The History Of Nelson Yachts

The first real Nelson boat was designed and built in 1959 by Peter Thornycroft, the grandson of the founder of John I. Thornycroft & Company shipbuilders. Peter Thornycroft founded Keith, Nelson & Co. Ltd in 1955 and in 1959 built the 29ft Nigella which was a wooden boat commissioned by Leopold baron de Rothschild who wanted to commute quickly from his home on the Beaulieu river to the Royal Yacht Squadron at Cowes.    

After this, Thornycroft built the Nelson 32, and the best-selling Nelson 34 GRP boat in 1962. The Royal Navy bought many of the latter, including two launches for the Royal Yacht Britannia. This was followed in 1964 by the Nelson 40 which Trinity House found could be used by pilots in any weather conditions, doing away with cutters on cruising stations. Hulls for the Nelson 40, and later 44, were built by Halmatic, and Tyler built Nelson 75 hulls for use as coastguard patrol vessels.

Today there are many different boatyards building boats of the Nelson design, and you can find Nelson yachts for sale at many different yards and brokerages. There is also a Nelson Boat Owners Club which was founded by Commander Peter Thornycroft and Lord Montagu of Beaulieu in 1984 shortly after Montagu took delivery of his second Nelson, a 35 named Cygnet of Beaulieu and designed by Thornycroft’s design company TT Boat Design and built by Halmatic.

Today, if you Google “Nelson yachts for sale” you will get around 2 million results. These include a Nelson 18 Halmatic built in 1971 which is very rare and is on offer for just £7,995, to a Nelson Seaward 42 which is only two years old and was built to travel to Norway and the Baltic, which it did successfully in 2017. That boat will set you back £650,000. However, many of the Nelson yachts for sale are in the under £100,000 price range, including very many for less than £50,000, which makes them an affordable choice for a family which just loves “messing about on the water” as so many of us do.

Taking Charge Of A Motor Cruiser For The First Time

Motor boating is a fun and relaxing pastime, and many boat owners spend as much of their spare time as possible on their boats. There are many different types of motor cruiser available, from small craft for cruising up and down the River Thames, on the Norfolk Broads, or exploring the canals, to larger craft for cruising in coastal waters, and motor yachts for seagoing expeditions. 

If you have never been in charge of a motor boat but think that you might want to buy a boat, the best thing to do is to book a motor cruising holiday. There are many boatyards on the Thames and the Norfolk Broads where you can hire a boat for a week or two, and if you can drive a car you already have some of the basics. However, handling a motor cruiser is nonetheless somewhat different from a car. You will need some basic instruction from the yard on handling, checking the engine in the morning, mooring, pump-out stations (where you can have the toilets emptied), dealing with locks if you are on the Thames or a canal, and so on, but in an hour or so you should be confident enough to take control for the first time.

The Norfolk Broads are great if you love being on the water and getting away from it all, but they can become extremely busy during the summer holidays. The best time to hire a motor cruiser on the Broads is late spring and early summer, when the trees are coming into leaf and bud. Much of the Broads is tidal and the difference in the water height can be several feet, so if you moor in a tidal area overnight you need to make certain that the mooring ropes are not too tight, so that the boat can drop with the tide.

Another point about mooring is that you need to moor for the night while there is still plenty of daylight. It is not a good idea to be searching for a mooring in the dark! After a week or two of cruising, you should be competent handling a boat and you will know whether you want to invest in your own.