Nick Burnham picks out four of the best motor yachts on the market now for under £250,000 where second hand luxury meets affordability
When I was a younger man, a quarter of a million pounds was a serious amount of money. Today it’s just five top-of-the-range VW Golfs or an investment banker’s bonus.
It doesn’t even amount to the average UK house price. The good news is that it still buys a serious amount of boat. This month, we offer a choice of three very lovely, very sensible, British-made cruisers – an aft cabin, a flybridge boat and a sportscruiser. All the bases covered then.
Except not quite, because we found something else. Designed by Camper & Nicholson, built by Fairey Marine and constructed from aluminium, your £250,000 could net you a proper junior superyacht of a certain age. Feeling brave?
4 of the best motor yachts under £250,000
Sealine T51
Built: 2001
Price: £249,950
Launched at the Earls Court Boat Show in 1998, the T51 was by some margin the largest boat that the then Kidderminster company had ever built. As always with Sealine, there was some innovative thinking, in particular the way that the main deck superstructure had been pulled well forward, providing a bigger saloon area.
Even with the galley on the starboard side, there’s plenty of space for saloon seating
Interior
Prior to the turn of the century, the galley was traditionally banished to the lower deck. Although not the now ubiquitous galley-aft layout, Sealine did move the galley up to the main deck and put it to starboard, just behind the lower helm. Because of that elongated superstructure, there was still space for a very generous saloon aft of it, plus a separate dinette to port. As well as making the galley more sociable, this also created space for two doubles and two heads, plus a twin with side-by-side beds rather than the usual bunks on the lower deck.
Exterior
The T51 still echoed Sealine’s very curvy exterior look. That was pioneered by designer, Roger Tucker (famously credited with designing the Mini Metro), who had first introduced it on Sealine’s 365 Sportbridge back in 1988. Sealine specced the T51 with no cockpit seating as standard. The idea was to use freestanding furniture, but a moulded-in aft cockpit seat was a popular option and this boat has it. A locker built into the underside of the trailing edge of the flybridge also allows the canopy to be simply rolled up into it.
Performance
At launch, Sealine offered twin TAMD122P EDC engines at 610hp each, with MAN or Caterpillar 600hp options. We tested the first boat with the Volvos and achieved 29 knots, although it was felt that some propeller optimisation might yield another knot or two. Later on, this particular boat’s larger and more modern D12 675hp Volvos came on stream, enabling it to exceed the magic 30-knot barrier.
There are two double berths, two heads compartments and a twin cabin for guests
Seakeeping
John Bennett penned the underwater sections, and despite choppy seas on test, we said: “The hull was happy to bowl through the slop at any point of encounter, giving a comfortable account of itself with just the odd bit of spray aboard as we turned through it, but otherwise remaining dry on straight courses.”
Sealine T51 specifications
Length: 51ft 5in (15.7m)
Beam: 15ft 0in (4.6m)
Draft: 4ft 3in (1.3m)
Displacement: 18 tonnes
Fuel capacity: 2,044 litres
Engines: Twin Volvo Penta D12 675hp diesels
For sale: JD Yachts – jdyachts.com
Broom 370
Built: 2014
Price: £249,950
Norfolk builder Broom Boats had not long changed hands when the 370 launched in 2011. Designer Graham Warren had been commissioned to refresh the line-up, and this re-imagining of the Broom 365 was one of his first.
This was one of the first boats to feature a revamped interior with lighter fabrics and woods
Interior
The new look was most obvious on the inside, thanks to floating stairs mounted on a single spar that lead down from the raised aft deck to the main saloon and the sharper, cleaner look of the joinery. This boat’s oak came as standard but a darker cherry was also an option. It was a big change from Brooms of old, but the core values of quality and space remained and that was most evident in the owner’s cabin beneath the raised aft deck. It sports a central double berth and its own ensuite bathroom, not to mention plenty of privacy, courtesy of its physical separation from the vee berth in the bow.
Exterior
The most obvious update on the outside was a larger bathing platform, which also increases waterline length as the hull extends beneath it, acting a little like a huge fixed trim tab. Large glass panels (one of them an opening hatch) in the transom were another improvement, bringing natural light and a great view to the aft cabin. But again, up on deck, it’s Broom business as usual, with a well-sheltered aft deck and a useful canopy system that clips to the windscreen header rail or pushes back against the radar arch like a pram hood.
Performance
Broom designed this boat with both inshore and offshore capability in mind and to account for that, they offered various single and twin diesel engines, giving a wide maximum speed range from 7 knots to almost 30 knots. This boat has a single Volvo Penta D6-370, which is ideal for inland recreation but comes with a decent amount of punch for more lively offshore work when required. With this unit in the engine bay, you can expect a top speed in the mid teens and up to 10 knots at a cruise.
Seakeeping
The bow and stern thrusters fitted to this boat are essential for close-quarters handling, given the single shaftdrive engine. A shallow keel also helps with low-speed directional stability and when we tested one of these in big seas, we found it surprisingly capable.
Broom 370 specifications
Length: 37ft 7in (11.5m)
Beam: 12ft 4in (3.8m)
Draft: 3ft 4in (1.0m)
Displacement: 8 tonnes
Fuel capacity: 1,108 litres
Engine: Volvo Penta D6 370 370hp diesel engine
For sale: Bray Marine Sales – braymarinesales.com
Fairline Targa 44GT
Built: 2008
Price: £239,950
Fairline had been testing IPS drives since they were first introduced in 2005. In fact, it had trialled them on both the Phantom 40 flybridge and the Targa 40 sportscruiser, but it would take a further two years before the company felt confident enough to build IPS drives into a production boat – and when it finally did so in 2007, it was this model that reaped the rewards.
The satin oak finish of this boat is the more desirable option for modern buyers
Interior
We’ve become well used to full-beam owner’s mid-cabins in modern sportscruisers but this one predates that fad. The owner’s cabin is to be found in the bow with a centreline double berth and its own private ensuite. That leaves space for a mid-cabin more akin to the smaller 40ft sector, with scissor berths that hinge together to create a double. What this boat’s extra length does grant you is a second heads, which operates both as an ensuite to that second cabin and as a day heads. American cherry was available but the satin finished American white oak of this boat is a lighter and more contemporary option.
Exterior
GT is Fairline-speak for the presence of a hardtop, but the Targa 44 was hardtop only, so all 44s are GTs. There’s a large opening roof section and it’s GRP rather than fabric, so although it doesn’t open as far (because it can’t concertina), it is more weatherproof and more resilient. There’s a rubber seal that inflates around the aperture when shut, which Fairline claimed was ‘fatigue tested’ to 7,000 cycles, so that should serve you well. The area beneath it is pure cockpit space and it’s all the better for it.
Performance
Fairline offered a choice of two engine options, twin IPS500 at 370hp each or twin IPS600 at 435hp each, both based around the same D6 5.5-litre block. The factory quoted 33 knots with this boat’s smaller option and an extra couple of knots for the larger motors. Interestingly, towards the end of the period of production, Fairline offered sterndrives instead of the IPS pods, but IPS was by far the more popular choice.
The open cockpit is sheltered by a GRP hardtop with a solid retractable sunroof
Seakeeping
The Fairline Targa 44 GT has joystick control for close quarters manoeuvres. This helps vector the thrust and direction of each drive independently, making it even simpler to berth – one of the key selling points of all IPS boats.
Fairline Targa 44GT specifications
Length: 43ft 3in (13.1m)
Beam: 13ft 3in (4.0m)
Draft: 3ft 4in (1.0m)
Displacement: 12 tonnes
Fuel capacity: 996 litres
Engines: Twin Volvo Penta IPS500 370hp diesel engines
For sale: Parker Adams Boat Sales – parker-adams.co.uk
Guardian 20M
Built: 1979
Price: £249,950
If you have a quarter of a million pounds to lavish on a boat, there are, as you will already have seen, plenty of sensible options from mainstream builders that would give you years of fun and frivolity on the water.
But what if you don’t want sensible? What if you just want as much space as you can possibly get? What if your ultimate boating ambition is a superyacht and nothing else will really do?
Well then, you need to come and take a serious look at this because what we have here ticks all the boxes. Built by Fairey Ltd in 1979 out of 5083 marine-grade aluminium, it was apparently designed by Camper & Nicholsons – and that is as close to the superyacht big league as £250,000 is going to land you.
The forward pilothouse and galley back onto a vast, sprawling saloon
Interior
Let’s start with cabins. There are five of them scattered throughout the lower deck and accessed by three different entrances. All are ensuite and all of them sleep two people in a mixture of bunks, side-by-side single beds and doubles.
The main deck interior is mostly a vast saloon area, but there is a well-equipped galley forward on this level, and right at the front you will be pleased to discover a separate pilothouse.
Exterior
Considering this boat was built 45 years ago, it’s a remarkably modern and pleasing design. There’s even a transom door in the coaming that wraps around the whole boat and an integrated bathing platform.
It’s not cutting edge, but it’s far from dated looking. In fact, the only obvious give-aways are the ladder to the flybridge, where more modern boats have steps, and the lack of any fixed seating on the aft deck (although there is masses of room for freestanding furniture of course). The flybridge is a shade basic with just bench seats either side, but there’s an external helm position here too.
Performance
Twin Detroit model 92 V12 700hp diesels run Twin Disc (USA) marine transmissions model number MG-5141. The broker claims an incredible 35-knot top end!
As a 72-footer, you get no fewer than five ensuite cabins on the lower deck
Seakeeping
You won’t be surprised to hear that we haven’t tested one of these but with both size and weight on its side, solid stately handling is a very reasonable expectation.
Guardian 20M specifications
Length: 72ft 2in (22m)
Beam: 18ft 0in (5.5m)
Draft: 6ft 6in (2.0m)
Displacement: 38 tonnes (estimated)
Fuel capacity: 10,178 litres
Engines: Twin Detroit model 92 V12 700HP diesels
For sale: Boat Point – boatpoint.co.uk
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