I can't belive I'm gonna say this...

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ontheplane

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I can\'t belive I\'m gonna say this...

I love powerboats, I love the feeling of doing 30ish knots....

But with the now inevitable Red Diesel "Harmonisation" and the way of the world (well the UK to be accurate) I think that for many many people the days of the fast monohull powerboat in a UK marina is rapidly approaching it's end...

And who may win this - well I saw "Multihull World" in a newsagent the other day and bought a copy out of interest...

Who fancies a 44' multihull with 4 separate cabins for about £100,000???

Alright it has a big stick and only does 18knts - but the fuel is free and if you wanted to ski you could off a RIB towed behind it...

I think we'll see a lot of them in the UK in the next 5 years - and who's gonna make them - well every one in this magazine was French - so that's who....

Sad isn't it.

You know if we lived in spain then we'd just have told Brussels to p!ss off and leave us alone - but the fact is that our Government haven't got the guts to stand up to them - so they set our Taxes now, it'll be the Euro next and then we won't have a UK Govt at all.....

I think I might just emmigrate.....
 
Re: I can\'t belive I\'m gonna say this...

Possibly - but it had the accom of a 60' monohull... so which is more expensive to moor - a 60' mono or 44' cat....

I can see them getting popular at about 40' instead of the 60' monohulls

Saying that - if you own a 60' monohull you may not care about the cost of fuel - I might be wrong, but I don't know I can't afford either....

Wonder if we'll see a growth in displacement narrow-beam (IE no wider than a conventional monohull) cat's with tiny diesels running at around 8-10knts

I wonder if the whole boating industry is going to get a bit smarter about hull designs - perhaps even look at hydrofoils or anything else that gets fuel consumption down?
 
Re: I can\'t belive I\'m gonna say this...

[ QUOTE ]
Why can't we work 2 days a week and boat the other 5???? [ QUOTE ]


Why indeed, there's nothing to stop you. I currently work 4 days a week and I am about to cut it to 3 days. All you got to do is live on the reduced income - simply really innit?
 
Re: I can\'t belive I\'m gonna say this...

Be careful you dont go too small.
A few years ago I bought a particularly fast cat called a Firebird.
Although I've been a multihull sailor for many years this one frightened the $hit out of me!

Here's some photos

FirebirdII from Mag (Small).jpg


moz001aT1.jpg


P1010078 (Small).JPG


P1010081 (Small).JPG


The best day was defunately the day I sold her

This orange one is called Orion - built immediatly after the one I owned - somewhere there are some excellent photos of her pitchpoling during a round the Isle of Wight race.
orion28.jpg
 
Re: Firebirds

There are two Firebirds here in Barbados, and I have had the pleasure of sailing on one a few times with their owner (he owns both) - wicked machines for sure! /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Very exciting, but I can see that it would not be difficult to capsize one. And they would be a fair bit more difficult to right than (say) a Hobie.... /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif
 
Re: I can\'t belive I\'m gonna say this...

Well I've got one question for you. Why do you still see so many powerful planing mono hulled boats in the rest of Europe where boaters pay full road prices for fuel? Boaters are used to paying high prices for fuel and still feel that power boating is worth it. The same will happen in the UK
Multihulls, whether power or sail will never sell in large numbers anyway because of the pressure on mooring space
 
Re: Firebirds

One of the boats in Barbados would be Phoenix.
She was the last of the MK1 Firebirds built.
Mine was the first of the new MKII bigger rig (faster) boats.
Orion (the yellow one) was next.
I believe that they built 14 MKIs and 5 MkIIs.
When mine was new (and before I had her) Reg White sailied her at Texel in Holland where they hold an annual cat race attracting well over 750 entries. She won convincingly. Likewise, she won the annual Round the Isle of Wight race once (in 1996 I think). This was all before I owned her off course.

There was a fire at the Cornish builders yard - all the moulds were destroyed - Phoenix was being finished at the time and was pulled clear - hence her name and the change from MKI to MKII.
I was interested in buying her at the time I bought mine - Graham Hutchins owned her - had to sell on health grounds - unfortunately he has since died.
I remember her being boxed up for transport - I bought her trailer for Firebird II.

Pete Goss sailed a Firebird (Cornish Meadow) across the Atlantic during a Transat race. It seems she is for sale at the moment and has been renamed to simply "Firebird".

The origional first Firebird is still sailing after a considerable refit a few years ago - I think spent last summer in and around the Solent and some time moored in the Hamble. I used to "dry sail" Firebird II from Calshot.

Loads of exciting stories from people who have owned and sailed these exciting boats.
I never capsized mine but there were many close calls.
As I say - I was pleased to sell her in the end.
 
Re: Firebirds

Yes, Phoenix is the boat I sailed on! The other one here (cant remember her name) is the Mk II version with the bigger rig.

Peter (their owner) has an interesting 'small world' story re these cats - Richard Woods (of 'Eclipse' fame) was here on Eclipse a few years ago and he also used to sail on one of these Firebirds - he might even have won the nationals or something like that, when she was still in England.
 
Re: I can\'t belive I\'m gonna say this...

>>>
Why do you still see so many powerful planing mono hulled boats in the rest of Europe where boaters pay full road prices for fuel?
>>>

Rich people paying less for white fuel? Med boating has never appeared to be an Everyman activity to the extent that boating is in the UK.
 
Re: Firebirds

Ah
That was where the fifth MKII went to then.
Firebird II
Orion
Ultra Violet
One to Sweden
and the one you mention to Barbados.

There are about 3 in the Solent.
and still about 3 in Falmouth.
AFAIK Crackerjack belongs to Martin Smith - the designer - last I knew she was being sailed by Mike Web - a UK Tornado sailor.

Unfortunately, I dont have many action photos of Firebird sailing - too busy at the time but this is what it's like on board Firebird II. This was just after the start of one of the Round the Isle of Wight races.
IOW Start1 (Small).jpg
 
Re: I can\'t belive I\'m gonna say this...

[ QUOTE ]
Med boating has never appeared to be an Everyman activity to the extent that boating is in the UK.

[/ QUOTE ]

What is that comment based on? The majority of the boats in our marina (Alcudia) are Spanish registered and by no means gin palaces. Most of the boats on our pontoon are owned and used by locals (they love fishing in particular)
 
Re: Firebirds

[ QUOTE ]
It would appear that the gentlemen on the left is a member of the clergy. Prayers on demand?


[/ QUOTE ]
Thats weid!!
I never saw it that way.
You wont believe this - his surname is Priest!!!! and he's NOT a member of the cloth.
 
Re: Firebirds and Martyn Smith

Re the Firebird designer Martyn Smith - I have had the honour and priviledge of being mistaken a couple of times for him - not in appearance, but simply because we share the same name (but different spelling!) and a background re boat design.

However I can only aspire wistfully to the design brilliance that he has!
I believe that one of his (many) claims to fame is that he designed the nose cone of Concorde, while he was the Chief Stress Engineer at British Aerospace.
 
Re: I can\'t belive I\'m gonna say this...

You still see fast powerboats in the Med because road fuel is so much cheaper....

If we only paid 60p per litre I doubt it would hit the industry as hard...

To be honest though this threads gone off at a tangent - the question I wanted to ask is ....

"Will we see the rise of the slower multihull (power or sail) and the loss of the fast Motorboat because of the duty rise?"
 
Re: I can\'t belive I\'m gonna say this...

[ QUOTE ]
To be honest though this threads gone off at a tangent - the question I wanted to ask is ....

"Will we see the rise of the slower multihull (power or sail) and the loss of the fast Motorboat because of the duty rise?"

[/ QUOTE ]

Er, well already you got an answer from me. No, because of the lack of mooring space in the popular boating areas. Even if you can find a marina to take a multihull, the average oncost in mooring fees over a monohull is 50% which will more than wipe out any fuel saving. Also and IMHO, most multihulls are pig ugly and, since boats are bought as much with the heart as the head, that will limit sales. Will multihulls take over the boating world. No
Btw, Med fuel costs £0.70-£0.80 per litre which is certainly significantly higher than UK red diesel prices
 
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