Once again the style police…….

Daydream believer said:
But let's face it. It looks like a jig saw, with bits added as an after thought, all stuck together to make a boat. Clearly not designed from the outset. Just some bloke who has made it up as he went from bits of wood that he had left over from building his house. :rolleyes: To some that is clearly an achievement & something to be applauded. But as an example of pleasant design?? :unsure:
But that is not to say that it has not clearly had some loving care spent over its restoration. So someone loves it. Even ugly women get loved--- if they can cook & do housework;)
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It is, of course my boat so wash your mouth out. It was designed by the editor of YM (for 40 years) and was much admired at the time plus was hugely successful as an ocean cruiser - over 40 transatlantics recorded in the 1970's/80's.

Only showing it to illustrate how styles change over the years, and the interior would satisfy Zagato. A boat for serious cruising and relaxing at the end in a cosy cabin. a child of its time.

Its predecessor in the same berth was this

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Also representative of its time and very successful.
 
Tranona said:
It is, of course my boat so wash your mouth out. It was designed by the editor of YM --(Rest edited)
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Might have known it- Journalist. Not a yacht designer then :unsure: :confused:
Perhaps they did sail a long way. But if that was what was available at the time, then people would have stuck with it.
But that aside, I did say that the restoration looked good. I have admired some of your interior pics. So must I say that I was not criticising those efforts
But i was commenting on looks & I do not change those views, as I have seen a few of those boats over the years. I find it difficult to believe how anyone actually bought them. But they did as you have pointed out. No accounting for taste & to each his own. I hope you enjoy yours. I am sure you will.?
 
Daydream believer said:
Might have known it- Journalist. Not a yacht designer then :unsure: :confused:
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MG was MIRNA and highly regarded as a designer with getting on for 200 designs and thousands of examples built. Just was a journallst to pay the bills . Also got a GM for clearing mines in the Suez Canal at the end of the war.

Also an absolutely charming gentleman who I had the privilege to meet on a couple of occasions.

His boats have given me pleasure for most of my sailing life - even through the dalliance of 20 years with Bavarias!
 
Wansworth said:
Yesterday I was accused of attacking the latest batch of modern design in yachts.Imagine walking along the harbour and moored up where schooners and ketches,both wood and grp but boats with a character.The range of interesting yachts from Fisher motor sailers to Nicholson 32s,Tahite ketches,boats that Are not wind tunnel tested that have great sitting out places not just in the cockpit,boats that can be sanded and varnished………compared with dreary rows of sleek grp bermudian copies,my defense is maybe these new boats are efficient and smart but they lack a human element which most sailers will recognise
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I appreciate both types: 100 year old boats with no winches but lots of splinters and tar and modern cats like those made by Shuttleworth.

Some Wally boats are an eyesore, however in my opinion ( usually motor catamarans, not their sailing designs).

Taste is vast.
 
FWB said:
Daydream Believer……. Crickey! Are you of Australian descent by any chance?
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Come on! Typical comment as part of a conversation from any group in a pub or yacht club bar to a mate when he says he likes something the others see as "urgh". Whether it be a boat, car, or a woman etc . Trouble is that on a forum people do not seem to see a funny side
Of course I did not mean any harm, just a little wind up for fun. Let's face it. That boat is not the prettiest one out of the box. :eek:
 
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No, but it does reference a lot of bankrupt designers of classic yachts. I don’t want to spoil the ending but the French win ?
 
Part of the attraction òf boating for us is watching the comings and goings of boats and people in the marina.

The experienced, the inexperienced, the old unloved boat that could be something with some sanding and varnishing. The boat the owners have spent a fortune updating but never looks any different, those that never go out to sea and those that take every opportunity to go out to sea.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, people own boats for different reasons but at the end of the day, they are fellow boaties?
 
harvey38 said:
Part of the attraction òf boating for us is watching the comings and goings of boats and people in the marina.

The experienced, the inexperienced, the old unloved boat that could be something with some sanding and varnishing. The boat the owners have spent a fortune updating but never looks any different, those that never go out to sea and those that take every opportunity to go out to sea.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, people own boats for different reasons but at the end of the day, they are fellow boaties?
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Boats both beautiful and ugly all give us something to talk about, occasionally to laugh about. The odd one that resembles a smacked arse is all part of the fun.
 
Wansworth said:
Yesterday I was accused of attacking the latest batch of modern design in yachts.Imagine walking along the harbour and moored up where schooners and ketches,both wood and grp but boats with a character.The range of interesting yachts from Fisher motor sailers to Nicholson 32s,Tahite ketches,boats that Are not wind tunnel tested that have great sitting out places not just in the cockpit,boats that can be sanded and varnished………compared with dreary rows of sleek grp bermudian copies,my defense is maybe these new boats are efficient and smart but they lack a human element which most sailers will recognise
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Beauty is in the eye of the berth holder.
 
Sandy said:
Beauty is in the eye of the berth holder.
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This reminds me of a conversation about a strange ¼ ton wooden boat being built in Burnham on Crouch in the early 1970's. It broke so many of the existing ideas of design. The designer was Stephen Jones being built for sailing journalist Jack Knights. The name was so apt as it was called Odd Job.

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"Another of Jack's favourite topics was the way in which the various rating rules were producing ever stranger boats, and having said so much on the subject it was only right that he should put his views into action out on the water. He went to one of the new breed of UK based designers, Stephen Jones, who drew up the lines for the boat that would be the instantly recognizable Odd Job Quarter Tonner. From the distorted hull form to the revolutionary rig (which owed a lot to dinghy thinking) Odd Job was years ahead of its time, yet this was high cost, high maintenance sailing, an area of the sport that was increasingly a 'bêtes noire' for Jack, who disliked not only the rise of cheque book sailing, but the way that increasing commercialisation was creating a 'them and us' divide in the sport.

Odd Job would also highlight the dichotomy that made up Jack's sailing personality, for he was clever and innovative enough to create the concept behind the boat, yet disorganised enough to come to the start line with his crew still putting the fittings on (this might have been okay in the International Moths of the day, for whom fitting out during the briefing was a well-established behaviour).

He was abrasive enough to upset half the fleet, yet charming and clever enough to attract a crew studded with star quality, with the likes of David Hunt, Barry Dunning and Peter Sweetman on board to help make the boat go. Yet for all this talent, Jack would still want to go his own way, to the point that when his crew pointed out that whilst there were boats to the north of them and boats to the south, but no-one around them, Jack chose to stand on, only to sail at full speed into the West Bramble Bank, with spectacular results for his crew.

Having ploughed a keel furrow to make their escape from 'the putty' Jack compounded his errors by standing on again, thinking he could shave across the bow of a starboard tack Contessa. Now Odd Job was super light but a Contessa is anything but... had it just been the rear stanchion that got carried away it would have just been an embarrassing moment, as it was the Contessa snagged their backstay and after a moment of real mast bend, the top section let go.

Worse still, the mast was a new development from Needlespars, with their being high hopes that this, their first foray into the yacht scene, would be a good move. With David Hunt, aka Mr. Needlespar on board, as the mast came down there was an awkward moment on board, until David broke the tension by describing it as a 'failure of molecular adhesion'..."
Jack Knights - Sailor, Innovator, Journalist, and a Witty Wise Man

Here are some photos of Odd Job here showing her unusual hull shape depite the deck being covered.
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ODD JOB - Stephen Jones Designed 1/4 ton IOR Yacht - Jersey 2013

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Odd Job photo (1) - Royal Cork Yacht Club

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Odd Job on day 3 of the Brewin Dolphin Jersey Regatta

Considering this boat is now 50 years old, many of the "odd" looking parts are not that different than many modern yachts.
 
I'm a little sad that this thread no longer appears above the one about rescue pyrotechnics as the phrase
ONCE AGAIN THE STYLE POLICE
FLARE REPLACEMENT
was brightening my morning.

You can think me a philistine if you like but I don't like the look of that America's Cup boat at all.

Based on recent debates of boat aesthetics I think too many of us, myself included though I've tried to keep out, are suffering from a surfeit of January and really need to go sailing.
 
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