Hinckley boats: why isn't anything this lovely built in Europe?

Greenheart

Greenheart

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Okay, their designs are distinctly retro (have a look, you won't be sorry)...

http://www.hinckleyyachts.com/Sailboats/sw51/sw51.php

...but considering the mixed reception given to avant garde European designs, plus our dozens of AWB manufacturers who just fill marinas and boatshows with similarly bland white plastic (however solidly built & efficient they may be), isn't it odd that America can successfully build and sell boats with decidedly traditional lines and styling, while in Europe, where I reckon many of us like that style, nobody seems to be building them?

Is it just a matter of price?

PS, this isn't meant to be a rant. Just a moment of sincere appreciation of a company's products, and a sad reflection that they don't seem to be built & bought here. Given a free choice, I easily prefer these, to our much more extremely-styled Spirit designs.
 
dancrane said:
Okay, their designs are distinctly retro (have a look, you won't be sorry)...

http://www.hinckleyyachts.com/Sailboats/sw51/sw51.php

...but considering the mixed reception given to avant garde European designs, plus our dozens of AWB manufacturers who just fill marinas and boatshows with similarly bland white plastic (however solidly built & efficient they may be), isn't it odd that America can successfully build and sell boats with decidedly traditional lines and styling, while in Europe, where I reckon many of us like that style, nobody seems to be building them?

Is it just a matter of price?

PS, this isn't meant to be a rant. Just a moment of sincere appreciation of a company's products, and a sad reflection that they don't seem to be built & bought here. Given a free choice, I easily prefer these, to our much more extremely-styled Spirit designs.
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The DS 42 may be the prettiest boat ever built. Hard to imagine a 'daysailor' 42 feet long, but they sure are lovely.
 
Mystery 35, anyone?

4522550345_0557e75538_z.jpg


Made in Cornwall.

Or a Rustler? This one's a 36

4635528873_0329b33b47.jpg


Also made in Cornwall.

Both from small volume builders, but actually, be interested to know how many boats a year Hinckley build. Not many would be my guess.

Another guess, there are other smaller Euro builders turning out gorgeous looking boats, just that I don't know about them . Oh, except Latitude 46, of course
 
There are any number of Italian yards building boats very similar in purpose to the Hinkleys. Admitedly they tend to go for the modern take, but you couldn't argue that they're not pretty.

Here is Brenta's 42.

http://www.lucabrenta.com/dettaglio.php?id=18

And here is the Eagle 44, which is a Dutch boat with a more traditional shape.

http://www.leonardoyachts.com/en/eagle-44.html

And if you wanted something more traditional, you could start with Spirit yachts....
 
flaming said:
Here is Brenta's 42.

http://www.lucabrenta.com/dettaglio.php?id=18

And if you wanted something more traditional, you could start with Spirit yachts....
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The Brenta is certainly a thing of singular beauty - simple and logical and wonderfully proportioned...but decidedly modern. None the worse for that, in fact she's probably much more rewarding to sail...but would I sooner own her elegant efficiency, or the olde-world New World Hinckley? My point is, the air of solid traditionalism is itself deeply appealing for me, so dazzling new designs with traditional inspiration, like Spirit Yachts, don't quite do it.

Actually I was interested in a very separate issue - whether (in order to sell), centreboarders have to be modern and ground-breaking in their styling and design cleverness, or whether a really traditional design can enjoy shallow anchorages...

...so I found the Hinckleys by mistake - because as well as being visually fabulous to my eyes, they're all available with lifting keels. The 51-footer tops my lottery-list.
 
In terms of why more people aren't building these sort of boats.....Hinckley themselves don't actually build that many boats ( I think a dozen in year in far happier economic times) - most of their business is keeping existing Hinckleys in pristine condition. I don't know if it's still the case, but the business was also seriously hampered by the amount of debt that was loaded onto it as it was passed around various private equity houses.
 
The SW42 is $892640 base price. Adding accessories and navigation equipment will bring it to about $1m, then bring it to the UK and you have to add duty and VAT so it will convert to about £900,000 for a 42' yacht. Having taken the plunge and brought it in, what is the secondhand value?

They have built over 80 SW42's so far and you try to find a newish one new second hand.
 
dancrane said:
Okay, their designs are distinctly retro (have a look, you won't be sorry)...

http://www.hinckleyyachts.com/Sailboats/sw51/sw51.php

...but considering the mixed reception given to avant garde European designs, plus our dozens of AWB manufacturers who just fill marinas and boatshows with similarly bland white plastic (however solidly built & efficient they may be), isn't it odd that America can successfully build and sell boats with decidedly traditional lines and styling, while in Europe, where I reckon many of us like that style, nobody seems to be building them?

Is it just a matter of price?
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These are hugely expensive boats and built in tiny numbers. There is no need to go to US for this type of boat. Just pop across to Holland and Andre Hoek of Gerry Djitska to design you one - there are several of the former's Truly Classic series that would outgun the Hinckley.

If you can't stand the ferry ride then call Ed Burnett and ask him to design you a boat in that style. There are any number of builders still in the UK who will build it for you at similar cost to a US boat.

It is not surprising that anachronisms such as this can survive in the world's richest country! - although most of the old guard have gone.
 
Tranona said:
These are hugely expensive boats and built in tiny numbers. There is no need to go to US for this type of boat. Just pop across to Holland and Andre Hoek of Gerry Djitska to design you one - there are several of the former's Truly Classic series that would outgun the Hinckley.

If you can't stand the ferry ride then call Ed Burnett and ask him to design you a boat in that style. There are any number of builders still in the UK who will build it for you at similar cost to a US boat.

It is not surprising that anachronisms such as this can survive in the world's richest country! - although most of the old guard have gone.
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Ha, you have a Morgan car and a 'value engineered' yacht, yes?
Perhaps those who put their money into the boat they really want have made other sacrifices?

Speaking personally, I have an older v nice midrange boat and ride a bicycle. Go figure. To me cars are a complete waste of money, ha!

When I once did buy once an AWB ( ok it had SnS pedigree and sailed like a wee witch, eventually) I cut off the back and rebuilt it-longer, better, faster, lighter too- as it was just plain f'ugly and didn't need to be, with just a few weeks work thrown at it...raced it too.

I think 'anachronism' misses the whole point and is vaguely perjorative. These sort of boats are aesthetic delights and reflect very personal choices, in a we-all-live-in-identikit-houses sort of world.
 
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Tranona said:
These are hugely expensive boats and built in tiny numbers. There is no need to go to US for this type of boat. Just pop across to Holland and Andre Hoek of Gerry Djitska to design you one - there are several of the former's Truly Classic series that would outgun the Hinckley.

If you can't stand the ferry ride then call Ed Burnett and ask him to design you a boat in that style. There are any number of builders still in the UK who will build it for you at similar cost to a US boat.

It is not surprising that anachronisms such as this can survive in the world's richest country! - although most of the old guard have gone.
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You are correct look at this it is less expensive than an Oyster 46 (New, although the 46 has recently been made obsolete)

http://www.hoekbrokerage.com/en/brokerage/sales/29/
 
Dancrane,

Buy yourself a wooden dinghy and after sailing it and trying to maintain it for a number of years come on here again and say your piece.

I loved my wooden Wayfarer but now have a Mk5 GRP one. Big boat is GRP as well.

Happy to drool over any lovingly maintained wooden boats but v small market for either rich people or those with plenty of free time to do the maintenance.
 
SevenSpades, that is just exquisite.

By the by, I read that Southampton Yacht Services bought a load of Burma teak that had been felled, shipped and sunk by enemy action in 1917 !

Salvaged, useable, beautiful stuff for beautiful restoration work..
 
dancrane said:
...isn't it odd that America can successfully build and sell boats with decidedly traditional lines and styling...
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Ask them when they actually last built one. Sabre - who built a slightly more modern boat, but still a solid, built in the US cruising boat, at the traditional end of the styling spectrum - have given up building sailing boats. Morris do OK with their daysailers, but I wonder how many of the bigger ones they've actually sold. Helped by the US north east coast being perfect for large daysailers.

The middle market is getting squeezed and squeezed. If you want a boat, then a BenJenBav gives you lots of boat for the money. The next stage is mass production in China. If you want something special, and have got the money for it, then you go custom. Plenty of custom yards in Europe can do work as good as you can get - here, we've got Pendennis, Fairlie, Spirit, etc etc etc. For alloy, go to the Dutch...
Big series production cruising boats now need hullshapes that give more space below than then IOR fat middle/pointy ends derived shapes that Hinckley use. People (aka SWMBOs) like their aft owner's cabins.
 
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I suppose if one can afford to pay £15,000 - £20,000 per foot for a boat under fifty feet LOA, the cost of maintenance by craftsmen won't be very upsetting.

I wasn't criticising anyone's choice of low-maintenance, high-fun-per-pound designs - I only have a GRP dinghy, and getting her right has been more work than I wanted.

I was mainly just hoping that I'm not the only one who still likes overhangs. They're so rare now (although perhaps their rarity makes me like them more) that I was beginning to fear they're no longer widely admired.

Heaven knows, there are still fortunes of money spent on boats only as glorious, glamorous play-things - so I'd be very sad to think that the lovely impracticality of exaggerated overhangs has had its day, even in the toy-boxes of magnates.

Keen_Ed said:
People (aka SWMBOs) like their aft owner's cabins.
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Unlikely I'll ever need to make the choice, but if I had the money, I'd have to insist SWMBO live with my aesthetic preference, rather than indulge her taste for floorspace!
 
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