Hi there,

Thanks again for all the replies - it's certainly helping.

Yes, spot on - a mini cruiser - and at the price of both of them it's hard
to ignore either of them - neither are perfect, but then again, no
second-hand boat is.

I have a mooring that I can see from my house in a sal****er harbour. Most
of our trips would consist of going from one side of the harbour to the
other - at 20knts, about 15-20mins of a trip. I don't need it for sking -
maybe a donut or two but that would be it.

What annoyed me in the end on my last "real" boat ( a 26ft Westerly Centaur
sailboat) was the amount of times I would hit my head and the fact that my
wife did not really enjoy being out on it so it was hard to get her out.

So the new boats prime criteria are "Kerb Appeal" for my wife and headroom
for me. Ideally the boat would be diesel but that's just not in my budget
(Petrol is hard to get on the water here).

The 4.3 has everything I need - it just doesn't have the bigger cleaner
engine...... I found out today she only had two seasons in sal****er -
before that she was a fresh water boat so the external rusty bits (Not much)
could purely be there since she's been sitting on the hard for the last 18
months. Do I need speed - not an issue with me - I amble!

The 4.3 would land at my front door just needing the Gas to be sorted for
the cooker and the appropriate cushions and curtains bought, for the same
price as the 5 litre one. The 5 litre would need all the gismos bought,
wouldn't have heating so the season would be shorter and I'd hit my head a
lot! It sounds like I'm going to have to get off the fence soon and go and
check out the 4.3 for performance with a "full" complement on board!

What's the life span of these engines? the 4.3 has 700 hours on the clock.
Are there timing belts/chains etc to be replaced? When should that have
happened?

Hmmmmmmm

The more I think about it, the 4.3 would seem to be the one to go for - she
even has an anchor windlass!
"N.L. Eckert" wrote in message
...
JimH wrote:
That is a pretty heavy boat with the full cuddy. The 5L is the way to
go.
Overall there have been some good comments in this thread.
Best of luck with whichever one you buy.
================================
Actually, the 220 SDA is more than a full cuddy. It has a stand up
cabin with a mid-cabin under the helm. And a stand up head. So, its
sort of a miniature cruiser.