How did you decide on the length of your boat?

[Phil Ambrose]

We chose our 60ft simply because....

1/ it had room for all we wanted to put in her

 

2/ because she felt right.

We were lucky as we were sort of blessed with hindsight having lived aboard a 40ft X 1eft cruiser for 10 years so sort of knew what we needed.

Phil

[Machpoint005]

We definitely did not want the 'full' 58 feet for a go-anywhere boat. Ended up with 48ft mainly because it ticked nearly all our other boxes. Never regretted it as the layout is fairly well thought out, although after six years of ownership we are starting to change things anyway.

 

The great advantage is that you can fit into moorings that longer vessels have to ignore.

[keble]

We chose 50' because of budget. Having found we liked it a lot and we wanted a bit more space we had it stretched to 60' some years later.

Why 60'? Well 57' would have given the extra seating/table but the boat yard said steel comes in 3m sections so might as well have a 10' stretch!

The power from the beta 38 is just fine for our rivers. Of course she's a bit less manoeuvrable.

As other have said there will be parts of the system I can't do but I'll hire for those, like I did on the Thames (I am still w*rking!)

Edited June 3, 2014 by keble

[MtB]

You lot are right you know (of course you know). Having widened my search criteria, some boats I actually quite like are coming up. Turns out, the more you pay, the more of the lacquered oak EVERYTHING (which I think is kinda yucky) you get. Who knew.

 

Thanks for your wise words all, on behalf of myself, and those looking to buy who love the lacquered oak thing - they will no longer have me to compete with.

 

 

I have to say, I much prefer knackered oak to lacquered oak, too.

 

 

MtB

[blackrose]

We definitely did not want the 'full' 58 feet for a go-anywhere boat. Ended up with 48ft mainly because it ticked nearly all our other boxes. Never regretted it as the layout is fairly well thought out, although after six years of ownership we are starting to change things anyway.

 

The great advantage is that you can fit into moorings that longer vessels have to ignore.

 

But you could also say that about a 30ft boat compared to your 48ft. It's all relative. I say the same thing about my 57ft boat compared to 62 or 65ft.

Edited June 3, 2014 by blackrose