Halberg Rassy - something a bit different

Tranona said:
IP have gone bust, Malo build in penny numbers, Najad have been bust at least twice and no longer make old style boats. HR sales have dropped by 50% - in 2015 their exhibition boat at Southampton was 7 years old because nobody in the UK was buying new ones.

The people you mention as using old style boats (like you) are not the market for new boats. The used boat market is stuffed full of older style boats at a fraction of the price of new ones.

Sure some people will buy their ultimate dream boat and have the money to do it, but that number is clearly declining, and they seem to prefer modern boats.
Click to expand...

I dont disagree. The choice many people have to make is do I buy an older quality boat optimised for ocean sailing or a modern new boat that isnt aimed at the ocean sailing market. Do I buy the £0.5M HR or an older one at half the money or less. Most I guess buy the older yacht that may well have many of the add ons already fitted by the previous owner since he also bought it for ocean sailing in the first place.
 
geem said:
I dont disagree. The choice many people have to make is do I buy an older quality boat optimised for ocean sailing or a modern new boat that isnt aimed at the ocean sailing market. Do I buy the £0.5M HR or an older one at half the money or less. Most I guess buy the older yacht that may well have many of the add ons already fitted by the previous owner since he also bought it for ocean sailing in the first place.
Click to expand...

And this is for the subset of people who choose a boat to go ocean sailing - which is an important but minority subset of boat buyers. The intersection of the three subsets of ocean going sailors; half-million plus budget; minded to buy new rather than second hand, becomes an extremely narrow market (well tapped at the upper end by the likes of Discovery Yachts).
Hence perhaps HR are continuiing to try to also tap the coastal cruisers rather than just blue water.
 
dunedin said:
And this is for the subset of people who choose a boat to go ocean sailing - which is an important but minority subset of boat buyers. The intersection of the three subsets of ocean going sailors; half-million plus budget; minded to buy new rather than second hand, becomes an extremely narrow market (well tapped at the upper end by the likes of Discovery Yachts).
Hence perhaps HR are continuiing to try to also tap the coastal cruisers rather than just blue water.
Click to expand...

It would seem that they are.
We were out at an OCC get together last night in Antigua. 8 boats, 16 people and there were three Outbound 46 owners. Just had a look at the Outbound yachts. They are boats built for liveaboard and ocean sailing as far as the builders blurb goes.
They mention things like weight kept out of the ends of boat with large water and fuel and tanks over keel. High ballast ration, powerful rig. They seem to have got the right idea. They are less about gin and tonics and more about passage making
 
dunedin said:
In practice few people actually need anything from a car that a Skoda Yeti cannot deliver from a practicality factor. But masses of punters spend double the cash on a top BMW, Audi etc.
Click to expand...

The car market (at least in the UK and USA) is very different from the boat market. The vast majority of cars are either leased by companies or under a PCP plan rather than bought outright. So the driving force for decisions is the cost per month- an extra £30pm can move you upmarket by a significant amount. Cars are changed every 3 years typically. This system works in favour of "premium" brands because of the generally higher residuals. It is often said that the real focus on BMW and Audi salesmen is shifting 2-3 year old "nearly new" cars! Smart money says this is about to break down given the upcoming glut of ex lease cars following the record sales of the last couple of years.

Boats are different because most buyers intend owning the asset outright, even if part of initial purchase uses borrowed money. The the decision factor is how much of your wealth do you want tied up in one rather illiquid asset.
 
pvb said:
The HR44 is about £450K inc VAT in its basic form. Most buyers would add a huge list of options, probably including anchor/chain/windlass, in-mast furling, electric winches, full electronics, bow- and stern-thrusters, extra batteries, generator, microwave, washing machine, television, queen-size bed in aft cabin, carpets, etc, etc. So the bill would end up around £600K or more. It's a lot of money when you look at AWB prices.
Click to expand...

This boat is tested in YM this month, looks very lovely but the test boat was £612k ...
 
Yes it would. That was fundamentally why I ended up spending less than 1/3rd of that amount on a new Bavaria. I don't need a blue water boat and the value was too hard to ignore. No matter how lovely the HR / Rustler etc it's pretty hard to see where most of the extra money goes compared to an AWB from the likes of Ben/Bav/Jen etc. Much of the bought-in items are the same or similar.
 
A1GSS said:
Yes it would. That was fundamentally why I ended up spending less than 1/3rd of that amount on a new Bavaria. I don't need a blue water boat and the value was too hard to ignore. No matter how lovely the HR / Rustler etc it's pretty hard to see where most of the extra money goes compared to an AWB from the likes of Ben/Bav/Jen etc. Much of the bought-in items are the same or similar.
Click to expand...

Yes, that was my conclusion when I sold my old HR352. I was looking at an HR372, but a Bavaria 37 was a third of the price. After a couple of years with the 37, I'm very impressed with the build quality.
 
The trouble is that even "quality" boats from 30 years ago are ticking timebombs in terms of maintenance/repair costs. The main reason I sold my 24 year old HR352 was because I knew that the teak deck would need replacing in 3-5 years, and I couldn't justify paying £25-30K to have it done when it would add almost nothing to the resale value. Then there's the possibility of having to replace the engine, etc. The beauty of a new boat is that one can reasonably expect quite a few years of enjoyment of it without spending too much time or money on maintenance.
 
pvb said:
The trouble is that even "quality" boats from 30 years ago are ticking timebombs in terms of maintenance/repair costs. The main reason I sold my 24 year old HR352 was because I knew that the teak deck would need replacing in 3-5 years, and I couldn't justify paying £25-30K to have it done when it would add almost nothing to the resale value. Then there's the possibility of having to replace the engine, etc. The beauty of a new boat is that one can reasonably expect quite a few years of enjoyment of it without spending too much time or money on maintenance.
Click to expand...

But if you are the lucky chap who buys the 30 year old boat with new decks, new engine, new sails and very well maintained then you have yourself an excellent 30 year old boat......
Not all old boats are the same..... The secret is spotting the difference between a basket case and a gem
 
geem said:
But if you are the lucky chap who buys the 30 year old boat with new decks, new engine, new sails and very well maintained then you have yourself an excellent 30 year old boat......
Not all old boats are the same..... The secret is spotting the difference between a basket case and a gem
Click to expand...

Yes, there are some better ones around. But even then there's ongoing bits and bobs. I did a lot of work in the last few years of owning my old HR - new calorifier when the old one leaked, new toilet, instrument repairs, cosmetic deck refurbishment, new windscreen rails, new batteries, new lifelines, new standing rigging, new seacocks, etc, etc. An older boat needs lots of work, even when the previous owner has diligently cared for it. I have to say that the total lack of impending work on the new boat is rather refreshing!
 
A1GSS said:
No matter how lovely the HR / Rustler etc it's pretty hard to see where most of the extra money goes compared to an AWB from the likes of Ben/Bav/Jen etc.
Click to expand...

Mostly it goes into laborious handcrafting of things which can be faster, better and more cheaply made by machine.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Share this page

Top