Comfortable seaworthy 25-30 foot yacht

$20 grand will get you a Holland 30. Holland 25 is a much smaller boat, a production version of the Holland quarter tonner where as the 30 rates as a half tonner. The 30 is a nice boat but not ideal as a singlehander. Holland 25's for 20 grand is a bit over the top!
I personally think 30 feet is the sweet spot for singlehanding and cruising as you envisage. I would recommend one of the fin keel and skeg half tonners from a few years back, SS30's [Defiance], Currawongs, Pion, Carter 30's, Viking 30 etc. You need full headroom, inboard diesel and try to avoid saildrives. Only look at boats with lead keels. The early Pions had cast iron. Currawongs have encapsulated lead keels and are virtually leak and maintenance free. The selling price of yachts is usually something like 80% of the asking price or less. The secondhand yacht market is in a nose dive and will continue to do so while fibreglass yachts continue with an unknown life span. The under 30 footers are just going to be worthless the way things are going. What was once a great family yacht is often now just a mooring minder.

Just one of my picks today. http://yachthub.com/list/yachts-for-sale/used/sail-monohulls/currawong-30/181511

Headsail furler needed though.

That is as good a piece of advice as you will get and that Currawong looks to be a top buy.

Seeing the price of that and the Adams tells me the market is still in freefall since I bought my boat nearly two years ago for $28,000.

Any boat choice is a compromise. The Currawong looks a great boat, however it is set up for racing, and Insomniac didn't mention racing. If he wants to explore the Hawkesbury area and maybe the coral coast, not having an anchor locker or anchor winch could be frustrating, especially if solo. I had an Albin Vega with no anchor locker, a pain! The Keyhole cabin entry and high first step in the Currawong is great for keeping water out of the cabin, but not easy if your back and knees are a bit crook. Being able to to stand on the cabin step, hatch open and have a look around is something I'd miss - and did with the Tophat too... And if Insomniac is ever to get his wife to go out, a V berth might be needed. I've found different boats suit according to your needs and budget at any one time, and you don't know till you get on it whether you even want to consider a test sail.

Thanks for all the suggestions...BDog is right , everything is a about compromise, and knowing where your priorities lie. And obviously the lower the budget, the bigger the compromises have to be. The Top Hat suggested by NSW Sailor might be a goer ...for reasons I'll post later I have made contact with the owner. Gotta go now, but will post a more detailed response shortly, as there more questions I'd like to ask. Cheers and you guys are champion!

Hi again. I think my original post was probably not entirely accurate...and if I am honest with myself, it is likely I will be restricted to Sydney /Hawkesbury trips with longer sojourns probably no further than Lake Macquarie or Port Stephens. So maybe I was getting ahead of myself ...yes I'd like to sail to the Whitsundays and beyond, but this is unlikely to happen soon.

Any purchase I make, will be the second yacht I have owned. Pressures of life and work meant I got sick and tired of what was an initially enjoyable experience. My first and only yacht was a Swanson 28. There are some people who love the Swanson 28 s, but I am not one of them. I had some very enjoyable experiences on that boat..but they were mainly on the mooring . I may be a little harsh in my criticism (and no doubt my lack of sailing pedigree was a large contributor), but the problem was when sailing it was hard to discern the difference to being off the mooring as opposed to be on the mooring!! It was that slow. It needed quite a bit of blow to get her moving. Also it used to tack beautifully through 180 degrees for a lovely downwind run. Apologies Swanson 28 enthusiasts.

So really I need to purchase something cheap, relable and seaworthy...such as a Top Hat, and see if my enthusiasm does not wane...as well as gaining my confidence and sailing skills...this was always my initial plan, find out if I could devote the time to sailing and maintenence, and enjoy. The problem was / is, I have been watchingYou Tube videos and the like and dreaming of sailing further afield...as well I keep looking at Yacht hub etc and keep going up the cost curve for a bigger yacht....perhaps status envy. But now, like my sailing, I have gone full circle back to the Top Hat...because of the comments received..and NSW Sailors post esp.

So think the Top Hat is the goer. The TH NSW Sailor pointed out looks pretty good for the price..it has a recent and favourable survey. It does however have an in well outboard, I would prefer an inboard..but compromise again. There are however two other yachts listed for sale and any feedback/advice from you good people would be valued...

A TH selling up at Lake Mac. It is on the boat sites and is listed fo high $9ks, it has a newish and shiney Kubota 18 hp..nicely overpowered ...for the Swansea rip no doubt.

There is also a cheap Marauder 27 ..the Jolly Frog with an appropriate colour scheme. Think it is in the $8k range. It has very tidy internals. But the Marauder 27 seems to have mixed opinons on this site.

Your thoughts comment are appreciated. Apols for typos.

sounds like you want to sail !! fast and point to windward ? ............... if this is correct , you will need fin keeler ,.................... EC31 , Defiance 30 or similar would suit .

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LMY said..
The top hat on Lake Macquarrie is near me. It looks like it has not had a lot of love for a few years.

At the very least if needs a good tidy up. You would want to take a very close look to be certain that there are not bigger issues.
The add notes that motor was fitted in 2005, with 65 hours since then. Six hours per year seems unusual. I wonder why this might be?

i checked out that boat about a year ago when it was for sale in Sydney (funnily enough the broker also had a very worn out Swanson 28 for sale). the motor sounds good on paper however because of its size it has been shoe-horned into the engine bay and would be very difficult and frustrating to work on. i may be wrong but from some photos i was shown it looked like the stern tube had been relocated from its original position, meaning that the prop shaft was at an even greater angle.

a couple of other things that stood out (apart from the fact that it looked like a bomb had gone off in the cabin) were that the wiring was terrible and the deck was soft around all the stanchion bases. the motor was near new, the standing rigging was done in 2012, and the running rigging was in good nick. my guess is that the boat was someone's restoration project that they gave up on (not the current owner though, the previous one)...

Hi all

The design of boats is interesting and sometimes what is appealing to one person may not be to another depending on what they intend to do with it

I have looked at boats with a key hole cabin entry without a sliding hatch and while i appreciate that they would be good and strong if the boat got knocked over i struggle to get in and out of the cabin easily

I have a mate with a Compass 28 and another with a Doven 30 that are both keyhole entry and i find it difficult to get in and out of the cabin on them

When i look at my Sailmaster and i can see that it might not be ideal for crossing oceans etc but for the sailing i do (fairly sheltered waters) it's design works well

Regards Don

The Marauder 27 has a wheel helm if you like that . You may be able to mount a table foreward off it on the helm post (or somewhere) on a swing and hinge setup for flexibility and the cabin length was purposely designed a bit longer than the usual 27' design calls for (at the cost of the length in the cockpit) . Depends whether you like to cafe' out in the cabin or in the helm area . Shorter cockpit plus a helm structure mounted in it eats into the space of the cockpit on two counts .

Also on the Marauder 27 the boom track runs across the entry to the companionway and stairs into the cabin which is a pain but someone suggested moving the boom track to a mounting on top of the coach head . I'm not sure how that would affect the mechanics of the tensions etc on lines and pully's or the boom and sail .

There is a Marauder in Gladesville Sydney (20MAR2016) for $7.5K with a 20hp penta motor sailer drive . It's interior is trashed though . Haven't looked at it but I'm chasing down a M27 or similar as my first foray into canvas . The M27 is good value for money but it is a bit of a no-name in terms of resale . It's their layout in the cabin that is balanced and appealing . It has a symmetry from the bottom of the stairs and foreward to the bulkhead that many later and longer boats have stuck with .

The Top Hat 25 was what I first wanted to get for it's reputation and seaworthiness and I almost went for one of the first TH25's I looked at but I kept looking at more TH25's then I hit two in a row that were trashed . The second one of them stank like death and from then on it was bye bye TH25 for me .
Spose you gotta use your head and your heart . What is value , what is seaworthy , what will I get for it if the financial wheels fall off and which one just feels right .

Like the Compass 30 . It's a country mile ahead of the 28's . Cheese and chalk . Love that type of layout below . Similar to the Marauder27 . Hmm save up for the Compass30 or get the M27 with the bucks I have .