Leopard roars on maiden voyage

[david_e]

Tcm, this story has made me curious, have just been looking at the Rodriguez website and this made me think about others so had a quick peak at the Sunseeker site, so a few questions; Which S/S model range would it be nearest to? They say they have made a 100 of the type you have bought, is there a strong used market? In car terms how do Rodriguez stack up against S/S and Fairline in terms of build quality & performance, so if yours is say a Roller the others would be..what? Where did you recruit the skipper, or did they supply him? Finally why was the salesgirl worried that mrs tcm might not like it? Is it out of genuine concern or because final payment had to be made or something?

ps would it be rude to ask how many small houses from Bolton it cost? I know everyone would like to know but probably won't ask.

 

[boatone]

A Few Pics For Starters

A few pics have now arrived from Matt and Coliholic but looks as if jfm's will not be available til later tonight.
I've put those I've got up on the web at:
http://www.boatsontheweb.com/leopard3
left hand side is an xray index..explore with your mouse and click to see.............hi-tech boat so I thought high teck webpage..........!!
Once jfm's arrive I'll put 'em all together.

Note to Barry D.....never mind all this V8 petrol/LPG rubbish..only a real boat will do.<BG>

TonyR
boatone@boatsontheweb.com
www.boatsonthethames.co.uk

 

[peterg]

you could probably buy...

the whole of Bolton for what his Leopard cost but then it wouldn't give him half as much fun!

 

[JohnR]

I know what you mean - if mine again mentions the joys of grilled prawns I'll scream, where does he think I've been all my life? But he swaers he can cook lunch each day, we'll see.

Wot about a swap of skippers?

 

[JohnR]

Re: aleutian

She is delayed again - too complicated to go into here. I am waiting to hear which ship she is booked on (it a French one - groan!) and I think its unloading at Southampton 7 April, then straight round to Lymington for the boy's toys because we are behind schedule.

 

[jfm]

Re: aleutian

Keep us up to date on dates - I'm based in Berthon at Lymington, would love to see her. Are you using Datayacht in Lymington for the boys toys? Also, will it be in Berthon or LYH?

Hope all goes well, no more delays etc!

 

[tcm]

Re: skipper swap

Ooh no, can't do that. It's not the slave trade. We'll, it is sort of, but it should be a bit more covert. Anyway, our skipper is helping me perfect my swearing in french ("oh, zat word eez very strong, en francais, m'sieur!")

 

[adarcy]

tcm

There's only 3 things to say now you've been out on it

gnash gnash enjoy

Anthony

 

[JohnR]

Re: aleutian

LYH being "done" by Greenham Marine or whatever they call themselves these days but if they don't get back to me with some answers soon it will be someone else doing the work <G>

 

[JohnR]

Re: skipper swap

aah, merde.

 

[tcm]

Re: skipper swap

I have got only a little further than "merde". A room that is a right pigsty is "un vrai bordello" and "je m'ai trompé la route" is "I screwed up in finding the directions whilst driving" , although "je t'ai trompé" when said to wife means you've accidentally cheated on her.

 

[petem]

Skipper protocol

Is 'Arry allowed to go home when you're not there or does he have to live in the cupboard under the sunbeds all the time?

 

[andy_wilson]

5.

He likes a swim does Colin.

All the best

Andy

 

[tcm]

Re: Skipper protocol

he lives nearby, so doesn't stay on the boat cept if we go out for a while. I'm told that this is the best way.

 

[tcm]

Hi david. Yes, did look quite hard at Sunseeker. Players include Pershing, Baia, Sunseeker, Leopard, Mangusta. There's another bit under "Leopard question" above answering how I made a choice. The predator 72 (or is i 74 now) is the closest - 3 cabins 22metres. As usuall, the car analogy falls apart for more complex systems. Certainly rodrigues seem to have some amzing people actually working and building the boats, not just "quite good at joinery" or ex-kitchen fitter, but generation afte generation of boatbuilding.

Genuine concern that Mrs tcm wsn't involved, but she is not too demnading (!). Most big-boat sales there sort of fall apart cos "the wife doesn't like it" or a similar whim wanes, and our skipper twice lost jobs cos the boat was sold.. cos the wife didn't like it.

It cost FFR16.5 million plus VAT. Not sure how many small house in Bolton this buys. This "all in". No extras, even the towels liferafts, cutlery, chart chips, skipper salary for first season, expresso machine, champagne bucket, silver thing for tissue boxes, complicated other coffee making machine, poncy china plates, cakes plates, cookery utensils, other everyday cutlery, everyday glasses, posh crystal glasses all sorts of sizes for 12 people, linen, spare linen, spare linen for the crew cabin, jfm's whahey connexion of TV to display on chart plotter and radar screen, mongrammed blimmin bathrobes, first aid kit, flares.

The skipper was announced as being free actually after the deal was done, which made me wonder if I'd ne allowed to drive it, tho no problems. Actually, it became obvious to me and coliholic that the whole blimming thing was miles too much engineering, gurantee chasing etc etc to attempt in conjunction with having a holiday, so the skipper lets us gof avbout doing the bits of boating we like (lines, driving, fixing things a bit, bit of hosepiping but not for ages) and he does the rest.

 

[david_e]

At tourist rates that is about £1.6m to bods like me. Impressive stuff have to say, hope you get alot of pleasure from her. You could buy about 1,000 of my current boat for that (before discount and including VAT), which is about how many of them have been made in the last 10 years!

 

[tcm]

Re: what boat?

1,000?!! What sailboat has reached 1,000 units, i wonder? Massive numbers - powerboats far smaller production- even the mosty popular twentysomething footers reach only five or six hundred

 

[boatone]

Re: what boat?

Not sure of the exact number but I think you'll find the Princess 32 got well up into the high hundreds if not quite the 1000 mark. If you take into account the number of variants built on the same hull (Project 31, RLM etc) would have been much greater.

TonyR
boatone@boatsontheweb.com
www.boatsonthethames.co.uk

 

[lyc]

Re: calling boatone.......

Have I missed the new pictures of the boat or are they not on the web yet?

I have seen the ones with a wet coliholic (I have yet to see a picture of him either dry or sober.

 

[david_e]

Stress

...and monday morning overload, that's what I blame it on!! Did I say 1,000, yes I did. It's 100 actually at £16k each. They have made about a 1,000 of them, haven't counted em all myself of course, but read a few years ago it was over 900 so presume it must now be about 1,000. What type of boat - can you guess? Give you a starter - it's french and also made in the US.