came to around £300. Prices will undoubtably have risen since then.
Not necessary, but highly recommended is a VHF course and radio. Again I'm not sure on prices these days, but basically you need (if things haven't changed) an operators certificate to say you have been trained and also a licence. As a veteran of an RNLI Rescue I would not leave shore without at least a handheld.
There are probably other things, but does this give food for thought?
I had a Monterey, really lovely boat and didn't look that big on the water.......looked bloody enormous on the back of my Range Rover! I've now got an Avon Adventure RIB and it is much easier to handle. Smaller boats can actually be much more fun and are much easier to handle on and off the water. Towing mine actually saves me money as I get much better fuel consumption out of the RR when I don't bowl along at 100mph.
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