Leisure boating with young kids - nightmare or good idea (Yorkshire area)?

[Slim]

4 hours ago, Machpoint005 said:

 

I've been lumpy water sailing three times: twice on 24-footers and once on a dinghy. I resolved never to do so again unless the vessel was capable of carrying a crate of beer, and your feet didn't get wet. 

 

 

Crate of beer, no problem. Wet feet, a decent pair of sailing boots. I 'converted' to 'ditch crawling' 25 years ago for personal reasons. I've enjoyed every moment of it. HOWEVER, there's not day goes by that I don't think of offshore sailing (maybe not every day). Any number of charters since but no substitute for owning your own yacht.

[Alan de Enfield]

9 hours ago, Slim said:

Crate of beer, no problem. Wet feet, a decent pair of sailing boots. I 'converted' to 'ditch crawling' 25 years ago for personal reasons. I've enjoyed every moment of it. HOWEVER, there's not day goes by that I don't think of offshore sailing (maybe not every day). Any number of charters since but no substitute for owning your own yacht.

After a rather harrowing trip back from the Isle of Man with waves breaking over the flybridge of our cruiser, SWMBO said "never again", we sold up and bought a NB.

After 10 years of 'Ditch crawling' we both yearned for the sea and bought another sea going cruiser so had the best of both worlds, getting more and more frustrated with the condition of the canals, its hardware, and C&RT we decided to sell the NB and buy another Sea boat, we now have the 'Cat' (the one in the Avatar) at Plymouth and the Cruiser based in North wales (for weekend trips over to Ireland, IoM and longer trips up the West coast of Scotland).

 

Once infected I don't think you ever get the salt out of your blood.

[mrsmelly]

1 hour ago, Alan de Enfield said:

After a rather harrowing trip back from the Isle of Man with waves breaking over the flybridge of our cruiser, SWMBO said "never again", we sold up and bought a NB.

After 10 years of 'Ditch crawling' we both yearned for the sea and bought another sea going cruiser so had the best of both worlds, getting more and more frustrated with the condition of the canals, its hardware, and C&RT we decided to sell the NB and buy another Sea boat, we now have the 'Cat' (the one in the Avatar) at Plymouth and the Cruiser based in North wales (for weekend trips over to Ireland, IoM and longer trips up the West coast of Scotland).

 

Once infected I don't think you ever get the salt out of your blood.

Theres nowt better than a hurricane inside the arctic circle to understand what lumpy water is. There are others on the forum who know what I mean. Bloody loved it when I was young and foolish, now I am old and foolish so may think twice about it lol.

[Dav and Pen]

58 minutes ago, mrsmelly said:

Theres nowt better than a hurricane inside the arctic circle to understand what lumpy water is. There are others on the forum who know what I mean. Bloody loved it when I was young and foolish, now I am old and foolish so may think twice about it lol.

Or a typhoon in the pacific which actually broke the flying bridge away and caused the prop shaft to crack on a 20000ton tanker. Unfortunately when the shaft was inspected in Dunedin it was decided it would not fail, and there were we looking forward to a few weeks in NZ instead of a trip to the Basra.

Edited May 1, 2020 by Dav and Pen
Spelling

[Alan de Enfield]

16 minutes ago, Dav and Pen said:

Or a typhoon in the pacific which actually broke the flying bridge away and caused the prop shaft to crack on a 20000ton tanker. Unfortunately when the shaft was inspected in Dunedin it was decided it would not fail, and there were we looking forward to a few weeks in NZ instead of a trip to the Basra.

It doesn't matter what size your boat is - you'll never be the master of the Sea, you can only work with her when she allows it, fight and she'll always win.

[skipfeeney]

Completely off topic and purely out of interest – I have been looking at the York Marina website.  I notice it says you can get to the Ripon canal in 6 hours.  However most of the boats that look to be in the marina or for sale would not be suitable for the canal?  Or would they?! Where would you go on some thing like these?

 

https://www.yorkmarina.co.uk/boats-for-sale/boat/?Make=Sealine&Model=255&BoatID=7321785

 

https://www.yorkmarina.co.uk/boats-for-sale/boat/?Make=Doral&Model=250-SE&BoatID=7189859

[Alan de Enfield]

38 minutes ago, skipfeeney said:

Completely off topic and purely out of interest – I have been looking at the York Marina website.  I notice it says you can get to the Ripon canal in 6 hours.  However most of the boats that look to be in the marina or for sale would not be suitable for the canal?  Or would they?! Where would you go on some thing like these?

 

https://www.yorkmarina.co.uk/boats-for-sale/boat/?Make=Sealine&Model=255&BoatID=7321785

 

https://www.yorkmarina.co.uk/boats-for-sale/boat/?Make=Doral&Model=250-SE&BoatID=7189859

 

The Ripon canal boat dimensions are 14' beam and 1.01m draft.

The boat you linked to has a beam of 9 feet and a draft of 2 feet.

The only potential problem could be Air-Draft with the canal at 8' 2" and the boat at 8' - it would need slow ahead !!

 

So in short - No problem to use on the Ripon canal.

 

However - the last thing you want is a 300HP V8 petrol engine so forget the Doral, but the Sealine would suit just fine.

 

Its a lot of boat for £13k, you wouldn't get such a well equipped steel NB for anywhere near that. The only thing it doesn't seem to have is central heating which would cost £1000 - £1500 to install.

 

On the question of 'where can you go', as your experience builds you can go down the Ouse onto the Humber, call in a Hull, or go down to Spurn point, moor up overnight, go for a walk around the Nature reserve, go out into the North Sea and have a 'trip around the wind farm.

Or, you can go down the River Trent to Nottingham, or onto the Yorkshire canals, the world is your Lobster.

Edited May 1, 2020 by Alan de Enfield

[Alastair]

The ouse, (downstream of naburn lock) is not for inexperienced boaters. It gets a tidal bore that is up to 4ft high. A friend mooring in Selby (steel yacht) had a cleat ripped clean through the deck when the bore hit him.

 

Outside of tidal bore times, it is a river that varies from fairly placid to very strong (tidal or flood ) currents. 

 

I have no experience of the Selby canal, but most canals (apart from those carrying commercial traffic) are very suitable for learning to handle a boat and letting children learn.