My cheap speedboat to nice little cruiser - a journey
Discussion
Like many people, lockdown had many of us look at alternative recreation activities and for me and my family, it was boating.
This thread will be a little bit about our journey as a family getting into this activity for the 1st time as well as how I managed to 'flip' boats for a profit, by just giving them a little TLC during my period of ownership.
1st up was a 17ft bayliner bowrider. Was a late 80's early 90's boat. The man selling it had it for years and his family have grown up so the boat was getting little use. It came with water ski's, rope, a banana boat and an inflatable ring. Ideal I though and while he was looking £4k for it, it was in really poor shape cosmetically and in the end, we settled on £2.7k for the boat, trailer and accessories.
At the time, the local slipway was closed due to covid lockdown so I set to work trying to get it to look more presentable. The exterior wasn't too bad to be fair and most importantly, the engine ran great. Trailer was galvanised steel and wheel bearings had been done recently so physically ok, but it looked tired overall due the winch and jockey wheel being well past their use by date.
The interior was really bad. Seat were all cracked due to too much exposure to sun/water and not being cleaned properly. Carpet seemed to be original, so it was decades old and really dirty. Everything had lost is 'lustre' so overall, a tired looking interior.
The work I carried out:
New winch on trailer
New jockey wheel
Replaced carpet in the boat with EVA teak effect foam
Deep cleaned absolutely everything
Bought some car seat covers to make the interior seating look a bit more presentable
Restored the marine leather around the edges (which is just PVC really, I think)
Bought a high quality bosch battery (the boat needed a jump start when I went to see it lol)
Overall, I spent about £300 bringing my total outlay up to £3k. Not long after, I sold the boat for £5.4k when the family decided we needed something a bit different but more on that later.
I'll post the restoration of that particular Bayliner before moving onto the other boats we moved through.
Pics will be in the next post.
This thread will be a little bit about our journey as a family getting into this activity for the 1st time as well as how I managed to 'flip' boats for a profit, by just giving them a little TLC during my period of ownership.
1st up was a 17ft bayliner bowrider. Was a late 80's early 90's boat. The man selling it had it for years and his family have grown up so the boat was getting little use. It came with water ski's, rope, a banana boat and an inflatable ring. Ideal I though and while he was looking £4k for it, it was in really poor shape cosmetically and in the end, we settled on £2.7k for the boat, trailer and accessories.
At the time, the local slipway was closed due to covid lockdown so I set to work trying to get it to look more presentable. The exterior wasn't too bad to be fair and most importantly, the engine ran great. Trailer was galvanised steel and wheel bearings had been done recently so physically ok, but it looked tired overall due the winch and jockey wheel being well past their use by date.
The interior was really bad. Seat were all cracked due to too much exposure to sun/water and not being cleaned properly. Carpet seemed to be original, so it was decades old and really dirty. Everything had lost is 'lustre' so overall, a tired looking interior.
The work I carried out:
New winch on trailer
New jockey wheel
Replaced carpet in the boat with EVA teak effect foam
Deep cleaned absolutely everything
Bought some car seat covers to make the interior seating look a bit more presentable
Restored the marine leather around the edges (which is just PVC really, I think)
Bought a high quality bosch battery (the boat needed a jump start when I went to see it lol)
Overall, I spent about £300 bringing my total outlay up to £3k. Not long after, I sold the boat for £5.4k when the family decided we needed something a bit different but more on that later.
I'll post the restoration of that particular Bayliner before moving onto the other boats we moved through.
Pics will be in the next post.
![](https://thumbsnap.com/sc/xVqg8Uz6.jpg[/img]</a> <a href="https://thumbsnap.com/LBuGYjbT" Target="_blank" rel="nofollow">[img]https://thumbsnap.com/sc/LBuGYjbT.jpg[/img]</a> <a href="https://thumbsnap.com/KavB57Cc" Target="_blank" rel="nofollow">[img]https://thumbsnap.com/sc/KavB57Cc.jpg)
Portofino said:
Looking forward to this thread soup! I’m in.
Cheers!Might take me a little while for me to get to the end. Just posted up the 1st boat but the way PH works for photo uploads, I think I will need to go through my pics and save them to a folder so that its easier to post the photos without too much bother.
Back to work for me now, but to give a rough sequence of events:
Sold the Bayliner above and went for a Hardy 20, which was quite a nice boat and really enjoyed it for the most part. The only issue was getting in and out of the water (the family like to fresh water swim) and the Hardy was more like a fishing boat with high sides, so not great for that
So I turned a good profit on that overall but then struggled to find another boat.
I bought a Maxum cuddy cabin for £5k as a stop gap but literally had that for a week or two when low and behold, the type of boat we really wanted came up for sale at a really good price so I flipped the Maxum for a good profit (will document the refurb on that too) and ended up with our 24ft cruiser
Theres lots of meat to go on the bones of this short story, which I'll document in due course with lots of pics of the boats and the work I put in
Eg, Who new that toilet duck (hydrochloric acid I think) would be so effective in hull refurbishment!?
Sold the Bayliner above and went for a Hardy 20, which was quite a nice boat and really enjoyed it for the most part. The only issue was getting in and out of the water (the family like to fresh water swim) and the Hardy was more like a fishing boat with high sides, so not great for that
So I turned a good profit on that overall but then struggled to find another boat.
I bought a Maxum cuddy cabin for £5k as a stop gap but literally had that for a week or two when low and behold, the type of boat we really wanted came up for sale at a really good price so I flipped the Maxum for a good profit (will document the refurb on that too) and ended up with our 24ft cruiser
Theres lots of meat to go on the bones of this short story, which I'll document in due course with lots of pics of the boats and the work I put in
Eg, Who new that toilet duck (hydrochloric acid I think) would be so effective in hull refurbishment!?
surveyor said:
Me too. Pictures of the Hardy?
We had one of these when I was about 15. Had a memorable holiday with 5 of us (2 of us teenagers) sleeping on it for a fortnight in Cornwall. Cramped.. to say the least.
That was ambitious doing a fortnight!We had one of these when I was about 15. Had a memorable holiday with 5 of us (2 of us teenagers) sleeping on it for a fortnight in Cornwall. Cramped.. to say the least.
I still have a real soft spot for the Hardy, and despite the age, the well designed layout is still 100% suitable for the modern age fishing or cruising enthusiast. I would highly recommend them for that reason. A 20ft boat, yet it manages to have wide walkways up to the foredeck is a design that never gets old. Ideal to sit on top of the cabin and fish from, as well as coming into dock. Makes day to day usage simplistic, rather than a chore.
Will get those pics up this evening.
Chapter 2
So it was time to sell the Bayliner Capri. Family weren't really interested in a watersports boat. Kids love swimming, kayaking and paddleboards though and generally, we all like the water.
The main directive was something that felt a bit safer, has a cabin and has cooking facilities so that we can go out and spend hours at a time just cruising and swimming etc.
So I listed the Bayliner at £5.5k hoping to get £5k but accepting £4.5k. A chap comes to view it but I turned him away at £4k and a couple of days later, another potential buyer comes. He seems dead keen and then we get to price.
My opening best price was 'I'll give you a luck penny of £100' as a opening gambit.
He says OK and that was that. Sold!
Meanwhile, I was looking at all sorts of boats in all the usual places online.
I see this Hardy 20 in Scotland, Loch Lomond. Means a ferry from Northern Ireland but it doesn't put me off. It was on ebay with 2 x historical sales of £8k and £7.5k so I'm a bit dubious with why the sales fell through.
This time it's on auction and I bid well above the £6k that it was sitting at. I win the auction at something like £6.2k, reserve not met.
So we get talking, exchange phone numbers etc. He's already bought a new boat and needs the Hardy away. He's very frustrated at the failed sales. He spent a fair bit refurbing it during Lockdown, only to be told by enthusiasts that he's basically ruined the boat. He did a lot of the work himself and it was his pride and joy so he felt a bit miffed at the buyers criticism.
The fender rope was new, from Hardy but the hand rails were from a more modern Hardy and they are supposed to be wood. The refreshed paint was blue, but supposed to be white maybe? Anyway, you're not supposed to change the paint from original and buyers complained about that.
I joined a Hardy forum and there are some very keen enthusiasts around so clearly he sold the boat to enthusiasts who weren't impressed.
'What do you mean you put the old steering wheel in the bin??'
So anyway, long story short, he sells me the boat for £6.6k
He sends me lots more photos and talks me through all the upgrades. Trailer alone is worth over £5k new and it's mint. He bought it lightly used for £2.5k which was a great deal for him at the time.
I use my Tesco clubcard vouchers to pay for the return ferry trip and I go to meet this lovely man. Everything checks out and I'm on my way home.
At the Cairnryan terminal. I arrive at 7.10pm for the 7.30pm ferry but because the door was raised, that's the official moment its 'ship sailed' and they don't let me on.
I sit there for 20 mins watching my ferry sit there stationery knowing its several hrs until the next one.
Thankfully, there is a TV DVD player in the boat and he left a DVD in it
Will put a lot more pics in the next post
So it was time to sell the Bayliner Capri. Family weren't really interested in a watersports boat. Kids love swimming, kayaking and paddleboards though and generally, we all like the water.
The main directive was something that felt a bit safer, has a cabin and has cooking facilities so that we can go out and spend hours at a time just cruising and swimming etc.
So I listed the Bayliner at £5.5k hoping to get £5k but accepting £4.5k. A chap comes to view it but I turned him away at £4k and a couple of days later, another potential buyer comes. He seems dead keen and then we get to price.
My opening best price was 'I'll give you a luck penny of £100' as a opening gambit.
He says OK and that was that. Sold!
Meanwhile, I was looking at all sorts of boats in all the usual places online.
I see this Hardy 20 in Scotland, Loch Lomond. Means a ferry from Northern Ireland but it doesn't put me off. It was on ebay with 2 x historical sales of £8k and £7.5k so I'm a bit dubious with why the sales fell through.
This time it's on auction and I bid well above the £6k that it was sitting at. I win the auction at something like £6.2k, reserve not met.
So we get talking, exchange phone numbers etc. He's already bought a new boat and needs the Hardy away. He's very frustrated at the failed sales. He spent a fair bit refurbing it during Lockdown, only to be told by enthusiasts that he's basically ruined the boat. He did a lot of the work himself and it was his pride and joy so he felt a bit miffed at the buyers criticism.
The fender rope was new, from Hardy but the hand rails were from a more modern Hardy and they are supposed to be wood. The refreshed paint was blue, but supposed to be white maybe? Anyway, you're not supposed to change the paint from original and buyers complained about that.
I joined a Hardy forum and there are some very keen enthusiasts around so clearly he sold the boat to enthusiasts who weren't impressed.
'What do you mean you put the old steering wheel in the bin??'
So anyway, long story short, he sells me the boat for £6.6k
He sends me lots more photos and talks me through all the upgrades. Trailer alone is worth over £5k new and it's mint. He bought it lightly used for £2.5k which was a great deal for him at the time.
I use my Tesco clubcard vouchers to pay for the return ferry trip and I go to meet this lovely man. Everything checks out and I'm on my way home.
At the Cairnryan terminal. I arrive at 7.10pm for the 7.30pm ferry but because the door was raised, that's the official moment its 'ship sailed' and they don't let me on.
I sit there for 20 mins watching my ferry sit there stationery knowing its several hrs until the next one.
Thankfully, there is a TV DVD player in the boat and he left a DVD in it
Will put a lot more pics in the next post
Pics from when I got her, Lady Anna
My favourite thing about this boat is the access around the sides and the usability of top side of the boat, on the fore deck.
You go boating in good weather generally, so being able to use this space safely and easily is a great feature of this boat. Out with friends, drop anchor, go up top, drinks and snacks and a fishing rod into the water. Perfect.
My favourite thing about this boat is the access around the sides and the usability of top side of the boat, on the fore deck.
You go boating in good weather generally, so being able to use this space safely and easily is a great feature of this boat. Out with friends, drop anchor, go up top, drinks and snacks and a fishing rod into the water. Perfect.
So we all enjoy Lady Anna. We can now cruise, cook, plenty of space etc.
However, getting into the water for a swim is easy, but not so easy getting out. I bought a ladder for it but even then, let's just say it was too easy to lose your dignity when climbing back into the boat
The sides were just too high. Great for if the weather turned and it got a bit choppy, the boat is strong in that department but not for swimming. So we decided we wanted something with a swim platform which meant it was time to sell the Hardy.
As a side note, I arranged a 2 day training exercise with RYA instructor to get my level 2 for me, my son and father in law. Best money I ever spent. We did the training in the Hardy and we learned so so much.
See that nautical map of the Lough? Don't trust it. The sand moves around all the time and due to the shallow nature of lough neagh, you can get caught out very easily. Be vigilant to depth at all times. Loads of info about prevailng winds, and different wind and weather patterns.
Of course, you get all the usual safety, handling bits as standard but to access the specific local knowledge was invaluable. I think it was on these very forums where someone said I need to do it, and it was so so beneficial getting that support from an expert.
He also said the only thing wrong with my boat was that it belonged to me and not him. He totally loved it and couldn't believe the price I paid. £10k minimum he said, £15k if you find the right buyer due to its good condition.
Next up, selling the Hardy....
However, getting into the water for a swim is easy, but not so easy getting out. I bought a ladder for it but even then, let's just say it was too easy to lose your dignity when climbing back into the boat
The sides were just too high. Great for if the weather turned and it got a bit choppy, the boat is strong in that department but not for swimming. So we decided we wanted something with a swim platform which meant it was time to sell the Hardy.
As a side note, I arranged a 2 day training exercise with RYA instructor to get my level 2 for me, my son and father in law. Best money I ever spent. We did the training in the Hardy and we learned so so much.
See that nautical map of the Lough? Don't trust it. The sand moves around all the time and due to the shallow nature of lough neagh, you can get caught out very easily. Be vigilant to depth at all times. Loads of info about prevailng winds, and different wind and weather patterns.
Of course, you get all the usual safety, handling bits as standard but to access the specific local knowledge was invaluable. I think it was on these very forums where someone said I need to do it, and it was so so beneficial getting that support from an expert.
He also said the only thing wrong with my boat was that it belonged to me and not him. He totally loved it and couldn't believe the price I paid. £10k minimum he said, £15k if you find the right buyer due to its good condition.
Next up, selling the Hardy....
So I need to get it ready for sale. I'm going to use done deal (Ireland) and Gumtree UK
One thing I've learned about private selling. Put a bit of effort it
Cleaning is an obvious one, but you would be surprised at the amount of people who don't even do that.
Give loads of detail in the advert. What questions might people ask? Get them answered in the advert.
Take too many pictures so that you can bin the bad ones later.
Stage it. Like a property show. Show buyers how the space can be used.
Eg...
I cooked that in the house for convenience and photographed it in the boat
And one final point. Make a video for potential buyers, especially a boat. The guy who bought it was 5 or 6 hrs away and I'm pretty sure the video is what peaked his interest. It's a small market compared to selling a car so you need to put the effort in if you want to raise the eyebrow of someone far away.
They basically get a walkabout your boat from the comfort of their home and can shortlist it or dismiss it straight away. It can turn a casual browse into a sake, and I think that's what happened.
Nice and clean
Showing how it could be used. Chopping board for prepping food
Staging: see the original interior pic a couple of posts up versus this one. A couple of nice cushions, fake plastic trees (radiohead anyone?)
Just adds a bit of colour to enhance the overall feel
Anyway. It sold within a week, listed for £12k boat, £3.5k trailer or both for £13.5k. I would have been bally with £10k all in but got £12.5k for it. A man in the south west of Ireland.
He was a eccentric fella. Sold imported books for a living and had a few good chats on the phone, chatting s
t. He could talk the leg off a stool that guy.
He loved the video and he sent me £3.5k to hold the boat and he had never even met me!
Met him a couple of weeks later, he realised his car couldn't tow the boat so he landed in a new (to him) car that he just bought earlier that day because it had a towbar and was rated to pull the Hardy.
He was retired age but was flat out busy selling books lol. He told me he had just dropped 25 grand on a book order that he was bringing in from abroad.
He handed me a wad of fresh sterling bank notes, while complaining about the nosey bds in the bank asking why he wanted so much sterling.
'its non of your damn business. I'm buying a boat and the seller insists on sterling. You want to come with me and ask him??'
He takes a glance at the boat and says its lovely, let's get her hooked on.
I ask does he want to look inside and that I've brought a ladder for him.
Nah, I'll have a look later he says. This fking car is far too complicated and i don't even know where the lights are, so I want to get home before it gets dark.
An intersting character but he contacts me about a month later, thanking me for the boat and that he's made a few upgrades so him and the wife can camp out in the bay for a few days. A happy, if somewhat eccentric, customer
One thing I've learned about private selling. Put a bit of effort it
Cleaning is an obvious one, but you would be surprised at the amount of people who don't even do that.
Give loads of detail in the advert. What questions might people ask? Get them answered in the advert.
Take too many pictures so that you can bin the bad ones later.
Stage it. Like a property show. Show buyers how the space can be used.
Eg...
I cooked that in the house for convenience and photographed it in the boat
And one final point. Make a video for potential buyers, especially a boat. The guy who bought it was 5 or 6 hrs away and I'm pretty sure the video is what peaked his interest. It's a small market compared to selling a car so you need to put the effort in if you want to raise the eyebrow of someone far away.
They basically get a walkabout your boat from the comfort of their home and can shortlist it or dismiss it straight away. It can turn a casual browse into a sake, and I think that's what happened.
Nice and clean
Showing how it could be used. Chopping board for prepping food
Staging: see the original interior pic a couple of posts up versus this one. A couple of nice cushions, fake plastic trees (radiohead anyone?)
Just adds a bit of colour to enhance the overall feel
Anyway. It sold within a week, listed for £12k boat, £3.5k trailer or both for £13.5k. I would have been bally with £10k all in but got £12.5k for it. A man in the south west of Ireland.
He was a eccentric fella. Sold imported books for a living and had a few good chats on the phone, chatting s
t. He could talk the leg off a stool that guy. He loved the video and he sent me £3.5k to hold the boat and he had never even met me!
Met him a couple of weeks later, he realised his car couldn't tow the boat so he landed in a new (to him) car that he just bought earlier that day because it had a towbar and was rated to pull the Hardy.
He was retired age but was flat out busy selling books lol. He told me he had just dropped 25 grand on a book order that he was bringing in from abroad.
He handed me a wad of fresh sterling bank notes, while complaining about the nosey b
ds in the bank asking why he wanted so much sterling.'its non of your damn business. I'm buying a boat and the seller insists on sterling. You want to come with me and ask him??'
He takes a glance at the boat and says its lovely, let's get her hooked on.
I ask does he want to look inside and that I've brought a ladder for him.
Nah, I'll have a look later he says. This f
king car is far too complicated and i don't even know where the lights are, so I want to get home before it gets dark.An intersting character but he contacts me about a month later, thanking me for the boat and that he's made a few upgrades so him and the wife can camp out in the bay for a few days. A happy, if somewhat eccentric, customer
Oops. Forgot the video. I put a bit of effort in to help buyers and I think it paid off in the end.
My Samsung had a dodgy mic so the audio is a bit sketchy but you can get a tour of you fancy a look around the hardy
https://youtu.be/jqW8hJt6ffA
Key point is to tell the truth. Point out any key things, eg, you might find the outboard a little under powered, or you might find it ideal if you want good fuel economy.
Shows that you're being straight up and not talking BS just to sell the boat.
My Samsung had a dodgy mic so the audio is a bit sketchy but you can get a tour of you fancy a look around the hardy
https://youtu.be/jqW8hJt6ffA
Key point is to tell the truth. Point out any key things, eg, you might find the outboard a little under powered, or you might find it ideal if you want good fuel economy.
Shows that you're being straight up and not talking BS just to sell the boat.
A good result. Brought back memories. I remember ours being rather difficult to get into when on the trailer unless you had a step ladder at hand.
We had a boarding ladder bolted on the back for water access, although i do remember an emergency jump overboard while in Cornwall mid-fight with my brother...
We had a Yamaha 40hp on ours. Still not man enough to get it on the plane.
Trailers were always something of a challenge. Ours virtually disintegrated on the way to Falmouth. Dad had to find a local trailer specialist and spent quite a lot on a rebuild to get us home...
We had a boarding ladder bolted on the back for water access, although i do remember an emergency jump overboard while in Cornwall mid-fight with my brother...
We had a Yamaha 40hp on ours. Still not man enough to get it on the plane.
Trailers were always something of a challenge. Ours virtually disintegrated on the way to Falmouth. Dad had to find a local trailer specialist and spent quite a lot on a rebuild to get us home...
surveyor said:
A good result. Brought back memories. I remember ours being rather difficult to get into when on the trailer unless you had a step ladder at hand.
We had a boarding ladder bolted on the back for water access, although i do remember an emergency jump overboard while in Cornwall mid-fight with my brother...
We had a Yamaha 40hp on ours. Still not man enough to get it on the plane.
Trailers were always something of a challenge. Ours virtually disintegrated on the way to Falmouth. Dad had to find a local trailer specialist and spent quite a lot on a rebuild to get us home...
Ha ha We had a boarding ladder bolted on the back for water access, although i do remember an emergency jump overboard while in Cornwall mid-fight with my brother...
We had a Yamaha 40hp on ours. Still not man enough to get it on the plane.
Trailers were always something of a challenge. Ours virtually disintegrated on the way to Falmouth. Dad had to find a local trailer specialist and spent quite a lot on a rebuild to get us home...
It's good to have the memories and I'm hoping now that I'm the adult, I can do the same for my kids. So far so good.
My son, 16, pretty much does all the driving now (captaining?) and he loves it. Bringing his mates out is something he loves, although I'm too nervous to let him go without me. Maybe in a year or 2.
OK, so chapter 3
I didn't want to be without a boat for long and while Hardy was for sale, I was looking around everywhere.
Shout out to the Merry Fisher 645. I love that boat. Everything I loved about the Hardy was there, but with easier eccess to the water for swimming.
I also like the appearance. One of the members of my local boat club has one and its lovely. On top of that, a killer layout. It's not a big boat at all, but they totally nailed the layout for a family like mine.
The things I like about the layout.
Like the Hardy, convenient access round the sides and to the fore deck.
Patio doors to seal off the helm area from the elements.
Just about dining space for 4, 2 adults 2 kids, within this sealed area
At the stern, outdoor seating for 4, 5 at a push
Really good for a compact boat and compact equals lower running costs. The last thing I want is a huge boat that drinks fuel because when Sadie and Uncle Jim want a run in the boat, it'll cost me £50 to show them round the bay. That would become tiresome really quickly and I'm not made of money.
Yes, I like that layout.
But alas, the family shot me down. It has an outboard.
That was a new addition to the checklist!?
The missus likes to cruise and converse and found the Hardy outboard too noisy.
If we're getting another boat, let's get a quieter one. In hindsight, I have to agree with her. It makes a big difference with an I/O when your cruising along at just a few knots and it helps the overall ambience of the trip for how we like to travel.
With that ruled out, we found another boat that ticked nearly very single box, except the easy access to the foredeck. That was the compromise we had to lose from the Hardy.
Up steps the Beneteau flyer 701. Boxes ticked:
Swim platform
Not an outboard
Lots of outside seating space
Cooking facilities
Toilet, wash hand basin and shower
Relatively compact (23ft, 7 inches) so reasonable running costs
Great overall layout
It's 4 berth with V berth and aft cabin berth and they go down as nice to haves as at this point, no plans for overnighting in it. But the key sell is on deck, double helm seat, chaise lounge and u shaped seating for 4, squeezing 5
So we make an offer to buy this one:
And then the nightmare begins. It was keenly priced v rest of Europe as generally, especially in France where they are bullt, they sell at cheaper prices. This was on parity with French prices so we were keen to buy.
I won't bore you with the story but long story short, the boat was fked and the seller couldn't even get it running for a water test.
The broker messed me around and it took 3 weeks to find out it was a non runner.
I'm stuck without a boat now and nothing suitable comes up for sale, unless we push much higher with budget but we were reluctant to do that as we were getting to bank loan territory if we did.
So I decide to not rule out something as a stop gap. Something that is popular, easy to sell again quickly and at a price where I wouldn't lose a chunk of equity.
I soon find the perfect fit. The Maxum 1900 SCR. Good ones go for £10k to £13k so to find this one priced at £5k seems too good to be true.
It was a little bit too good to be true, it needed a bit done to it cosmetically but I still bought it as I managed to get money off it and it was still a brilliant price.
Will continue this little bit of the story soon. Been typing a lot already tonight!
I didn't want to be without a boat for long and while Hardy was for sale, I was looking around everywhere.
Shout out to the Merry Fisher 645. I love that boat. Everything I loved about the Hardy was there, but with easier eccess to the water for swimming.
I also like the appearance. One of the members of my local boat club has one and its lovely. On top of that, a killer layout. It's not a big boat at all, but they totally nailed the layout for a family like mine.
The things I like about the layout.
Like the Hardy, convenient access round the sides and to the fore deck.
Patio doors to seal off the helm area from the elements.
Just about dining space for 4, 2 adults 2 kids, within this sealed area
At the stern, outdoor seating for 4, 5 at a push
Really good for a compact boat and compact equals lower running costs. The last thing I want is a huge boat that drinks fuel because when Sadie and Uncle Jim want a run in the boat, it'll cost me £50 to show them round the bay. That would become tiresome really quickly and I'm not made of money.
Yes, I like that layout.
But alas, the family shot me down. It has an outboard.
That was a new addition to the checklist!?
The missus likes to cruise and converse and found the Hardy outboard too noisy.
If we're getting another boat, let's get a quieter one. In hindsight, I have to agree with her. It makes a big difference with an I/O when your cruising along at just a few knots and it helps the overall ambience of the trip for how we like to travel.
With that ruled out, we found another boat that ticked nearly very single box, except the easy access to the foredeck. That was the compromise we had to lose from the Hardy.
Up steps the Beneteau flyer 701. Boxes ticked:
Swim platform
Not an outboard
Lots of outside seating space
Cooking facilities
Toilet, wash hand basin and shower
Relatively compact (23ft, 7 inches) so reasonable running costs
Great overall layout
It's 4 berth with V berth and aft cabin berth and they go down as nice to haves as at this point, no plans for overnighting in it. But the key sell is on deck, double helm seat, chaise lounge and u shaped seating for 4, squeezing 5
So we make an offer to buy this one:
And then the nightmare begins. It was keenly priced v rest of Europe as generally, especially in France where they are bullt, they sell at cheaper prices. This was on parity with French prices so we were keen to buy.
I won't bore you with the story but long story short, the boat was f
ked and the seller couldn't even get it running for a water test.The broker messed me around and it took 3 weeks to find out it was a non runner.
I'm stuck without a boat now and nothing suitable comes up for sale, unless we push much higher with budget but we were reluctant to do that as we were getting to bank loan territory if we did.
So I decide to not rule out something as a stop gap. Something that is popular, easy to sell again quickly and at a price where I wouldn't lose a chunk of equity.
I soon find the perfect fit. The Maxum 1900 SCR. Good ones go for £10k to £13k so to find this one priced at £5k seems too good to be true.
It was a little bit too good to be true, it needed a bit done to it cosmetically but I still bought it as I managed to get money off it and it was still a brilliant price.
Will continue this little bit of the story soon. Been typing a lot already tonight!
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