Which boat has the best owners forum?

Kukri said:
No, I’m not going to recommend mine (we struggle with a drop box, but we are all jolly nice chaps..) I am going to recommend Morgan’s Cloud:

https://www.morganscloud.com/members/

Yes it costs, yes it’s worth every penny. Aimed at exactly what it says on the box, attainable adventure cruising. Largely American and thorough.
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Thanks for the suggestion. Looks very interesting. Not an owners forum though :-)

I’ve not owned a boat, but in other walks of life, a vibrant owners forum can be a brand ambassador, and an asset to the owner community, so I am wondering if it’s the same with boats.
 
Paddy Fields said:
Interesting. There is a HROA, but it is £40 a year to join.

…

For the brands that are still going strong, I’m a bit wary that some of the owners associations for the more exclusive brands is more about patting each other on the back for being able to afford one, rather than about spannering.
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That was somewhat my impression of the HROA but they were very welcoming, allowing me to visit them at one of their rallies in the Solent to admire one of their boats when I would have had to travel much further to look at secondhand ones for sale.

They have a Facebook group which is members only. Another Hallberg-Rassy group is open to all.

Some of the owners' groups on Yahoo Groups are amazing - the Amel and Tayana ones particularly.
 
Paddy Fields said:
That sounds promising. It is now on my radar!
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Note that there are *two* online Island Packet forums:

- “iphomeport” as mentioned by rotrax, which is a more formal forum but lots of good info especially from the factory

www.iphomeport.com

- IP Yacht Owners Association IPYOA which is a more informal owner-led group hosted mainly on it’s Facebook page but has a website with tons of photos videos and articles uploaded by owners

Facebook: IPYOA.com Island Packet Yacht Owners Association

Website: www.ipyoa.com

There is a third communications channel which is a text email only forum run by Bruce Gregory aimed at world sailing cruisers with limited comms bandwidth.

All are useful.
 
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I can recommend the Southerly Owners Association as a very friendly and welcoming group.

There is a website, which has a sub forum on technical matters and problem solving, and some very helpful and capable people who are willing to offer advice and support.

Parts of the forum are open, parts of it are members only

at £25 pa it’s not exactly expensive, and like another OA mentioned, I think part of the costs cover the quarterly magazine, which tends to have technical/problem solving articles

http://www.soa-forum.org.uk/blog/

I know too that prospective purchasers are granted free access for a few months to help them with the purchasing decision

There’s a FB group now set up, but that’s more socially orientated
 
Another vote for Moody Owners Assn. Lots of maintenance information in the library, even production drawings for some models. Many members are "hands on" and there are few maintenance jobs they haven't done. There's also the social side, with a few organised events around the country and Med.
 
Paddy Fields said:
I’ve not owned a boat, but in other walks of life, a vibrant owners forum can be a brand ambassador, and an asset to the owner community, so I am wondering if it’s the same with boats.
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Not so much, for the reasons that pvb gave earlier. At least on the technical side, which is what you seemed to be emphasising - my parents do get social value out of the Maxi Owners Association. But as far as maintenance etc, that you mentioned in the original question, there just isn’t much that’s specific to a given marque of boat and the vastly bigger readership of this place makes it much more thorough and useful than most OAs.

Level of forum activity is definitely one of the oddest criteria I’ve come across for choosing a boat ;)

Pete
 
prv said:
Not so much, for the reasons that pvb gave earlier. At least on the technical side, which is what you seemed to be emphasising - my parents do get social value out of the Maxi Owners Association. But as far as maintenance etc, that you mentioned in the original question, there just isn’t much that’s specific to a given marque of boat and the vastly bigger readership of this place makes it much more thorough and useful than most OAs.

Level of forum activity is definitely one of the oddest criteria I’ve come across for choosing a boat ;)

Pete
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The iphomeport is full of owners hands on technical stuff, with extensive photographic 'how to do it' information, plus the ex factory input ensures that only good practice is reccomended.

As Saguday mentioned, the IPOA facebook page is another approach, often for older IP models.

It is surprising how difficult it can be to judge the age of an Island Packet as they wear so well. Our previous boat was often taken for a three or four year old vessel, despite being sixteen years old - even by the trade!
 
I know that the Op did not ask for details of mass production boat forums, but an earlier post mentioned the MyHanse forum.

I have read that some forums (possibly administered by manufacturers) will shut down adverse comments about the boats. I do not know how true that is.

What I like about the Myhanse forum is that they accept most comments, warts & all. One gets to know everything about Hanse yachts & it is a brilliant forum for Hanse owners seeking info & to an extent, meeting other owners
 
Bathdave said:
I can recommend the Southerly Owners Association as a very friendly and welcoming group.
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I agree. However membership of the SOA Association is only £20 per annum not as mentioned in the above post.

For more details see here. http://www.soa-forum.org.uk/blog/

Southerly Boats have a substantial and unique patented cast iron lifting keel. It is a keel not a centre board, it weighs more than a tonne and is lifted with a very reliable electro-hydraulic system. It pivots from the forward end with the massive pivot fixed in a large cast grounding plate, there is much detail about this in the Technical section of the SOA Forum. The Forum is devided into two sections, general access and members only.

Membership includes the SOA magazine which has details of forthcoming events, booking forms, technical information and topical articles. In a typical year events would include at least six rallies, the Laying Up Supper, and the Annual General Meeting with an associated social event. These last two are not cheap but are great events with good food in a good location, not only do you meet the very friendly and helpful other owners but also have a really good speaker. In a few weeks time there is the Laying Up Supper and Tom Cunliffe is the speaker, so it really is worth it.

Maybe you can tell I am biast. Good sailing, George
 
Paddy Fields said:
Hi all

Been looking into getting something like a second/third/forth hand moody, amel najad, halberg rassy, oyster, etc, and wondered which of these kinds of “brands” has the most active (English language) user forum, with knowledgable owners who are happy to offer advice, particularly with maintenance.

Id like a boat/forum that is open, but has enough focus/exclusivity so that you don’t have thousands of people pulling a thread in lots of different random directions.

Some of these forums require a subscription. While I don’t mind paying for joining a user forum, but preferably only after I’ve actually got the boat, hence why I’m asking here, rather than just signing up to all the forums :-)

Thanks in advance

Dan
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Wouldn't bother with Oyster unless you've got a 7+ figure bank balance. They've got miffed in the past when old £30K Lightwaves turn up at Oyster regattas and beat the £3M jobbies...!
 
Paddy Fields said:
Which would be a worry if you were buying an older model with the intent of doing the spannering yourself.
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Obviously difficult now with Oyster recreating themselves but before the great phoenix job I confess in fairness they were very helpful to me when I completely refitted mine and when my rudder was replaced they sent me a sheaf of 'blueprint' copies (remember those ?) of the rudder and stock. They've moved on now to the extent of deleting the Lightwave details from their new website and I doubt there is anyone there who knows what it is.
Thankfully there's a surveyor here in Cowes that used to work for them and who is a good source of knowledge and who knows others from the period but I probably know the boat as well as anyone now.
 
Not much help.... but, as a number of groups move to Facebook, historical material becomes more difficult to search, less of a resource and the stuff becomes largely ephemeral in nature. Shame really.
 
doug748 said:
Not much help.... but, as a number of groups move to Facebook, historical material becomes more difficult to search, less of a resource and the stuff becomes largely ephemeral in nature. Shame really.
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That’s down to how they are managed. It is possible to maintain info libraries as part of a FB page (done very well on an EV forum I’m on) or simply run a website in parallel to FB for all the doc stuff and post links.
 
I suspect it will be Bavaria, Moody, Contessa and Westerly. These boats all have legs and most of the owners are decent chaps. The Sadlers owners group tries hard.
 
HR owners are fairly decent, in fact, anyone prepared to pay the subscription is welcome. The Association and forums have no direct connection with the builders but maintain useful relations with the agents, who have been known to donate the odd case of wine for rallies. At a local rally we had a 29 and a 54 and the rest in between.
 
Lightwave395 said:
Obviously difficult now with Oyster recreating themselves but before the great phoenix job I confess in fairness they were very helpful to me when I completely refitted mine and when my rudder was replaced they sent me a sheaf of 'blueprint' copies (remember those ?) of the rudder and stock. They've moved on now to the extent of deleting the Lightwave details from their new website and I doubt there is anyone there who knows what it is.
Thankfully there's a surveyor here in Cowes that used to work for them and who is a good source of knowledge and who knows others from the period but I probably know the boat as well as anyone now.
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There is the Oyster owners' website that is called www.oyster-owners.com

There is no subscription to have access to the site, but you do need to own an Oyster! Most users have older smaller Oysters.

It is independent of Oyster but approved of by the company.

This video explains a bit more https://youtu.be/vesbFang6us

There are other Lightwave owners on the site. Maybe you should join!

TS
 
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