2025 van purchases

[Lffsam]

Drove Central France to Cardiff to collect a sports boat and back home non stop except a couple of hours kip in the boat parked at Dover services. That was when you could get the frequent traveller packages of 10 tunnel trips for £400, and pay another £40 on top of you were towing (per trip). You could even have a joint account with a friend or neighbour and share the trips. Sadly these tickets disappeared with Covid and have not returned. Can cost over £400 for a return trip if towing now .

 

[Monkeybusiness]

Drove Central France to Cardiff to collect a sports boat and back home non stop except a couple of hours kip in the boat parked at Dover services. That was when you could get the frequent traveller packages of 10 tunnel trips for £400, and pay another £40 on top of you were towing (per trip). You could even have a joint account with a friend or neighbour and share the trips. Sadly these tickets disappeared with Covid and have not returned. Can cost over £400 for a return trip if towing now .

More boat info required (with pics!) please!!!

 

[V8Druid]

I have done some mental shifts on the ski holidays. I think 990 miles was the longest with only toilet, fuel stops and ferry. I think it was leave Austria at 8am and back home 3am. The tunnel has reduced the time taken, but I am not a fan of the Dover to Gloucester stint when it is dark and raining late at night. Perhaps I am just getting old!!

my longest 'day' ever was 986 miles on the Kawi thou, many years ago ... far side of Hungary back to a wedding in France in a looooooong 12+ hr day ... fuel and fluid stop every 90 minutes on an exceptionally hot day in '91 ... the following day at the wedding felt even longer

 

[V8Druid]

my longest 'day' ever was 986 miles on the Kawi thou, many years ago ... far side of Hungary back to a wedding in France in a looooooong 12+ hr day ... fuel and fluid stop every 90 minutes on an exceptionally hot day in '91 ... the following day at the wedding felt even longer

the Kawi has a sweet spot at 5000rpm, which is nigh on 85mph which is a nice cruising speed, but with 130-135 miles to a tank, a tank didn't/doesn't last long, hence the 90 minute pit stops .... and it was 35-37C that day which was HOT, in leathers .. tank of fuel, two x 2ltr bottles of fluid strapped/bungee-ed to the fairing, drunk on the move, drop of engine oil if needed and gun it again ........ loooooooooooooooooooooooooong day, but a relatively 'fun' one .. Kawi is set up for distance bashing

 

[Lancs Lad]

my longest 'day' ever was 986 miles on the Kawi thou, many years ago ... far side of Hungary back to a wedding in France in a looooooong 12+ hr day ... fuel and fluid stop every 90 minutes on an exceptionally hot day in '91 ... the following day at the wedding felt even longer

Try princetown and back in time for tea with ifor 14ft in tow....🫩.rather nice EU summer roads than M6 shite anyday.

 

[Furniss]

The worst part of any drive back across Europe is once you get back into the UK - it feels like a dirty, crumbling shithole after French autoroutes!

Agreed the autoroutes are fantastic, went down to Annonay with mrs for a little break (look at bike.. cough cough ) 1800kms gadding about and last friday/sat went to Thivier to pick one up - 1100kms round trip but a doddle, set of lunchtime, took a gite that night and back next afternoon, only hassle was traffic @ Nantes otherwise brilliant.

7hrs and 40€ and you're in the Pyrenees

 

[Lffsam]

More boat info required (with pics!) please!!!

I passed my boat licence here in France shortly after we arrived in 2005, and bought this little Austin Powers number (Fletcher GTO with a 135hp outboard ) in the UK.

Soon got bored and wanted a better boat, so sold the Fletcher and more than doubled my money. Happy days! After that and up until Brexit I bought and imported roughly one boat and one car every year. Double up on the boats, treble or more in the little Mazdas.
Kept it simple and stuck to what worked. 18-20' bowrider boats, mainly with the 3.0 & 4.3 Mercruiser engines and Z outdrive units. Early MX5's.
Did pretty much everything that needed doing before resale, gimble bearings, outdrive boots, water pump, etc. Soon learned to avoid boats that had been on the sea, and only bought freshwater use, mainly from Scotland and Ireland.
Here are a few pics of some of the others and a couple of Mazda.

Enjoy

 

[Monkeybusiness]

I passed my boat licence here in France shortly after we arrived in 2005, and bought this little Austin Powers number (Fletcher GTO with a 135hp outboard ) in the UK.
View attachment 77271View attachment 77272
Soon got bored and wanted a better boat, so sold the Fletcher and more than doubled my money. Happy days! After that and up until Brexit I bought and imported roughly one boat and one car every year. Double up on the boats, treble or more in the little Mazdas.
Kept it simple and stuck to what worked. 18-20' bowrider boats, mainly with the 3.0 & 4.3 Mercruiser engines and Z outdrive units. Early MX5's.
Did pretty much everything that needed doing before resale, gimble bearings, outdrive boots, water pump, etc. Soon learned to avoid boats that had been on the sea, and only bought freshwater use, mainly from Scotland and Ireland.
Here are a few pics of some of the others and a couple of Mazda.
View attachment 77274View attachment 77275View attachment 77276View attachment 77277View attachment 77278View attachment 77279View attachment 77280View attachment 77281View attachment 77282
Enjoy

I’m surprised that there was a market for right hand drive Mazdas?!
I bought a little Fletcher 3 years ago for buttons - we have had so much fun on it every time it’s been nice enough to use! Really cheap boating, easy to self-launch and recover. I’d have to chuck a significant wedge to upgrade to something ‘better’ - it’s actually really nice to have something that we don’t need to be precious with!

 

[Lffsam]

We had great fun with the little Fletcher, but at 15 or 16 feet, and a narrow beam, it was just too small. We have taught all our nieces, nephews, family and friends to ski, wakeboard, mono, plenty of 4 man ringo. The little Fletcher was just not up to the job. The bigger 18 foot plus boats easily carry 8 people and will still get a mono out of the water.
Non of them were as good as a dedicated ski boat, but pretty good all rounders. We enjoyed every one of them and also got to try loads of different combinations, makes and engine sizes.
We are currently without a boat, after selling our SeaRay 180BR a couple of years ago, our "keeper", which we had for 12 years, and broke even on at sale time.
Our next purchase will probably be out last. A 19 or 20 foot, (we have a mooring so no worries about launch/recovery). It will be a Four Winns, with a Volvo Penta 4.3, fast but frugal compared to the 5,7.

 

[Lffsam]

The reason small "english sports cars" of that era (yes I know they are Japanese lol), sell so well even as RHD, is that there is nothing comparable available here. Until around 2010, the French only really bought Peugeot, Citroen etc, so there was/ is no used stock of anything different. They will tolerate RHD, to have something different. Not so much with newer models as since around 2010, many of the mainstream European and Japanese Brands have dealerships and strong sales hete.

 

[V8Druid]

I’m surprised that there was a market for right hand drive Mazdas?!
I bought a little Fletcher 3 years ago for buttons - we have had so much fun on it every time it’s been nice enough to use! Really cheap boating, easy to self-launch and recover. I’d have to chuck a significant wedge to upgrade to something ‘better’ - it’s actually really nice to have something that we don’t need to be precious with!

used to have one very similar to a fletcher 14.5 foot with a 50 Merc red band 4 pot on it ...
can't recall the make, but was a nice hull ....
went like hell and leapt onto the plane in yards, late '80,s ...
would yank 2 skiers up no prob.s ...
if the weather was up to it on a Sunday, a gang of us'd go down to Oxwich or Penarth ..
had/still have somewhere, an ex marine's 12 foot Avon inflatable ..
pump it up in work and chuck it on top of the boat ...
load that with bodies and tow it out and use it as a floating base to ski from ..
used to have some fun with that
SD never even knew it was on there, even with 5 in the car and a boot full of wet suits, gear, fuel, etc..

I'd almost forgotten about those Sundays, getting cold and wet

 

[V8Druid]

early '80,s we had an 18ft Shetland in the family with a 65 blueband thunderbolt triple Merc. on it .... that went well too - tow two, no probs with 6 in the boat, but was a lump to get on/off the water

 

[Lffsam]

Haha Druid, I have not skied much myself for the last 10 years. Much prefer seeing the younger family members enjoying being set and cold in the water, whilst I stay warm and dry on-board lol.
Hope you had a few beers in the SD boot too !

 

[V8Druid]

Haha Druid, I have not skied much myself for the last 10 years. Much prefer seeing the younger family members enjoying being set and cold in the water, whilst I stay warm and dry on-board lol.
Hope you had a few beers in the SD boot too !

LOL .... I didn't water ski - can't swim, but got bloody good at getting 'em up