As most of you will know for the past few weeks i have been looking at a bigger boat to replace my 1986 Spacesailer 20 fin keel

The Spacy cost me around $10,000 a couple of years ago and sits on a mooring in the river outside our house and has cost me a couple of thousand in maintenance and upgrades since i purchased it

It has a cassette toilet, a outboard motor and everything on it is in fairly good condition

I work a 9 day fortnight and try to sail on most of my rdo's all year round as long as the weather is kind and on saturdays if my wife has nothing else she wants to do we will go for a half day sail on the Huon

We try not to sail on sundays as we normally go to church (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints or Mormons) but ocassionally we will leave on a friday afternoon and overnight in one of the bays further down the Huon and sail back up on saturday afternoon and occasionally on a long weekend with a holiday on monday we will stay away for a couple of nights and come back on the monday

Last year i started crewing on a 33 foot Jenneau in the local yacht club race season that runs from october through to april (most of our racing is done on saturdays and we have thursday night twilights) and this means i am not using the Spacesailer as much as before for 6 months of the year

The spacy is a fun little boat to sail and to replace it with a larger boat that we would like (30 foot plus) i would need to spend probably another $30,000 plus to get a boat that is probably older than the one i have in similar condition

The larger boat would be great for the overnighters but because it has more gear on it (inboard engine , plumbed in toilet, starting and house batteries, fridge and all the other gear that a bigger boat has i imagine i would be spending more money and time to maintain it

When i crew on the Jenneau stuff that is light and easy to do single handed on the spacy such as lifting, dropping and setting sails takes a bit more effort and to be honest i dont know if i would enjoy sailing a bigger and heavier boat as much as i do the spacy

At the moment we haven't got the time or the desire to venture to far out of the Huon and channel and i wonder if i should hang on to the spacy and just be happy with what i have

We also still owe some money on our home and i wonder if paying it off is a better choice than spending the money on a bigger boat that i won't get a lot of use out of for 6 months of the year while i am crewing on the Jenneau

I would appreciate the thoughts of any one who has been in a similar situation

Thanks in advance

Regards Don

I suspect that most of the bigger boats you are currently looking at Don are for sale as the owners probably don't have the time to sail them. Somehow methinks that if you do manage to get that bigger boat it will get used less than what your Spacey is now.

This is one occasion where i would like to be back on the mainland because as you know yachts in Tassie are a bit dearer than the mainland and from what i have looked at you don't get a lot for less than $40,000

I know what you mean about the boat being convenient

We live at Port Huon and have a nice spot across from the River

We can keep a eye on the boat from the house and our dingy is in a dingy shed across the road so it is pretty painless to go for a sail if the weather gods are smiling

Here are a couple of photo's of where we live

Regards Don

Thanks for that Supersonic

I considered all the things you have said when i decided to look at buying a bigger boat and i agree with everything you have written

At the moment in the Spacy we don't venture to far out of the river and the lower channel and you are probably correct in saying with a bigger boat we might tend to go farther away

We have a break from the saturday racing for probably a month over the christmas period and the jobs where my wife and i work normally close down for a couple of weeks at that time so a bigger boat would give us a chance to venture a bit further away at that time

I guess i will just see what happens and i will keep a eye on what is for sale down here

Regards Don

These cheap boats everyone are talking about are cheap because they need money spent on them!

If you actually take a look at them and no the ins and outs you will see that they will end up being expensive in the long term.......
a good 35 fter should be priced at $60 to $80k .....

Alot of these so called cheap boats where made in the 70s and 80s if they have not been maintained or been rebuilt they will remain a cheap boat waiting for someone to come along and through money at them.
Bargains are rare and don't last!

Wow. That place is magnificent also Don. Cheers for that. Scott

southace said..

These cheap boats everyone are talking about are cheap because they need money spent on them!

If you actually take a look at them and no the ins and outs you will see that they will end up being expensive in the long term.......
a good 35 fter should be priced at $60 to $80k .....

Alot of these so called cheap boats where made in the 70s and 80s if they have not been maintained or been rebuilt they will remain a cheap boat waiting for someone to come along and through money at them.
Bargains are rare and don't last!

very true!

"that has been maintained to a high standard" - I think that is the key, and it will normally cost you. I agree with SouthAce here. I bought a 1983 31 footer for $24K as my first boat. The condition is good enough to have enjoyable days out sailing but I put in a new engine (around $13K installed plus significant related costs) after 5 months and in my view almost everything is in need of maintenance or upgrading. That means craploads of hours on projects. Seriously, a lot. I didn't buy my boat to do that but now that I'm doing it I'm enjoying it nonetheless. I suspect most normal people wouldn't. Financially I reckon by the time I get her to meet my personal standards she'll have cost me $60 - 70K. There's no way I would have spent that money up front. Others may have lower standards - but you did mention a wife!

It sounds to me as though you spend almost all your boat time actually sailing. I reckon that unless you want many of those RDOs and lazy days with the wife spent on the tools then you need to either spend more money or find one of those crazy, giveaway, genuinely maintained boats that someone good old soul have priced to sell. Pretty rare from what I've seen, though they do come around now and then. I missed out on what looked to by a brilliantly optioned and well maintained Compass 28 in Mackay a few years back listed for $15K because he'd bought a bigger boat and needed to sell. A well-maintained Compass 28/29 might be a good option; still good weekenders and seaworthy I hear. All the Seabreezers here have mentioned previously that bigger boats cost more for everything and it's true.

Fiesta said..

Dr Rog has captured your dilemma well. BTW, its a common issue.
There's not too many free lunches around and this is true for boats as well.

My view is the smaller the boat, often the more it can get sailed as its basically easier to handle smaller sails, anchors, motors etc. Having sailed on different boats from 8ft prams to 43ft Farrs, my personal maximum boat size is about 28ft as gives enough space and speed and I can still manage docking / anchoring solo and I'm not dependant on anchor windlasses and lots of electronic aids + less ongoing costs for antifoul etc. This boat size increases with personal skill level!

For a couple, a Space Sailer 24 is a nice cruising yacht with loads of room for the size. Not saying it's fast, space = windage = increased drag, but comfortable and solid. A really tidy one would be $20K in the eastern states, not sure in Tassie.

Good luck with your decision.

Hi Fiesta

A Spacesailer 24 was a boat i considered when we first thought about going to something bigger

This one www.boatsalestas.com.au/sail-monohulls/spacesailer-24-conbrio/3793/ was for sale here recently but i didn't look at it because it was short on headroom (i am about 6ft 1) and we thought it might be a better idea to look for something with a bit more room

I would be interested to see a Spacesailer 27 in the flesh

Regards Don