When Hugo asked me to find four nice secondhand British boats, the obvious solution would have been to pack the story with the usual offerings from Princess, Fairline and Sunseeker. But we thought it would be interesting to find four homegrown heroes a little further from the mainstream. So I’ve…
Used Boats
Used Fairline Squadron 55: A real classic of the flybridge genre
A company very much on the front foot with its spanking new waterside factory and impressive looking new products in the pipeline, such as the Squadron 68 and F-Line 33, it’s easy to forget that Fairline went through some tough times in the early Noughties. Then owned by investment bank…
VIDEO: Grand Banks 47 used boat – trawler yacht packs punchy performance
“The Grand Banks 47 Heritage was created in response to customer demand. Clients loved the Grand Banks style, but wanted the ability to cruise at faster speeds. This boat gave them that”. I’m talking to Colin Watts, director of Boat Showrooms and guru of all things Grand Banks, and he’s…
Secondhand boat buyers guide: Best boats under £150,000
Bavaria S30 Built: 2017 Price: £142,540 A price tag of £150,000 is easily enough to slot you into some tasty new machinery. This ex-display model Bavaria S30 neatly bridges the gap between new and secondhand: it’s been antifouled and exhibited but never owned, so the warranties start from scratch. Interior…
Secondhand boat buyers guide: Best riverboats for sale
After years of offshore boating, a friend of mine relocated due to work and took up inland waterway boating instead. He described it as the most relaxing form of boating in the world. Navigation is easy, you just need to decide whether to go upstream or down. Short of a…
VIDEO: Marex 370 ACC used boat review
“Ironically, we were at Salterns Marina taking delivery of a new Technohull 888 RIB when we first became aware of the Marex 370 ACC. As a family we’d been boating for over 30 years but had three years out to see if we missed it. We did, and the Technohull…
Secondhand buyers guide: Best classic boats
Philips 50 Built: 1967 Price: £99,000 Early in the 20th century, the Philip & Son boatyard on the River Dart turned out everything from Trinity House lightships to tugs and tankers. In the early ’60s, before Princess, Sunseeker and Fairline had even been thought of, this once-prolific yard turned its…
Secondhand buyers guide: Best wheelhouse and walkaround boats
Botnia Targa 35 Built: 2006 Price: £165,000 No walkaround grouping would be complete without a Botnia Targa, king of the fast wheelhouse genre. Wessex Marine, the long-standing UK importer, rate the 35 as their personal favourite. Sat in the middle of a range that runs from 23ft to the flagship…
VIDEO: Windy 39 Camira – used boat review
“It’s like a Porsche 911. It’s a very high-performance machine, but like the Porsche, it’s underscored by quality, practicality and most of all, the fact that you can use it every day.” Lawrence pauses for a moment and smiles, “but it would be a 911 Convertible.” We’re aboard his Windy…
Secondhand buyers guide: Best boats under £200,000
Of all the ‘Find Me A…’ features I compile, I think I enjoy the price challenges the most, for two reasons. Firstly, it’s ultimately how most of us buy boats. We might have preconceived ideas about the type of boat we want, whether we prefer a sportscruiser to a flybridge,…
Secondhand buyers guide: Best starter boats under £20,000
Starter boats are crucially important and arguably the most vital to get right. Choose wisely and you should have fun and a relatively trouble-free pathway into your new boating pastime. Get it wrong, however, and you will wonder why you ever bothered. (In fairness, getting it right also comes with…
Secondhand buyers guide: Boats under £100,000
New boats become inexorably more expensive, but £100,000 can still buy you a very desirable secondhand boat. As ever with used boats, there’s a broad triangular trade-off between cost, age and size so if you fix one element (in this case the price) then the other two sides of the…
VIDEO: Used Boat – Stevens 1375 AC VLET
Next time you’re at a boat show looking at a new boat and the smiling salesman assures you that you can choose whatever you want because ‘it’s a custom build’, try asking him for a little less draft, or for the boat to be nine inches shorter or for the…
VIDEO: Used Boat – Jeanneau NC11
The innovative Jeanneau NC11 was built with practicality and usability in mind; Nick Burnham discovers how it stacks up as a secondhand purchase
VIDEO: Used Boat Review – Bavaria Sport 28
The spacious Bavaria Sport 28 makes a great step up for a family looking to broaden their cruising horizons
VIDEO: Used Boat – Bénéteau Swift Trawler 34
I was looking for an eight-metre sportscruiser a couple of years ago, and one model blew me away with its incredibly spacious and immensely practical layout. The search quickly morphed into a hunt for simply the best Jeanneau 805 Leader I could find. It’s been a while since a used…
VIDEO: Sunseeker Superhawk 50 – owner’s upgrade
A busy family life set Tom Wiggin on a quest to find an affordable used sportscruiser that he could transform into the ultimate fast dayboat. Several caught his eye, but were not quite the right one, until he stumbled upon a Sunseeker Superhawk 50
Video: Sealine SC38 | Used Boat Review
“When the SC35 came out, it completely killed the Sealine SC38 that had launched nine months earlier.” I’m with Sealine guru Richard Allen at his RPA Boat Sales office. He’s my go-to guy for anything Sealine related, having sold them for many years, initially for Sealine Sales, then Peters and…
VIDEO: Used Boat – Sunseeker Superhawk 43
A rather snazzy black and stainless-steel Cross pen sits on my desk. Engraved with ‘100 yachts over 100ft’ on one side and ‘Sunseeker’ on the other, it was given to me by the company when it celebrated building its 100th 100ft-plus yacht. Today a big player in the production superyacht…
