AWB's? Durable enough for liveaboards?

[asteven221]

Thanks everyone for your comments.

Tranona seems to have summed it up perfectly.

 

[Ludd]

Hi
I think it may be a question of the age of your AWB. Mine is a 1988 Jeanneau Sun Magic 44.
I have owned her since 1992. Its has a Yanmar 55 hp engine that uses no oil,the doors are wood as is the flooring,(need a re varnish),nothing has broken or fallen off in this time "Except the mast" that was due to Turkish stainless steel bolts.

The insurance company offered me a total constructive loss at 77,000euro I declined as it would not have been possible to replace, with a modern boat of the same quallity, even if I put another 30.000euro to the pot.

I have nothing at all against modern AWB, although I do not believe that the latest Ben`s Jen`s Bavaria are as well constructed. And I have been on a considerable amount, of what is known as quality Swedish thoroughbreds HR ect, over the years and cannot see the extra value placed in these marques, they have the same make of engine, mast and winches .
Mine, also, has a beauitiful teak deck!!!! and a Delta 26kg anchor "that should get em going"

Though, I could be persuaded into a Bavaria 55 cruiser to live a comfortable Marina based retirement with pleasant trips across the Aegean.

And if LUDD replies It would need a built in washing machine for Lynne

not for sale i will add

and there was I ready to make an offer for her(Lynne, I mean).
P.S. I'm quite happy with my 1973 longkeel forward gear only except in emergency HR.

 

[ariette]

This is a well considered thread (with none of the problems this forum sometimes struggles with). I too think most new AWB's are ideal for med living and the charter companies seem to agree. It's probably worth thinking of how some additional expenditure on a new boat can improve their lifespan/comfort. Just because the manufacturers have standards, it doesn't mean they can't be improved or modified or spec's uprated.

 

[vyv_cox]

This is a well considered thread (with none of the problems this forum sometimes struggles with). I too think most new AWB's are ideal for med living and the charter companies seem to agree. It's probably worth thinking of how some additional expenditure on a new boat can improve their lifespan/comfort. Just because the manufacturers have standards, it doesn't mean they can't be improved or modified or spec's uprated.

Not always all that easy. An example, as relayed to me by a regular poster here. He bought a new French boat, in France. He specified a different anchor from the one they fitted as standard, which IIRC was a Britany. They utterly refused to supply anything other than their standard one. I suppose that the same would apply in many other cases, possibly leading to considerable expense replacing brand new items of equipment.

 

[Wight Mistress]

AWB and the other acronym

Hi,
While we have owned our Fisher 34 for 10 years, lived aboard on and off since 2006 and been in the French waterways for a year now, we have only just been shown this forum (dooohhhh!!! sorry, being dim). I really like the info available here and hope to be able to contribute.
WRT the AWB Vs HRB(?) please will someone out there explain the TLAs to me (Three Letter Acronyms). It is odd but for me, when reading something, if a TLA pops up that I cannot recognise, I end up losing the whole thread while my simple brain goes off somewhere on its own, sulking and searching for the answer.

Anyway, great supply of information, thank you. If you are interested in what we are doing (we were heading directly to the Med but were waylaid by beautiful waterways for a while) wightmistress.wordpress.com is our blog for this part of our journey.
Regards
Steve

 

[Tranona]

Not always all that easy. An example, as relayed to me by a regular poster here. He bought a new French boat, in France. He specified a different anchor from the one they fitted as standard, which IIRC was a Britany. They utterly refused to supply anything other than their standard one. I suppose that the same would apply in many other cases, possibly leading to considerable expense replacing brand new items of equipment.

Builders have different policies on this sort of thing. One of the reasons the starting price of Bavarias tends to be on the low side is that many essentials are on the extras list. Some are best to specify for factory fit - windlass for example cost little more than the material cost fitted at the factory and others like ground tackle you can choose your own. On my boat the extras came to over £10k in 2001, most of it fitted when it was commissioned.

 

[r_h]

The big boat builders also have enormous buying power for their standard fit items - an anchor supplied as standard is likely to cost the builder a surprisingly small fraction of its retail price. You can always put it in a locker for the time that you need an extra anchor, or loose the better one.