Very interesting!

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Guest

Guest
Greetings Mudislanders!

Just browsing around after an absence of many months, and have noticed that my old sparring partners have all gone to that young whippersnapper Marian Martins site! She is running a poll on her site looking at the aesthetics of wooden and GRP hulled boats. When was the last time you saw an aesthetically pleasing GRP boat eh? Have a look and put the lady straight!
 
Aethetically pleasing GRP boat? Every time I see my own boat. Nothing prettier than her, and she's all GRP.
 
It's something that's been discussed already on Scuttlebutt. The old adage " beauty is in the eye etc. " is never truer than in yachting. While there is usually universal agreement on boats such as the Contessa 32 , practically every proud boat owner would say that his/her boat pleases their eye. Whether it pleases anyone elses doesn't really matter. With wooden boats for every handsome one I've seen, there's been one that is every bit as ugly as some grp creations.
 
I'm sure the builder of a turn of the century fishing smack would guffaw into his porter at the thought of his creations being called 'aethetically pleasing. Working boats were built to do a job of work and bugger the looks.

What we actually mean is theylook different, quaint and old, and therefore interesting but notnecessarily aesthetically pleasing.

A Bullnose Morris will always turn heads these days to cries of 'Wow! Look at that.' She IS wonderful to look at but, be honest - aesthetically pleasing?
Say Shamrock or Valsheda and I'm with you, but Tangaroa aethetically pleasing? Hmmm...


JJ
 
There is always beauty in the eye of the owner. I own a GRP Itchen Ferry which has a much admired, curvaceous stern (design c.1860).
But when Drummond Bayne designed the lid a hundred years later it was clearly done on the back of a much creased envelope.
The early design was simply function dictated form and was probably built 'by eye'. Good looks were often a fortunate bonus.
CAD can give us some angular monstrosities - I say to myself as the latest wedge comes tearing past, 15 degrees closer to the wind.
 
And thank goodness for the invention of the sprayhood. It's just a matter of time before they're fitted as standard to all H.M. submarines!
 
I have just had a quick look at her site!
One thing for sure is one quick look was suffice!
Sad I think is the word that I would use!
Bye the way my boat fibre glass and I think its very nice to the eye. But I am prejudiced aren!t I.
Regards
Bluebeard
 
Is kvt Herr Von Thadden, par hazard?

Anyway, James, having just sailed a 1901 Fifie from Portsoy to Anstruther I would say that fishing boats of that era were built for a purpose and anything built for a purpose tends (not always) looks just right. This old boat is fabulous, yacht like, fast (for her time) touch of sheer, fine entry, perfect for her purpose. Did she inspire yachts or was she inspired by them? Probably the former. Maybe a bit of both. Any yacht that derives from a fishing boat looks good. Any yacht that was designed simply to carry a double bed in the back doesn't. Or, not necessarily.

On another theme, yachts did inspire warship designers, in the 19th century. Yachts are not as frivolous as we assume. They have helped refine the species.
 
Wood cannot make a bad design beautiful. GRP doesn't make a splendid design ugly. But, other things being equal wood is more aesthetic and that is how I voted in Marion's poll.

Other things are rarely equal but I can give one example: There's a 42 wooden Ron Holland one-off "Double Thyme" built in Sunderland which is in all but name a wooden Swan. She is absolutely stunning and far more attractive than her Nautor sister ships.
 
...as sad as calling yourself Bluebeard?

People in glass houses?

Yours in jest :-)

Chris Enstone, Rival Spirit
 
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