Are modern boats up to it?
- Thread starter Nostrodamus
- Start date
Lucky Duck
Well-Known Member
Maybe from personal experiance?
From time to time I have reflected on the affect of heavy weather on the mast, rigging and sails, but I can never recall worring about the hull.
Bav34
...
Don't be silly!
Typical response from someone who knew someone who said.
Again, from a previous post, I repeat that the shipwright in our yard who is seen repairing EVERY age/make/construction type of boat from extreme racers to REALLY old MAB's recommended an AWB to his Father-in-Law.
But that's a fact ... why should that get in the way of inbuilt prejudice?
Scotty_Tradewind
Well-Known Member
I sailed a gibsea 37 accross the Irish sea in a November storm some 8 years ago and it slammed for hours in a troubled sea.
I must admit, I thought it was shaking itself to bits and I wouldn't be surprised if the poor old thing was showing star cracks around all its through deck fittings by now because of it.
FullCircle
Well-Known Member
Simon, thats not evidence - he does not even mention any damage actually to the hull, only sails.
FullCircle
Well-Known Member
But you havent actually seen the boat damage you putatively refer to?
Bav34
...
Lucky Duck
Well-Known Member
I agree, it struck me as rather odd that the poster made claims regarding inevitable structural damage due to slamming but on another thread was concerned for the structural integrity of his own (most likely non-AWB) craft in heavy weather.
Bav34
...
Don't forget that he THOUGHT it was shaking itself to bits ... but strangely neglects to quantify that remark ... from which I THINK it didn't.
E39mad
Well-Known Member
I have a strong affection for both types of boats - raced Beneteau's in the late 80's early 90's hard and sold solid new ocean going yachts amongst others.
We broke a few Beneteaus - one very badly a 45f5 which had the bulkhead jump out of the moulding and keel stepped mast slewed fwd. The french came to sail it home after a legal wrangling with the owner - they took one look at it and shipped it back. Rigs fell on others.
Then again the pressure and abuse we gave these boats was phenomenal - kites up in 30+ knots, exotic sails putting more pressure on fittings etc etc - things that cruising boat folk will not even entertain or get themselves close to being involved in and therefore cannot compare like for like.
We broke a few Beneteaus - one very badly a 45f5 which had the bulkhead jump out of the moulding and keel stepped mast slewed fwd. The french came to sail it home after a legal wrangling with the owner - they took one look at it and shipped it back. Rigs fell on others.
Then again the pressure and abuse we gave these boats was phenomenal - kites up in 30+ knots, exotic sails putting more pressure on fittings etc etc - things that cruising boat folk will not even entertain or get themselves close to being involved in and therefore cannot compare like for like.
Sans Bateau
Well-Known Member
So why do owners of MAB's so aggressively argue the case for their chosen type of boat? Surely if long keel and overhangs were the only way to build a boat, would the largest builders of boats in Europe and the U.S. not be doing so? Are these builders all wrong? Would we not be seeing AWB's falling to pieces all over the world?
Listen Guys, a Contessa 32 (say) looks lovely, no one will argue that. But it struggles on in production at a huge expense, with a few units a year being built, whilst the AWB manufactures sell 100's of each size per year, and dont tell me the charter companies buy them all, cos they dont. If the AWB's were so fragile then they would not sell, again, you cant tell me that all the buyers of AWB's are ignorant of what they are buying.
Fact is, the British boat industry, sadly, stuck with the 'lay em up heavy' principal long after they lost the game. They too should have moved with the times, using new technology, rather than sticking their fingers in their ears, closing their eyes and doing "La La La La, I dont want to know" whilst they lost their market.
Older boats, are what they are older boats, some look lovely, please keep them going, but a modern AWB whilst may not be so pretty is fit for purpose, by design.
Listen Guys, a Contessa 32 (say) looks lovely, no one will argue that. But it struggles on in production at a huge expense, with a few units a year being built, whilst the AWB manufactures sell 100's of each size per year, and dont tell me the charter companies buy them all, cos they dont. If the AWB's were so fragile then they would not sell, again, you cant tell me that all the buyers of AWB's are ignorant of what they are buying.
Fact is, the British boat industry, sadly, stuck with the 'lay em up heavy' principal long after they lost the game. They too should have moved with the times, using new technology, rather than sticking their fingers in their ears, closing their eyes and doing "La La La La, I dont want to know" whilst they lost their market.
Older boats, are what they are older boats, some look lovely, please keep them going, but a modern AWB whilst may not be so pretty is fit for purpose, by design.
E39mad
Well-Known Member
The reason the French in particular prospered was that they were (not sure if they still are) heavily subsidised by their own government and therefore produced boats en mass that could be sold cheaply irrespective of the exchange rates and the companies still survive.
As sailing become more popular and chartering in particular who mainly purchased the cheaper French boats the likes of Westerly and Moody were always going to struggle selling in volume (albeit far less than the French). Their designs were too conservative and industry in general amateur (in comparison to others).
As sailing become more popular and chartering in particular who mainly purchased the cheaper French boats the likes of Westerly and Moody were always going to struggle selling in volume (albeit far less than the French). Their designs were too conservative and industry in general amateur (in comparison to others).
Ubergeekian
Well-Known Member
[lesdawson]
I bought my mother-in-law a jaguar for Christmas. Bloody marvellous thing - it chewed her leg off on Boxing Day
[/lesdawson]
Ubergeekian
Well-Known Member
They don't, in my experience. It's the owners of plastic soap dishes with wobbly keels who get as touchy as a Scouser with ME a very touchy person indeed. And they always seem to stress how cheap their boats were, which is probably a bit of a giveaway.
Bav34
...
Oh, I was wrong.
I had you down as the third most likely person to comment on the fact it was an in-law therefore perhaps suggested for the wrong reasons.
Apologies to my first two choices.
Bav34
...
Yeah, well, you keep trying to sell your quality MAB ... me, next week off to Cherbourg, Guernsey , Isles of Scilly then wherever we chose to go in the next three months in our soap dish.
Enjoy.
Last edited:
westernman
Well-Known Member
Another reason why the French builders do well, is that no berths are available in the South of France. Unless you buy from one of the French boat builders when a rental berth will magically become available.
Sans Bateau
Well-Known Member
I was actually posting in response to the claims by MAB owners who were suggesting that after a particular passage the AWB they had been on would have been damaged in some way, claims that were then exposed by other posters as being pure conjecture.
Sans Bateau
Well-Known Member
This may vary from marina to marina. What we found (friend and I) was that the only way to get a berth was to buy a boat already allocated a berth in that marina. He then bought the boat and the lease for that berth. The boat was a Baveria by the way.
Tranona
Well-Known Member
The French have/had a much bigger potential home market, but what really made the difference was the policy in the 1990's of huge tax incentives for private owners of charter boats (provided they were new boats built in France). Even now, although the incentives have gone French builders dominate the volume charter market. There are of course many other factors of French industrial policy in areas of high unemployment that work in the favour of the two major builders.
