SHETLAND OWNERS ASSOCIATION

Hi all,

I'm quite interested in a bigger (yet still affordable) Shetland boat. This is for sea sailing (with the ability to go quick enough - planing). We currently have an early Family Four. I see a "black prince" for sale which I think is like a Family 4 + 2 (with table, seats by table and head while the cockpit seems about the same - I guess just older than a family 4 + 2 ?). The alternative might be a different manufacturer altogether (I'm always keeping an eye on very late '80s Sealines too but I'm a bit concerned about how to maintain the old inboard petrol engines). I'm guessing a pretty big outboard would be needed to get a bigger Shetland moving at sea.

Does anyone have any experience of the longer Shetland boats and how they compare to the smaller ones? I have to say I'm really happy with our Family four - I replaced the engine and steering and it's really great (Reflecting on this now replacing the steering wheel/unit/cables was pretty cheap, easy to do myself, and made the steering much more pleasant to use so actually really good return on the cost). Our family four is easy to control and dock and very reliable (provided the weather is good - choppy sea isn't much fun at all). There is also a good chance I won't do anything just now and just stick with our family four and think about this again in a years time but I like looking at what's around and considering what might be next.

thanks for any comments

Derek

We upgraded our 570 for a 4+2 as we wanted more space. we live in Southampton so our cruising area was the IOW and The Solent. Our 570 would happily plane with a 70 two smoke on the back, but then it was designed to do that. Our 4+2 really was never designed to plane. We had a 50 4 stroke and it coped well with what nature could throw at us. it was not a speed merchant. Hope this helps

Hello Admin (Sue?). We have a 4+2 which I plan to use coastal. I’ve taken the RYA Powerboat Level 2 and VHF radio courses at Southampton and currently am doing the upgrades - radio, aerial and inboard tank and fuel gauge. I will only ever be a fair weather sailor and don’t plan on facing challenging conditions but things do happen. I have a Honda 35 outboard which I appreciate is on the small side but from your experience do you think it will cope with conditions in the Solent? It’s a perfectly good engine and I don’t really want to replace it unless necessary. If I get more adventurous I would expect to upgrade to a 50 or 60.

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@Clive I have F4 with 70HP four stroke and sometimes cruising IoW area and having wind against tide etc I wish to have more power. You should be fine (with even bigger boat than mine and twice less power) but going through cross currents, wind against tide chop etc will become a bit hairy