Newbie needs help!

Hi, i've done a bit of shore fishing off the north Wales coast and have fallen in love with it, so much so that I want to buy a small fishing boat.

The thing is, no one I know knows anything about it, so it's really hard for me to find any information which will allow me to decide if it's for me. For example, although I think something like an Orkney Longliner or Shetland 500 will be suitable, and I have somewhere to store it, I have no idea how much it will cost to maintain, how much the fuel and insurance will cost and will it be safe/possible to launch and go out by myself.

Is anyone able to help?

Thanks in advance.

anyone_4_beer_darts wrote:

Hi, i've done a bit of shore fishing off the north Wales coast and have fallen in love with it, so much so that I want to buy a small fishing boat.

The thing is, no one I know knows anything about it, so it's really hard for me to find any information which will allow me to decide if it's for me. For example, although I think something like an Orkney Longliner or Shetland 500 will be suitable, and I have somewhere to store it, I have no idea how much it will cost to maintain, how much the fuel and insurance will cost and will it be safe/possible to launch and go out by myself.

Is anyone able to help?

Thanks in advance.

Hi, I'd say go for it, if you enjoy beach fishing then i can guarantee you'll enjoy boat fishing. Me and bro have not long got a boat and its a good laugh.
I don't know to much about the above boats but maintaining our sea hog doesn't cost to much.
Petrol for an average day costs £20, so between 2 of us it's a cheap day out.
If you get a 2 stroke engine the oil will cost £20-£30 for 4L and that will last you 4-6 months depending on how many miles you do.
The insurance we pay is £60 and thats 3rd party fire and theft with 2 million public liability.
The engine needs servicing every year i dont know how much that is because i did it my self last year(it's easy enough)petrol filter,spark plugs and change the gearbox oil.

As for launching by yourself, it is possible (i've seen it done) but i woud say it's a 2 man job. The best thing to do would be to join the club and attend the matches beacause everybody helps out when launching/retrieving and its so much easier and you'll also learn a lot. You can also apply for a free launching pass in Conwy if you join.
You could also put an advert up for a fishing buddy spliting all costs if you get a boat.
Hope this helps..

Thanks very much. Great idea about sharing the costs with someone, hadn't thought about that. Having said that, the costs you mentionned I could cope with, it's just if anything expensive goes wrong with it worries me.

How do you find your boat?

anyone_4_beer_darts wrote:

Thanks very much. Great idea about sharing the costs with someone, hadn't thought about that. Having said that, the costs you mentionned I could cope with, it's just if anything expensive goes wrong with it worries me.

How do you find your boat?

You could try the boatsandoutboards website,autotrader use to have a boat section, possibly E-Bay to give you an idea but the best thing is word of mouth,you could also look in the for sale ads on most fishing websites. The hardest part is finding a decent boat and engine that suits your budget, in theory if you get something half decent you shouldn't have trouble with things going wrong all the time and lots of expense.