Car for events?

I have a Renault Kangoo van. 1.9 diesel.

Pulls a Flying Dutchman with all the gear fairly easily, don't expect to do steep hills at full whack and you'll be fine. A bit noisy when doing motorway speeds possibly, but the ipod has a volume controll.

In the back is all the space for sailing kit, tool boxes, rope bags and all the other ancillary bits needed.(Quite alot on an FD) Plus enough room to sleep in the back of very comfortably.

Van has the advantage of being a bit more closed off to the world than an estate car so you don't necessarily get woken by the first light at 4:30am. Downside is as had ben mentioned above is that the insurance is a bit more.

Also you only have two seats so you won't be able to give lifts back from the pub. Someone else has to do designated driver bit.  (I got over that disapointment pretty quickly.)

Consider going for a vehicle a bit under your top budget and putting the remainder in a completely seperate "unexpected breakdown" account. Breakdowns always cost more than you think and come after you have just invested a fair chunk of money in sometrhing else. (This is what I would do if I had my time again.) 

It needs to be a diesel estate or hatch.

Don't go for a big engine, something like 2.0l will be fine.

They have loads of torque which is ideal for towing, and they'll do 40mpg+.

You could do worse than something like a Mondeo, Peugeot 406, or Vectra.

Keep away from the German stuff, it costs too much to get serviced and repaired.