BEST USED YACHTS PRICED £40,000-£50,000
Choosing the right second-hand yacht to suit your needs as the years fly by can become ever more challenging. Unlike cars that fail MOTs and finally cease to be worth repairing, well-maintained GRP yachts seem to go on forever. There’s an ever-growing stock of elderly but basically sound yachts. However, the changes in each generation’s new designs can make the selection of a good used yacht more difficult.
Do you prefer the handling and motion of a moderate beam yacht with a long keel? Or do the later, wider beam designs with flatter hull lines appeal, thanks to their greatly increased space below… even though their handling and motion can become more demanding as the wind and seas get up?
The yacht’s engine will eventually become clapped out and need replacing. So it makes sense to look out for a boat that has been re-engined. But if you can’t find one, it’s relatively simple to get a new engine fitted. And much the same applies to the mast and standing rigging and the sails if they are in poor condition. Osmosis can also rear its ugly head, but this can be rectified. It’s just a matter of consulting your surveyor, doing the sums and negotiating a price that takes account of necessary replacements and work.
Design trends
Second-hand yachts available in the £40,000 to £50,000 price bracket cover a wide variety of ages and therefore design trends. Up to the early years of the 21st century, a succession of yacht racing handicap rules also had a major influence. The old RORC rule, late ‘70’s International Offshore Rule (IOR), Channel Handicap System (CHS) and now the International Rating Certificate rule (IRC) all had major influences on yacht design.
Harking back to the late 1970s, the She 36 is worth considering. This Sparkman & Stephens design started life on the drawing board in 1974/5 in the US as the Three Quarter Ton cruiser-racer Northstar 1500 and was subsequently renamed the Northstar 50 then the Hughes 35. In the UK, British builder South Hants Engineering introduced another take on this design, calling it the She 36.
The She 36’s dimensions are LOA 35ft 6in, LWL 29ft 6in, beam 10ft 6in, draught 6ft 4in and displacement 14,500lb. Her fin and skeg underwater lines are as
