Shetland 610

[admin]

Hello and welcome. We have quite a few 610 owners here who will be able to help you

No question is ever to silly or obtuse to ask, cos we have all asked them before!!

Sue-Admin

[deeandmartin]

We changed 2 years ago from a 535 to a 570 and were also looking at 610's, we are trailer boaters and have been all over from the lakes to the Solent to various rivers including the Thames. We eventually decided that we would go with the 570 from a towing point of view as many of the roads we tow on are quite narrow and we live in Wales so generally have to negotiate narrow roads before we even get on the main roads or motorways! Just as a matter of interest we have regularly slept very comfortably on both our 535 and our 570 more so the 570 due to he storage capacity.... Due to our varied boating we currently have a 100 hp 4 stroke engine on our 570 which performs excellently with our varied boating coastal and inland. Hope this helps, and good luck with your quest, Dee

[admin]

The numbers of Shetland denote how long they are, so a 535 is 5.35m, 570 is 5.70m etc. So the 610 is the longest and has more cabin head room than the other 2. That said my hubby is 6ft 2 and well built and we sleep very comfortably on our 570. In fact we have spent 10 nights straight on her. We live on the coast and so needed a boat that would carry a decent engine (75hp 2smoke).

The 610 is a nice sized boat to sleep on

It's all about personal choice, bank balance and what you want your boating to do. Do you need to trail? Although we are on the coast, we trail inland too

We have on board VHF radio, depth finder and seperate GPS/plotter

Hope this helps

[deeandmartin]

As Sue says it is all a balancing game, Sue and Rog live on the south coast, we live in Mid Wales, we have both spent a lot of time trailering together over the last few years, they are very lucky living where they do so close to water, we end up as water gypsies trailering all over the place, but have to admit to loving the flexibility. We both have 570's which we have both done up to our own individual requirements. The standard layout cabin space bed is every bit as big top end (obviously narrowing into the bow area) as our King size bed at home, and like Sue says we have each on our boats quite happily done 10 nights onboard! We gutted ours and then had our carpenters rebuild our lockers both in the cabin and cockpit, we have full electrics for when we are on a pontoon and also for when we are 'barebacking' with no facilities working off the batteries, lights, Tv/DVD player etc. We have been trailering since we had our 535 in 2008' we have managed on average 80 hours cruising per year despite the last couple of bad summers, trailering is great and allows so much flexibility, but is obviously not for everyone.
We were very lucky in joining in the first Shetland flotilla on the south coast in 2008, we met some wonderful people who have become good friends, it taught us so much and the ongoing exchange of information has been invaluable, our choice of the 570 was very much down to seeing Sue and Rogers boat. It is all down to personal preference, and it may well be worth asking if there is anyone close to you with a 610 that you can go and look at, or even some of the other Shetland models such as the Saker or the Kestral, one thing you can guarantee is that whatever boat you go for you will end up changing it at some stage to fit your own requirements. As Sue mentioned equipment wise we also have a VHF and GPS/fish finder and compass? There is a mine of information on this site and the gallery section is a great place to have a good browse through at models and equipment for ideas and information, and the members on here are always happy to help, good luck with your search, Dee

[NelsonAdmiral]

Was that Shetland 610 called WASP by any chance? Only I bought it if it was. I'm new to boating and its huge. Barely trailerable with a car - though that's exactly what I do. But its too big to launch unassisted.

[daveinglasgow]

Hi

shetland 610's are great but you do need a good sized family car to tow them hence why mine is going up for sale. she also should not have a 140hp engine on it as that is getting to far above the allowed max for the transom. Oh and before anyone comments on the videos on you tube we reinforced the transom and the engine was racing spec so v light for HP output

pro's size, extra comfort, size (I know I have said this but there is a huge difference), storage

cons's bigger car needed for towing and in my case an extra £130.00 for the mooring fee per yer but then I could just walk up to the pontoon an turn the key and off I went.

Do I love my 610. YES, but for me on my own touring the west coast she is just a bit to big. Gutted she is being sold with a 4 year old trailer lots of extras for 2500 inc fishfinder , vhf, fenders, gps etc.

Dave