Gordmac

Great boat, steep learning curve!
Arrived at Dunstaffanage Monday to a fairly miserable day, quite wet and windy. For reasons not unrelated to the low tide we were hanging about for about five hours before launch. Yard guy had to show me how to unlock the electronic control before I could lower the outdrive, like I said, steep learning curve!
Staggered along towards the fuel berth, straight line, what is that? No idea which way outdrive is pointing and steering has about double the turns my old boat had. Boat on pontoon so tried parking elsewhere with no success, outdrive is quite different to twin shafts! Nearly made it on umpteenth attempt but had to move as the boat belonging to the berth arrived. Eventually put it in on the inside of the fuel berth as a large boat was being refuelled, something like 1500l I think, ouch! 
Eventually got fuel and headed home, a bit choppy due to the wind but boat coped fine (not sure about crew though!) low 20kn. Bit smoother turning North and got a lot calmer after a few miles, sat about 25kn easy enough and very quiet. By the time we got home wind was well down and it had stopped raining, just the weather we would have liked earlier!. 
Put on club pontoon easy enough and easier to get off than old boat would have been, not so hard with little wind! Picked up tender and put on mooring, relieved to find the mooring strop would actually fit!
Spent the last few days reading the instructions! There is a rudder position indicator on the autopilot, that is very useful. Went over the boat, only thing I can find not working is the shower drain pump. Went through all the menus on the plotter sounder, even got the radar working, no idea what it shows, but it works!
There is a frame at the forward cockpit and lots of canvas bits that sort of fit with it, only two bits I have no idea about! I need to refit the wheelhouse table and there are two smaller tables for the forward cockpit.
Been messing about with outdrive trim and trim tabs. Bit windy Friday so spent a while pontoon bashing, slowly getting the hang of it! Most difficult thing for me is no steering unless in drive, rudders on last boat worked well in neutral so you could go slowly and steer. The Targa picks up speed quickly when put in gear.
I am impressed how easily it will travel quickly in a bit of a chop and it is so quiet, quieter than a car. The side doors and wide walk around bits are good for getting out to the ropes quickly. Rear door is useful but not necessary. Bags of space outside. High bow and bow flare hinders visibility a bit particularly when going for the mooring buoy. Will go for another play today and maybe a bit of fishing Monday.
Will stick up some pics later.
 
 

Great boat, steep learning curve!
Arrived at Dunstaffanage Monday to a fairly miserable day, quite wet and windy. For reasons not unrelated to the low tide we were hanging about for about five hours before launch. Yard guy had to show me how to unlock the electronic control before I could lower the outdrive, like I said, steep learning curve!
Staggered along towards the fuel berth, straight line, what is that? No idea which way outdrive is pointing and steering has about double the turns my old boat had. Boat on pontoon so tried parking elsewhere with no success, outdrive is quite different to twin shafts! Nearly made it on umpteenth attempt but had to move as the boat belonging to the berth arrived. Eventually put it in on the inside of the fuel berth as a large boat was being refuelled, something like 1500l I think, ouch! 
Eventually got fuel and headed home, a bit choppy due to the wind but boat coped fine (not sure about crew though!) low 20kn. Bit smoother turning North and got a lot calmer after a few miles, sat about 25kn easy enough and very quiet. By the time we got home wind was well down and it had stopped raining, just the weather we would have liked earlier!. 
Put on club pontoon easy enough and easier to get off than old boat would have been, not so hard with little wind! Picked up tender and put on mooring, relieved to find the mooring strop would actually fit!
Spent the last few days reading the instructions! There is a rudder position indicator on the autopilot, that is very useful. Went over the boat, only thing I can find not working is the shower drain pump. Went through all the menus on the plotter sounder, even got the radar working, no idea what it shows, but it works!
There is a frame at the forward cockpit and lots of canvas bits that sort of fit with it, only two bits I have no idea about! I need to refit the wheelhouse table and there are two smaller tables for the forward cockpit.
Been messing about with outdrive trim and trim tabs. Bit windy Friday so spent a while pontoon bashing, slowly getting the hang of it! Most difficult thing for me is no steering unless in drive, rudders on last boat worked well in neutral so you could go slowly and steer. The Targa picks up speed quickly when put in gear.
I am impressed how easily it will travel quickly in a bit of a chop and it is so quiet, quieter than a car. The side doors and wide walk around bits are good for getting out to the ropes quickly. Rear door is useful but not necessary. Bags of space outside. High bow and bow flare hinders visibility a bit particularly when going for the mooring buoy. Will go for another play today and maybe a bit of fishing Monday.
Will stick up some pics later.
 
 

Great boat, steep learning curve!
Arrived at Dunstaffanage Monday to a fairly miserable day, quite wet and windy. For reasons not unrelated to the low tide we were hanging about for about five hours before launch. Yard guy had to show me how to unlock the electronic control before I could lower the outdrive, like I said, steep learning curve!
Staggered along towards the fuel berth, straight line, what is that? No idea which way outdrive is pointing and steering has about double the turns my old boat had. Boat on pontoon so tried parking elsewhere with no success, outdrive is quite different to twin shafts! Nearly made it on umpteenth attempt but had to move as the boat belonging to the berth arrived. Eventually put it in on the inside of the fuel berth as a large boat was being refuelled, something like 1500l I think, ouch! 
Eventually got fuel and headed home, a bit choppy due to the wind but boat coped fine (not sure about crew though!) low 20kn. Bit smoother turning North and got a lot calmer after a few miles, sat about 25kn easy enough and very quiet. By the time we got home wind was well down and it had stopped raining, just the weather we would have liked earlier!. 
Put on club pontoon easy enough and easier to get off than old boat would have been, not so hard with little wind! Picked up tender and put on mooring, relieved to find the mooring strop would actually fit!
Spent the last few days reading the instructions! There is a rudder position indicator on the autopilot, that is very useful. Went over the boat, only thing I can find not working is the shower drain pump. Went through all the menus on the plotter sounder, even got the radar working, no idea what it shows, but it works!
There is a frame at the forward cockpit and lots of canvas bits that sort of fit with it, only two bits I have no idea about! I need to refit the wheelhouse table and there are two smaller tables for the forward cockpit.
Been messing about with outdrive trim and trim tabs. Bit windy Friday so spent a while pontoon bashing, slowly getting the hang of it! Most difficult thing for me is no steering unless in drive, rudders on last boat worked well in neutral so you could go slowly and steer. The Targa picks up speed quickly when put in gear.
I am impressed how easily it will travel quickly in a bit of a chop and it is so quiet, quieter than a car. The side doors and wide walk around bits are good for getting out to the ropes quickly. Rear door is useful but not necessary. Bags of space outside. High bow and bow flare hinders visibility a bit particularly when going for the mooring buoy. Will go for another play today and maybe a bit of fishing Monday.
Will stick up some pics later.
 
 

Thanks, pencilled in to arrive Monday, chickened out of taking her home by sea, best part of 300nm including canal. 
Missing galley module which I will need to sort something for. Accommodation is a bit basic but two single bunks rather than a double which is a plus, no mattresses though! I have always liked the Botnias, plusher Targa a lot more money and hard to find. The way things are at the moment boats are very hard to get and don't hang around for long. 

Have come to an agreement for buying this, thanks for bringing her to my attention.

Have come to an agreement for buying this, thanks for bringing her to my attention.

As in vehicle structures.

Something using hyperbolic functions, not too common! Used to teach shear diffusion that included them, too hard for the students so we dropped it. Not that I can remember any of it now.
From what I can remember from when I towed a fair bit the hitch damper was just that, stopped the trailer from hammering into the towbar under braking by damping the movement.

Botnia Tarfish

Going to Shetland to look at one, probably next week. It is getting some work done at the moment.

Keep to the deep wet bits!
Don't be afraid to ask for help and advice from people who actually know. Can be difficult to identify those from the ones who think they know though.

Fill holes with epoxy and gouges with gellcoat filler?

E85, that's hand sanitizer! Porsche are developing synthetic petrol to keep their sports cars alive. Maybe that's the future for marine petrol?

Carpet tiles?

I never found sticking my boat on it's mooring a problem (unlike rowing back against the wind!), the problem was putting it on the club pontoon. Getting from the wheel to get a line on a cleat before the bow got too far away was sometimes tricky!
I have to say I am a bit scared of the risk with an outdrive but as Maverick says, there is also a fun factor to the higher performance outdrive boat. I also like the extra manoeuvrability of twin engines. Terrible these first world problems!

From what I can see the Starfisher comes in two forms walkaround or flybridge, you can't have both. My biggest issue with the accommodation on it and a lot of others is that they only have one fixed bed. I may take you up on your kind offer, they are one of the boats on the maybe list.

The 9.80 is a nice boat but getting a bit big. Big boat, big fuel bill! From figures I have seen 2.7-3l/m. As I said, I don't have much income so running costs come from capital, one of those would need to be a fair bit cheaper to be affordable.
Normally there would only be two or three fishing a rod each, I don't need space for six rods!
I appreciate the input (well except the fancy rounders input!), Keep it up!

The 9.80 is a nice boat but getting a bit big. Big boat, big fuel bill! From figures I have seen 2.7-3l/m. As I said, I don't have much income so running costs come from capital, one of those would need to be a fair bit cheaper to be affordable.
Normally there would only be two or three fishing a rod each, I don't need space for six rods!
I appreciate the input (well except the fancy rounders input!), Keep it up!

Thanks.
I think the BT 25 would be too small for me, the 27 I had a look at and I wouldn't want a smaller one as the cabin and wheelhouse would be too cramped. I think that one has been advertised for a while, brokers don't seem to remove ads when a boat sells!
Big semi displacement boats like the Aquabell tend to use a lot of fuel for not a lot of speed. Far too much wood in that one, not a fan of wood in boats. 
The Rodman is on my interesting list, a bit over budget but ono, been advertised for a while. Would like a look at it.
The Starfisher has twin 150hp, how would that compare to your single 260hp? My thinking was not that much more than the twin 120s in my previous boat and it would maybe do 17kn flat out.
I quite like the Aquador 28C, would like a look at one. Looked at a 25C which was a bit cramped. That one has been advertised for a very long time, I suspect it has sold as it doesn't seem to be on the brokerage.
Thanks for the suggestions.

Budget around £60k. As I have some capital but a low income, running the boat comes from capital so for something cheaper to run I can spend more and vice versa.

If it is good you will never know!

If it is good you will never know!

Props can be a bit reluctant to come off. Get a decent puller and have a decent blowtorch on standby to heat the prop if it won't move.
Brick cleaner dissolves barnacles, and hands.

I live on the Scottish West coast. I enjoy messing about with boats and a spot of fishing. Having sold my Levi Corsair I have only been on the water in a wee inflatable this year. On the lookout for a replacement.