Best British-built cruisers around 32ft
You might think £30,000 sounds like a lot of money for a ‘starter boat’. But tracking down a comfortable and seaworthy yacht that’s over 30ft long, less than around 40 years old and capable of taking a crew on coastal cruising trips costing less than £30,000 on the second-hand market can be a challenging project.
It’s stating the obvious, but sailors who are happy with smaller yachts have far more to choose from. In the days before the ‘smallest’ new starter boat became a costly 30-plus footer, many builders used to offer popular ranges stretching from 20ft to 32ft. But if you are looking for something above the 30ft mark within a £30,000 budget, you will have to start delving into the realms of older yachts.
Groundbreaking cruiser
Those looking for smaller GRP starter boats – myself included – often settled on the ground-breaking 26ft Westerly Centaur. Between 1969 and the early 1980s, 2,444 were built; outselling any other British production cruiser.
To a large degree its success stemmed from the exceptional space, headroom and comfort that it offered in its day.
Three layout options were available and – more by luck than judgement – I bought the most popular. It had a twin berth forepeak, enclosed heads compartment, L-shaped saloon settee with drop-down table, linear galley to starboard and twin quarter berths aft.
Thanks to designer Laurent Giles’s thorough tank testing, the Centaur’s twin keels also broke new ground. These tests showed a substantial loss in efficiency when keels were aligned exactly fore and aft. So the LG team settled on splayed and identical (as opposed to asymmetric) keels with a 2° toe-in. I bought my second-hand Centaur as a floating cottage from which to follow and photograph the successes of our Hunter Sonata and Impala 28 One Design classes in the late 1970s. The Centaur did a great job. It sailed adequately, motored well and provided excellent overnight accommodation. And it still will today; especially if you find a tidy example with refurbished headlining panels and a recent engine.
Evergreen success
Going back to 1963, the evergreen Nicholson 32 is another candidate for a seaworthy and comfortable cruiser that just keeps going. Peter Nicholson sketched out his ideas for an all GRP Camper & Nicholsons fast cruiser that he hoped would become the new ‘people’s boat’. He envisaged a quick and seaworthy hull, a
