What Is The Most Populer Length Of Craft For Leisure Cruising

[jddevel]

I`m interested in what the forum members consider is the most popular length of craft for leisure cruising the canals and rivers. These are not those which are liveaboard or continuos cruisers, but the home from home to rove during our wonderful U.K. climate.

[b0atman]

55 ft your survey span is too wide

[Woodstock]

Are you asking what we have or what we think is most common. If it's what we have- then I can't vote as our boat is below 41foot. If it's what is most common then 57foot, given all the boats I've looked at recently.

[saltysplash]

55ft

[Paul C]

Most popular...in terms of most desirable, or most commonplace? Its impossible to put a figure on just one size, and I'm not sure an average serves you well here. But I kinda know what you mean. I think you'e muddled the poll up though, by choosing too few selections and omitting <40 ft completely. But I suspect even with a poll with lots of options, you'll simply get a wide range of opinions!

[gazza]

You've missed 16-20 & 21-29

[Mendip-Locks]

57 ft echo what b0atman said.

[Sabcat]

The size that everyone wants is 57ft apparently. This makes little sense to me on a number of levels. Firstly because it's the "go anywhere" size and surely it'd be better to buy the "goes where I want to cruise" size balanced against the "buy/licence/maintain as cheaply as I can with enough room for the people I want to take with me" size. For liveaboards it's a slightly different calculation because you can never have too much room on a boat even if you're on your own and have no friends. The principle is the same though.

[NB Lola]

57ft echo the others

 

Ps, I want to be able to go anywhere and will be living aboard in the summer months if I ever get to retire! I think that fits Sabcats model, if not that's how I float!

Edited June 22, 2015 by NB Lola

[system 4-50]

60ft is best because I want to go down (or is it up?) Salter-Hebble backwards.

[Athy]

Too bloody long.

[Jess--]

don't forget that boat design will make a big difference in usable space.

 

a 50 foot trad stern will have a lot more space inside than a 50 foot cruiser stern

[DHutch]

58 ft (basically all canals)

62 ft (most of them in l&l)

72 ft will do most excl l&l

 

Daniel

[narrowman]

55foot if you want to go anywhere,anything longer is pushing it especially if you want to do the calder and hebble ,as I was held up for a couple of hours the other day behind a 57ft stuck in the lock near sowerby bridge

[Nightwatch]

We have a 55' boat.

 

Therefore 55' is for us.

 

We would like a 58' narrow boat. Three foot may make a difference.

[Pykebird]

It all depends on the layout of the boat, I had much "less" space in a 57 foot cruiser than in a 50 foot trad! And I can moor and turn it in most places.

[Scholar Gypsy]

56 feet for the reasons stated (although you can't get through Brandon lock for the last mile of the Little Ouse)...

Edited June 22, 2015 by Scholar Gypsy

[Chalky]

40' - because it's what we've got. Can do a u turn on a broad canal and turn in places that others can't. Also short enough to find a mooring in most places and if you're lucky enough to have a Bottom Of Garden mooring it's probably about as big as you can go.

 

The length isn't the issue. The most important thing is what's known in automotive engineering as the package - how the space is utilised. Before we fitted out our boat we looked at loads. I've seen 70' boats that were cramped and pokey and 30' boats that were spacious and airy. All down to how well they were packaged.

[NB Lola]

My missus says don't believe forked tongue, length is always an issue

[Southern Star]

I`m interested in what the forum members consider is the most popular length of craft for leisure cruising the canals and rivers. These are not those which are liveaboard or continuos cruisers, but the home from home to rove during our wonderful U.K. climate.

Well, it depends entirely on your circumstances. A 60' boat will cost half as much again as a 40' boat to licence, insure, paint, black and moor.

 

How many days a year do you plan on spending on it?

 

How many people will be aboard it?

 

Where do you plan on going?

 

 

If ever there was a "how long is a piece of string?" post, then this is it.

[Nightwatch]

My missus says don't believe forked tongue, length is always an issue

Forked tongue? That's interesting!

[larkshall]

57ft gets my vote, coz I live in north wanna go south a lot

[Jim Riley]

Mine is 32ft, wife is happy with it. Poll won't let me choose it!

[Athy]

 

 

a 50 foot trad stern will have a lot more space inside than a 50 foot cruiser stern

Will it?

That surely depends on what you mean by "space". On a trad, a lot of things which would be outside on a cruiser have to be inside, be it fixed items like the engine or movable things like tins of paint, spare fenders, jerry cans, which would generally live beneath the rear deck of a cruiser. So, having owned examples of both species, I am unconvinced that a trad necessarily offers more USABLE interior space.

[Southern Star]

My boat is just under 42' long, and I put it to the type of use mentioned by the OP, namely I spend weekends and the occasional week on it, I'm going away next week for three months, but I do not currently live aboard. I have hired a much longer boat in the past, 58', and yes, it does of course have more space.

 

Personally, my boat is exactly the length I had settled on in my spec, long enough to have all of the requirements for a "home from home" boat, and to live aboard should the need arise, but much cheaper to own and run, me not being a particularly wealthy person. From what I've seen, anything much below 40' means there is unlikely to be a permanent bed, but rather a make-up bed, although if it was a case of "that or nothing" I would rather have a shorter boat than no boat at all.