BLUEMOMENT

As I'm new to these pages please forgive me if this has been asked before.
I'm looking at trading in my trusty 24ft, long keeled Macwester Rowen Crown to buy the above mentioned Beneteau.

If you've ever had any dealings with this model I would be extremely grateful for any info good or bad you can pass on.

Cheers,

Martin........

P.S Anyone know of any cheap mooring around Plymouth area as I can't afford a marina anymore!!

DjArgyleFan wrote:As I'm new to these pages please forgive me if this has been asked before.

Seems unlikely, particularly in view of the uncharactacteristic silence here.

I'm looking at trading in my trusty 24ft, long keeled Macwester Rowen Crown to buy the above mentioned Beneteau.

My first repsonse is to wonder WHY?

These boats are chalk and cheese AFAIK and the desire to change from one to the other would seem to indicate a major re-think. Tell us more - Please!

The only reason for the change is space. I'm sure what I'm going through at the moment has been happening for years and will continue to do so. The family is growing and my lovely little daughter who used to sail with us quite happily strapped in her car seat now wants to run around, draw pictures, play wth toys etc etc etc & is generally not happy sitting still for more than 2 mins. On the present boat there's just not enough room for her to do so. This means SHMBO spends the whole time struggling to keep up with nipper and cannot enjoy any time sailing. It's also become impossible to sleep on board as there's nowhere safe for the toddler to sleep and so on and so on. Because of this it's very rare to get the family involved in the sailing and most of the time I'm sailing on my own, OK but not what I really want.
The new boat has little luxuries like seperate heads, a roomier saloon with a table, a much safer forward cabin for the small one, a bit more galley space etc etc. I'm kinda hoping that a bigger boat will make the journey time to Guernsey a little quicker than the 24 hours each way it took this year!!!

Because I've been so happy with all aspects of the Macwester when sailing alone or with mates (lads w/ends in Salcombe especially) I just wanted to try and make sure that there was nothing really bad about the Beneteau I hadn't heard of. As we're likely to have another child in the near future the problems of sailing with the family on the Macwester are only going to get worse. As I said at the start I'm sure I'm not the first to encounter this & I'm sure I wont be the last!!

.. though I know sod all about the First 30 apart from the fact that it belongs to Beneteau's "sportier" range. You seem to be addressing two issues at once here and I can understand both. Silkie is no ocean greyhound nor is she the Hilton Hotel.

I can't remember which famous yacht designer it was who said "I can design a boat with any two of the following three characteristics: speed, accomodation and comfort at sea." I dare say those weren't his exact words but it remains true today. I can't help but think that to change to a boat whose design parameters were speed and accommodation (in that order) from one designed for comfort at sea and accommodation (in the terms of the times) might be going from the sublime to the ridiculous!

But you may well be right and this will be a revolution in your sailing. I often smile when I catch myself describing (in my blog) my satisfaction at reaching six knots!

Awrrabest whatever you decide.

Silkie,
Shame on you! the Hurley 22 may not be an ocean grayhound, but she is certainly an ocean whippet at least!
DjArgyleFan,
The First 30 (I assume your talking about the older style boat I don't know if it's been updated) isn't too bad in terms of fin keelers, it has fairly conservative lines aft which should (theoretically) give her reasonably good seakeeping ability, but it will not be anywhere near as good as your long keeler, on the otherhand she will be quicker and easier to turn and tack. you pays your money etc. etc. Whatever you do don't be tempted by the modern style of wide transomed fin keeled yacht, they have caravan like accomodation, but handle like a caravan in a quartering sea, taking all the pleasure out of the sail. If you do go for the First get a proper survey done on it, I have heard that the build quality of the First 30 is quite good, but I have had problems with some other Beneteaus (old and new) with regard to this.
I guess the difference is that your Macwester and Dave's Hurley were built to a specification, (hence they have gone out of buisness!) whereas the more modern Beneteaus are likely to be built to a price. To get the same quality in a bigger boat seems to be prohibitively expensive.
Good luck in your search.

Well I've done it. I am now the happy owner of a 1979 First 30. Survey found nothing of note and she was craned in Thursday afternoon.
I wasn't very clear in my original post but was really asking if anyone knew of any reason I should't buy it. Although I needed more space for a growing family I didn't want to end up with something like the current breed of mass produced AWB's that only seem any good for marina hopping on nice days. (not to mention the need to start reefing if anyone farts within a mile).
Thanks for your posts, so far I'm very happy with the new one, just looking forward to getting the sails on and giving it a good go........

perhaps I should start a blog!!

perhaps I should start a blog!!

Go for it . . .

I hope you'll have many happy miles in her.

Do the blog!