Greetings from Ireland

[sogood]

Hello all and greetings from a soon to be, new owner of a Wellcraft Sportsman. I currently own a 16' Microplus which I have restored/refurbed, from the neglected boat I first bought, to a thing of joy and some beauty. I'm just waiting for some free time and better weather to put her in the water for the first time. My plan was always to use this boat, as an "introduction" for a season or two and then trade up to something bigger, but, before the inaugural launch even happened, I came across a Wellcraft that I couldn't refuse. I will be collecting my "new" boat this coming Sunday, all going well.

I live in Kenmare, in the beautiful county Kerry, in the South West of Ireland and am situated almost right on the mouth of Kenmare bay, 30 miles long before reaching the open sea and 12 miles wide at it's mouth. We have a nice harbour with free berthing and a free public slip, so no complaints there.

I will have a multitude of questions and look forward to sharing pictures and experiences. But for starters, can anyone tell me the combined weight of a 25' Sportsman and trailer? I will be towing the boat home, about 160 miles, hopefully, using a 4.0 litre Jaguar XJ6, mostly motorway.

Any thoughts or suggestions most welcome.

[sogood]

So, despite 40 views, no ideas as to the combined weight of a Wellcraft 250 sportsman and trailer. Boat is fitted with a Mercruiser 5.7 petrol engine. Any thoughts,........ anybody...............hello...............

[Rich3rdMorris]

1st welcome aboard. 2nd you may wanna try a general Google search for boat/motor/trailer weight. (4,400lbs dry weight is what I found) However if I'm understanding you correctly the Sportsman 250 isn't a small boat with a 8'6" beam, you may want to reconsider using a car to tow this boat. Let me rephrase that, you may want to reconsider using a car to stop the boat. Plus is the suspension on a Jaguar XJ6 designed for towing that much weight? At any rate here's a listing of a 250 Sportsman with some specs:
http://www.fontaineyachts.com/wellcraft ... specs.html

What ever you decide to do, remember that you're not only stopping your tow vehicle, you're also towing your trailer plus load.

One more thing, be safe and enjoy your new to you boat!

[sogood]

Hi rich and thanks for the warm welcome. I had already googled looking for information and I came up with a weight of 3,300 lbs approx., so perhaps this was without a trailer? Also the beam given on nay sites I came across was 8' as opposed to 8'6". The max towing weight for the Jaguar with a braked trailer is within the recommendation given by Jaguar, according to my owners handbook.

I'll be taking my time, with no major hills, mostly motorway driving and hopefully quiet roads, as it will be Sunday (tomorrow) when I collect it.

My other concern was negotiating a tight turn off my road into my driveway, but I've taken measurements, did the maths and allied to the fact that I drive tour coaches for a living, the size doesn't bother me. Dragging a 53 seater rigid coach around some of the boreens here in Ireland would prepare you for anything!

I will post when I get her home, with some pics and looking forward to being very much involved in the forum.

Thanks again for your response.

[sogood]

Just a note to say that my 226 mile trip home with my new purchase went off without any issues. Boat and car behaved themselves admirably! Will post some pics soon.

[sogood]

Well, as stated above, home in one piece and my new boat is parked up. Had a poke around, familiarising myself with what's what. I have already done a fairly comprehensive refurb on a 16' Microplus and it is ready for the water, which should happen any day soon. My plan was always to get a season or two out of it and then trade up to something bigger, in the 25' region. But I came across this Wellcraft, and the rest is history.

The plan is to use the Microplus for this season and work on the Wellcraft in between and then sell the Microplus on. It will, hopefully, almost pay for the Wellcraft.

The Wellcraft will be much more of a cosmetic, tidy up, putting right the signs of wear and tear and age in general. Happily the engine purrs beautifully, having had a lot of work done on it, including new starter, carb rebuilt.

I will post some pics as soon as I figure out how to!

[Riverboatin]

Congratulations!!! I have to say.. there is that part of me that is tickled sideways at the thought of you towing a boat with a jag And once i saw that you were a tour coach driver, i knew you would be fine!! Where are the pictures?

We just had our first trip out this season with our 94 Martinique... she is a joy!! happy boating!!

[sogood]

Hi Riverboatin and thanks for the warm welcome. I've tried to post some pics, but without success. The system on this site/forum doesn't work in the way that I'm used to. When I click on the "IMG" tab to insert an image, it doesn't direct me to the usual window/uploader. It just displays
"[img] [img]" and I don't know where to go to from there.

Any thoughts appreciated.

[Riverboatin]

its a goofy old fashioned system- i use a free service called photobucket - there is something called smug mug and I am sure a host of others. basically I uploaded my pic- kept shrinking it until it fit the specs given on this site - it then generated a code/link i could paste into my signature. i am SURE there is an easier way but all i wanted was to show of my new baby I aint even pretending!

you must link to an image stored on a publicly accessible web server, e.g. http://www.example.com/my-picture.gif. You cannot link to pictures stored on your own PC (unless it is a publicly accessible server) nor images stored behind authentication mechanisms, e.g. hotmail or yahoo mailboxes, password protected sites, etc. To display the image use the BBCode [img] tag

[WBO Admin]

To attach images from your computer just drag/drop them in the editor window (that's where I am typing right now) OR click the "add files" button below.