Sealine 35

kimhollamby

kimhollamby

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16 May 2001
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Location
Berkshire, Somerset, Hampshire
www.kimhollamby.com
I've been buried in the bilges of my own boat so long I really hadn't been looking at what was happening with motorboat development last couple of years.

I saw a Sealine 35 last night and stopped dead with surprise at its...sorry any owners...ugliness. The kind of poor-soul-that-might-never-expect-a-date-with-a-visually-competent-partner type of ugliness.

If it is my age, or the fact I clearly haven't upgraded my style software, please say. I am curious to say the least to know if the next generation of motorboats will look like the origami attempts one can float down the river like sophisticated poo sticks.
 
It's definitely a Marmite boat, you love it or hate it. I love it, or at least the styling, and i've seen a few 35's and 47's (similar styling) in the last two weeks in Corsica, so they seem to be selling here in the med. They were all foreign flagged as well, so seems our European cousins like them.

Did the 35 have black or white hardtop? The black looks loads better IMO, but I somehow think it's more than the colour of the hardtop you don't like?
 
The first one I saw, it was "Oh my", what have they done?

That was a while ago: now I think they look quite smart with a black top. But ... still the proportions work better on the bigger SC47 imho.

dv.
 
I agree that the SC has been thrashed soundly with the ugly stick, although familiarity over a couple of years has slightly blunted my original loathing. Funnily enough, however, I saw the open version (ie without the hardtop) last summer when we were in Portugal and it made sense, in a slightly surreal way.

It's either the future, or a noughties version of the infamous Sealine "dolphin nose" bow of the nineties /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif
 
Good point, I remember well the impact of the bottlenose Sealines, designed I think from memory by someone who left the British Leyland team that gave us the Allegro and Metro. They were certainly as divisive in their day although I also remember that generation as showing signs of interior good sense thanks to at least two directors (Tom Murrant and Tony Perrins) being actual users of their boats. Quite rare for a boatbuilder.
 
Hi Kim, I think the ex BL designer who worked for Sealine was a guy called Roger Tucker and AFAIK he was part of the design team responsible for the Montego and the Maestro. Not sure he can take any credit (blame?) for the Allegro and the Metro. Certainly Tom Murrant and his wife (who I think had some responsibility for interior design) did use their boats and took time to meet their customers. I remember going to a Sealine open day at their Hamble office many years ago with my SWMBO (who likes to call a spade a spade when it comes to talking to boat salesman). We boarded a boat and, after a while, were asked by a gentleman what we thought of it. My SWMBO immediately launched into a litany of criticisms which went on for several minutes with the man remaining silent and taking copious notes. After she eventually finished she asked 'and who are you' whereupon the man replied that he was the chairman of the company! He thanked her for her words and promised to attend to every point. I was impressed by that
As for the SC35, I think Sealine have to try to develop a distinctive house style. Rightly or wrongly, they don't have the same brand image as the other big UK builders so they have to make their products stand out. FWIW, I think their new design style works better on the bigger boats and less well on the smaller ones which tend to look somewhat badly proportioned. But overall you've got to give them credit for having a go
 
Equities trader Andrew Paul, who claims he wants to give up his millionaire lifestyle and make a fresh start, is offering his house, car and boat as prizes in an online competition.

Oh it does amuse me how supposed "millyonaires" suddenly decide in the downturns that they're tired of the high life and are going to "downsize".

It's never that they've run right out of credit and can't afford all the payments you understand, oh no, it's a "lifestyle choice" every time! /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif
 
Hi, moneypit is a fair name :-)

Ta for asking. It's going okay, small steps forward most weekends. We have one working loo now, cold running water, a berth we can sleep in and a few other home comforts. Not exactly the kind of boating many people would indulge in but we know every inch of Formanda now and will have a lot of confidence in all of her systems as most will be brand new and engineered better than original.

Plan is to get all critical safety related issues sorted over the next few weeks, then keep going picking away at what we currently see as nice-to-haves. Realistically we should be back up and running properly by next year but meantime it's great to be afloat and to feel the project slowly come together.
 
Doh! Age-related memory loss. Of course Roger Tucker and yes you are I'm sure right about the cars too.

Yes the chairman was Tom Murrant and his wife Jane was very much involved in the interiors. Tom could be a bit prickly with some people but he had a brilliant mind and a keen eye for detail.
 
Roger was the Metro man. With regard to the interior, Frank's name should be added, he was very much envolved with the interior design.

Tom could be very, very prickly, spent the best part of 15 years dealing with him, but he was the most brilliant man to talk to on design, and other things come to that

It would have been interesting what boats they would have been building if Tom have not sold out. From the talks we had on electrics, the 51 was always refered to only as his big boat, and it was going to be a proper boat. I always had the inpression that it would be a semi-displacement motor yacht, bit like the Trader. You had to interprit Tom's comments, then have new switchgear designed ready that suited the new boat when it appeared. They were good times in the boat industry the 1980's and 1990's, inovation was the rule, very boring now.

Brian
 
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