GRP Future Classics

Major_Clanger

Major_Clanger

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We all know how financially draining owning a boat can be, but I'm wondering which ones will at some future point start to rise in value? I'm thinking specifically of the Co26 as I have one, but also as an idea in general.

My thoughts have been driven by seeing so many Italian cars that were once dirt cheap to buy, now way out of my price range. I've missed the boat with my cars, don't want to do it with a boat as well!

What are your thoughts?
 
No. It is just another old boat, although with perhaps a better following than other designs of the same period. There is a dwindling market and an excess supply of similar old boats which is why prices are so low - even if the CO 26 commands a slightly higher price than say an Invicta.

If you like the boat then keep it in good nick and enjoy it.
 
Major_Clanger said:
We all know how financially draining owning a boat can be, but I'm wondering which ones will at some future point start to rise in value? I'm thinking specifically of the Co26 as I have one, but also as an idea in general.

My thoughts have been driven by seeing so many Italian cars that were once dirt cheap to buy, now way out of my price range. I've missed the boat with my cars, don't want to do it with a boat as well!

What are your thoughts?
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Interesting question. The only two classic boats I know if which have any residual value are Italian Riva speed boats and Grand banks Europa trawlers.

I was looking at the GB 36 Europa on-line and they seem to fetch about £150k for the early 1988-1990'ish boats. A couple of months ago one with new teak decks sold for £160k after being on the market for only a month. So there is a vibrant and active market for classic GB models.

Unfortunately a GB is a timber framed boat in a grp hull; the teak was screwed down onto the plywood decks which then leak and rot. Timber framing on the superstructure also degrades because the wooden window frames leak.

Appears to be a catch 22: the classic boats that are valuable also cost fortune to maintain and refit.
 
Major_Clanger said:
What are your thoughts?
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It's not so easy to put a boat away in a garage and forget about it, as we know, they tend to be expensive in or out of the water. Smaller boats are not so family friendly and there are a lot about, so I don't see prices rising in the foreseeable future. No doubt in the fullness of time, when a lot of similar boats have been scrapped, there will be a sellers market but probably not in our lifetimes.

Larger boats, particularly those suited to a little light racing, are a different matter. There were few made because they were very, very exclusive items when new, and this adds to the appeal. The Nic 43 is a good shout by Kingfisher, American Bermuda 40's already fetch big money and you might hold your own with any of the Scandinavian Skerry Cruisers in GRP.
No instant riches though
 
OK, I'll throw in the sadler 290, 50ish built, good performance and designer, first of the "modern" beamy designs, good accommodation. Yes, I have one! But then, we all love our own boats, especially if we have kept them a long time. Nostalgia sometimes drives desirability. I would love to find a Chippendale N12 to replace my first boat which I sold for £25!

But, as previously mentioned, not probably in our lifetimes :)
 
I’m coming to the end of a refit of an International Fourteen dinghy built by Uffa Fox in 1939. The connoisseur’s vintage racing dinghy; absurdly expensive when new and the ancestor of all racing dinghies. She is almost entirely original (the centreboard was modified in the Fifties) and is a visual delight in varnished Honduras mahogany and Canadian Rock Elm with Sitka spruce spars. She will very soon be back on the water, competing in classic events, and able to achieve the same speeds as she did when new.

She is worth approximately nothing; there is no market in vintage racing dinghies.

Parked next to me in the club car park on Sunday was an immaculate red Vauxhall 30/98. The connoisseur’s vintage sports car par excellence; absurdly expensive when new and the ancestor of all sports cars.. Perfectly restored, and capable I am sure of the speeds it attained in 1926. Worth megabucks.

Probably roughly similar numbers of each were made and roughly similar numbers survive outside museums.
More people drive cars than sail dinghies?
 
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burgundyben said:
. . . there's a limited number and a healthy market for them . . .
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That's what you need for anything to increase in value! Demand must outstrip supply. Rarity alone doesn't do it. A guy along the road has a large car collection, and his rarest is a late 20th century, large executive saloon from Vauxhall. They made very few of them and only two or three still exist. But sadly it's not worth much as no-one wanted them when new and still no-one wants one.

For an old grp boat to be a classic (in the sense it will appreciate in value), there would have to be a real good reason why lots of people would want them. It has to offer something that modern boats don't do without sacrificing all the things a modern boat do better. The Fairey Spearfish has a contemporary deep-V monohedral hull so it goes as well as a modern boat, but with classic styling, heritage and the convenience of a GRP hull. The winning combination!

My tip for the sailing equivalent would be the Hinkley Sou'wester 42. Expensive when new, still sails beautifully, available in only limited numbers and satisfies a 'classic' aesthetic.

However the big driver to whether these boats will really become classic is the attitude of the 'classic boat' world. In the car world there is a simple age stipulation for when your car will automatically be welcome to events. When they reach that age, they become eligible and you are "in the club". But at the moment, there is a real resistance to any old GRP boats being regarded as classics. It's ironic you can have a 'spirit of tradition' boat built in carbon covered wood strip and that's okay with many events, but a Swan 65 is unwelcome. If the classic boat world was ever to universally embrace (as opposed to the odd exception) some designs as GRP classics, then this would see values jump. But it might also see the demand for the smaller wooden boats fall, so it's unlikely to happen.
 
Motor_Sailor said:
My tip for the sailing equivalent would be the Hinkley Sou'wester 42. Expensive when new, still sails beautifully, available in only limited numbers and satisfies a 'classic' aesthetic.
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There is one for sale currently in Holland. One owner, now deceased. Been for sale for some time at a "non classic" asking price.
 
Concentrate on Rivas. Not having a mast probably increases value on a long term basis. Certainly cheaper and easier to store under a dust cover. But if you are interested in investments that increase in value, boats may not be the best commodity for you to be in.

That having been said, my current boat cost my grandfather £50 in the 1930's, and is probably worth more than twice that now. At least the lead ballast is. and if I feed her bit by bit into the stove she would keep me warm for a whole winter.
 
Trouble with Dragons they are highly competetive, older slower ones have little value, a grp one on a road trailer in good condition sat in a yard near here for 6k & didnt sell for years. Hardly an investment. I own a Sabre 27, good boat with a strong class association , Many regard them as something of a classic, but they only fetch reasonable money if in good condition, worn out old grp boats regardless of make are effectively worthless.
 
Interesting one about Nic 43s. I'm a bit biased because I have one, but one recently cropped up being sold as scrap (with 4.5 tons of lead in the keel) and a Dutch boatyard bought her as a doer-upper to rescue her from the GRP crusher. There's been a huge continental europe movement in buying them up and while prices haven't obviously risen, the number on the market (and the time taken to sell) have reduced hugely in the last 5 years. I think that plastic classics with designs over 50 years old such as the Nic 43 are now eligible for some classic classes and the reduction in maintenance cf. wooden boats is quite attractive. They also sail beautifully and can be raced competitively, so there's potential for some great fun too.
 
For each person who lusted after a Nic 43 as a youth, there are a thousand who lusted after an Aston Martin DB5. Hence the price difference now!

I lusted after an Ohlson 38. And now I’ve got one. She is a classic of a sort I suppose, and there’s a nice owners group, but she is never going to increase in value. Still, I do notice that these boats don’t fade away - they get thoroughly rebuilt. Think of it as an overgrown Contessa 32 - another contender for classic plastic status.
 
Minn said:
They are truly gorgeous creatures, and there was a time when I thought about one before bottling out for the reason you give!

( Do the Navy still have theirs? )
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Yes but for how much longer? I think the “navy” have one, the RAF one and the Army two. They are all operated by JSAST at Gosport so any “service” ownership is moot but there are two red hulls, one blue and one white. I have’nt seen all of them this year, it they are popular exped boats.
 
Topcat47 said:
Yes but for how much longer? I think the “navy” have one, the RAF one and the Army two. They are all operated by JSAST at Gosport so any “service” ownership is moot but there are two red hulls, one blue and one white. I have’nt seen all of them this year, it they are popular exped boats.
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Looks like the services Nicholson 55s are currently being sold off https://www.berthon.co.uk/yacht-sales-brokerage/yacht-for-sale/nicholson-55-kukri/
And hardly at classic prices, as presumably need a lot of work to convert from services workboat to Cannes toy.
 
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