We pick 4 of the best motor yachts on the market right now for under £200k. It's a popular price point, so finding something unique is a challenge
Price challenges are always my favourite to research and write about, so when I hit the internet (and the brokerage pages of MBY, naturally) with a mythical £200,000 burning a boat-sized hole in my pocket it didn’t take long to come up with four cracking examples.
It took MBY’s editor to point out the obvious to me: that I’d chosen four 30ft two-year-old boats – there are a LOT of 30ft two-year-old boats to choose from at £200,000 it turns out.
But that’s not the point of the price challenge – the idea is to come up with a breadth of options out there on the current brokerage market, and a little more digging produced this fantastic crop. From a gentleman’s picnic boat to a two-cabin two-heads flybridge cruiser, there’s something for everyone.
The best motor yachts for under £200k
Jeanneau NC33
Built: 2018
Price: £199,500
Launched in the UK at the 2017 Southampton Boat Show, we got our hands on the first one in the country just before it moved into the show on a September day tailor-made to demonstrate the attributes of this adaptable compact cruiser. The NC deck saloon range was specifically targeted at the north European market, with the Leader range of open cockpit boats more suited for reliably warmer climates. At the time there was a range of both options, now just the NC37 remains and the Leader line has been dropped completely.
Saloon, galley, helm and cockpit are all on one level for safe, sociable family cruising
Interior
And it’s the deck saloon layout that worked so well on a day that alternated between sunny but chilly, and downpours of rain (and even chillier). There’s a comparatively small cockpit, and then sliding doors into a combined saloon and galley on the same level, with the helm ahead to starboard. This frees up space on the lower deck for two generous double cabins and a large heads. But a big sliding roof over the helm plus a sliding helm door mean that when the sun is shining, it’s actually a pretty open air (yet still sheltered) helm. A flip-over seat at the head of the dinette creates more forward facing seating for your crew.
Exterior
Asymmetric side decks give a nice wide walkway from bow to stern on the starboard side (accessed by that helm door), the narrower one to port still useable but squeezed to eke out interior space. The entire transom moulding and seat slides, giving priority to either the cockpit space or the bathing platform.
Performance
Twin Volvo Penta D3-220 diesel engines are the motors of choice for this model, being fitted to both the test boat and this example. With a clean hull and lightly loaded, they will push the boat easily onto the plane and top out just over a healthy 30 knots, making a low 20-knot cruise quiet and comfortable at around 3,000rpm.
The forward owner’s cabin is complemented by a second double guest cabin further aft
Seakeeping
Southampton water wasn’t throwing up much of a challenge on the day of our test but a couple of big ships kindly provided enough wash to get the NC33 sufficiently airborne to confirm a reasonably soft landing.
Jeanneau NC33 specifications
Length: 34ft 5in (10.5m)
Beam: 10ft 10in (3.3m)
Draft: 3ft 3in (1.0m)
Displacement: 5.4 tonnes
Fuel capacity: 520 litres
Engines: 2 x Volvo Penta D3-220 220hp diesel engines
For Sale: Boatpoint
Duchy 27
Built: 2019
Price: £199,950
Dave Cockwell, the man behind the Cockwells Modern and Classic Boatbuilding yard based just outside Falmouth in Cornwall, summed up the Duchy 27 perfectly. “We’re not trying to compete with anyone. All we’re doing is building a really nice boat that we hope people will like.” Because that’s what this boat is.
It’s not flash, it’s not an apartment on the water nor a flying machine. It’s simply a really nice boat.
Plentiful seating in the cockpit and a handy little table for those lunchtime picnics
Interior
The best way to sum it up is as a British picnic boat but there is a perfectly useable cabin down below taking up about a third of the length of the vessel, and it’s as simple and straightforward as the rest of the boat. A hoop of seating forward surrounds a table that drops to create a double berth. Aft to port is a compact galley and opposite to starboard a simple heads and shower. It’s deal for ducking out of the weather, and perfectly acceptable for a night aboard.
Exterior
The cockpit is where this boat is at. The centre section of the transom folds over to create an entry-point to the cockpit and a neat step from the bathing platform. And you’ll find a lovely deep horseshoe of seating around another table – perfect for picnics. The engine box in the centre provides fore and aft seating while at the front, an open-backed wheelhouse with sliding side windows and roof hatches protects the helmsman and navigator.
Performance
The centrally mounted Nanni T.4 diesel engine transmits its 200hp down a straightforward shaftdrive. It’s a well judged engine for this boat, you can potter along at 8 knots with just 1,500rpm showing on the tachometer, 2,200rpm lifts the bow and gives a steady 14 knots but 2,600rpm is probably the boat’s favourite speed, offering 18 knots and drinking about a litre per mile, the 263-litre tank therefore giving an easy 200-mile range with plenty in reserve.
The compact cabin has everything you need for a cosy night or two away
Seakeeping
A narrow beamed deep-vee semi-displacement hull will always provide optimum seakeeping, which this Andrew Wolstenholme hull proves very well.
Duchy 27 specifications
Length: 27ft 0in (8m)
Beam: 9ft 2in (2.8m)
Draft: 2ft 9in (0.8m)
Displacement: 3.3 tonnes
Fuel capacity: 263 litres
Engine: Nanni T4 200hp diesel engine
For Sale: Ancasta
Broom 42CL
Built: 2001
Price: £185,000
Introduced in 2000 and in production for seven years during which time 49 were built, the 42CL was the largest of Broom’s seagoing CL range when it launched, a range designed to handle offshore duties as well as the inland waterways that was Norfolk Broads based Broom’s stock-in-trade.
A big central saloon connected to a combined galley/dinette are ideal for longer cruises
Interior
An aft cabin layout, as almost all Brooms of this era were, the accommodation stretches from stem to transom. The massive aft cabin is the first show stopper, taking advantage of the hull’s square aft quarters to deliver something more akin to a bedroom, with a central double berth and separate toilet in the forward port corner, shower on the other side.
Head up and forward and you’ll find a large saloon with the unusual feature of direct access onto the port side deck via a sliding door as well as the more usual route aft and up onto the aft deck. The lower forward deck sports a sociable dinette opposite the galley, with the day heads accessed from here too. A vee berthed guest cabin nestles right in the bow.
Exterior
This is emphatically not a flybridge boat. What you get instead is the helm on the aft deck looking forward across the saloon roof. Apart from keeping the air draft down (important on a boat that has inland waterways in mind), it also allows for a large windscreen and full canopies to keep the helm dry in all weathers. Neat touches include nice low side decks and steps built into the hull amidships, making boarding from pontoons very easy, but Broom also added steps rather than a ladder from the bathing platform to the aft deck.
Performance
Twin Yanmar diesels nestle beneath the saloon floor. Broom offered 350hp, 400hp and 440hp versions of the Yanmar 6LY engines, as well as Volvo Penta’s D6 350 engines toward the end of production. The 350hp variants fitted to this boat are the most popular (and unstressed) option, and give a top speed in the mid 20-knot area.
The aft cabin is as large, comfortable and private as some shore-based bedrooms
Seakeeping
The semi-displacement hull has a shallow keel aiding low speed tracking, but the hull is very solid and perfectly suited to offshore running.
Broom 42CL specifications
Length: 42ft 6in (13m)
Beam: 13ft 11in (4.2m)
Draft: 3ft 6in (1.1m)
Displacement: 30 tonnes
Fuel capacity: 1,200 litres
Engines: 2 x Yanmar 6LY 350hp diesel engines
For Sale: TBS Boats
Sealine F380
Built: 2015
Price: £189,995
Unveiled at the Düsseldorf show in January 2014, the F380 was the very first model launched by the Hanse Group in Germany after it took on the Sealine brand. Based on the existing Sealine S380 sportscruiser hull although slightly longer, it translates into a very good looking and well balanced flybridge offering.
One of the most spacious interiors you’ll find on any
sub-40ft boat
Interior
Sealine stated at the time that the F380 had the largest interior volume in its class, an entirely believable claim because this is a seriously large sub 40ft boat. A conventional layout by the standards of the time, the owner’s ensuite cabin is in the bow, there’s a guest cabin to starboard, a day heads and galley to port and then steps up to the main deck saloon with the raised helm on the starboard side. But the big news is storage. Despite all that volume, there are lockers, drawers, bins and cupboards everywhere, not to mention a huge storage space beneath the saloon floor.
Exterior
Despite all that interior volume, the outside is surprisingly uncompromised. Side decks are eight inches wide and bulwarked, the cockpit is a sensible size and there are decent steps up to the high railed flybridge. It’s a good looking boat too, with its sweep of curved glass windscreen, although the small hull portholes date it by modern standards.
Performance
Being based on the S380 hull means sterndrives, so the engines are well aft beneath the cockpit floor. The boat we tested had twin six cylinder Volvo 5.5-litre D6 330hp diesel engines, but most went out with the physically smaller four cylinder 3.7-litre D4-300 engines, which lose a total of 60hp but counter with lighter weight, useful given their location. We saw
32 knots flat out, the D4 engines are probably not much less.
The cabins are just as well proportioned as the saloon, galley and the two bathrooms
Seakeeping
With those big engines set well aft, and the legs in and tabs down, you can drop below 15 knots still planing, giving a wide cruising speed band. We described the ride as ‘good, rather than exceptional’, entirely in keeping with such a voluminous boat, but its keenness to change direction given a handful of lock was certainly impressive.
Sealine F380 specifications
Length: 37ft 4in (11.4m)
Beam: 12ft 4in (3.8m)
Draft: 4ft 0in (1.2m)
Displacement: 10 tonnes
Fuel capacity: 910 litres
Engines: 2 x Volvo Penta D4-300 300hp diesel engines
For Sale: Southpier Marine
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