Who would buy a T47?

[Moose]

Sneaked onto the Sealine stand yesterday and asked to look on the T47. No problem, its empty says the person standing sentry at the top of the steps (wonder why, thinks I). So we started to have a poke around and quickly discovered that you can't get off the helm seat without whacking your snout in the roof. The salesman then tries to show us how spacious the galley is while he struggles to push away the LCD TV that occupies half the workspace, struggling to push it in the cabinet he says, well it has had a whole week of being opened and closed, "you mean it only lasts a week?" says I, Erm no says the guy as he slams the TV onto his fingers, ha!. Went to sit at the helm again to show him how I bashed my head, then I notice that there is no chart table "ahh yes, thats because you can't have a good helm and a chart table, and anyway nobody uses charts anymore" says the guy. Oh, really, well I have a good helm and a chart table and my boat is 10ft shorter says I. I ventured up to the Flybridge and sat down at the helm (or at least I would have done if the helm wasn't 3inches from the end of the seat, I turned around and realised that there were no guardrails around the rear of the flybridge and the sunpad thing was level with the rear of the flybridge so you can simply slide of the back and into the drink. Sales guy says "yes well, you wouldn't fall off it because its such a stable boat and if you wanted to make sure you could fit a Satcom dome that would block up the rear of the flybridge" Oh, really, how much is that "Erm £12,000". Right. Stepping back into the cockpit I opened up the crew cabin and sent No1 down to inspect, he said it wasn't much good because there was all the water pumps and heating ducts and autopilot stuff in the wall. The salesman guy said "yes, well most people make this into a children’s cabin because kids like to have their own space" I suggested that this may be the case if they like to dismantle expensive bits of machinery and have access to the engine room. I finally got around to asking the guy how much the boat was, £310k but £380k as it is here. After rolling around laughing my head off I told him that the Princess 45 is cheaper and it has a decent flybridge, a super helm and no useless crew cabin. Can sealine really expect to sell boats when they don't even come near the quality of a Princess but cost more? Am I missing something?
The salesman, well he was just beyond belief!

 

[cliffdale]

Never mind the big boy stuff, dont suppose you poked around the Sealine 34 and targa 34. Which on should i get??????

No i dont want a P37.

cliff

 

[Deleted User YDKXO]

Not entirely fair, Moose. P45 is a smaller boat (its the old P420/430 with a 3rd cabin squeezed in it). T47 is more comparable with Fairline Phantom 46 or Azimut 46 against which it looks much better value. Crew cabin is useful for occasional use and essential for chartering. Many boats dont have a chart table these days (shame IMHO) eg Azimuts and Sunseekers and the fact that you banged your head probably means the helm station is high enough so that you can see over the bow when seated
Agree with you on the sunpad though. We made the same comment and salesman said they had to raise guardrails to meet charter regs which begs question as to why they dont do it in first place. Btw flybridge helm seat swivels round to face seating which I thought was a good idea
FWIW I'd take the T47 over the P45 and Fairline P46 but one man's meat etc etc

 

[Wiggo]

don't suppose yuo noticed his name, did you? Big tall bloke, heavily built, mid 20's perhaps?

 

[Planty]

Could never understand why they stopped the T46 and continued the T47, bottom drops out of price as well, T46 had aft cabin + far better internals etc. Was the F43 at LIBs as it wasn't at SIBS, or are they stopping that too in favour of the 42/5 which is a far smaller boat internally? (Is it something to do with aft cabins) Yet I am reliably informed the 2 boats that hold prices best throughout range are T46 & F43.

Always had very good service recently from Sealine Salespeople, sorry you experienced otherwise, annoying ain't it. Paul

 

[Deleted User YDKXO]

The usual story is that aft cabin boats cost more to build only the market wont stand the higher price but I would be surprised if they stopped building these boats, certainly the F43 which I thought was still selling well. The F43 and its predecessor the 410 (almost the same) have been around for ages (1994??) so maybe its time for a big update?
Sealine get a lot of brickbats on this forum but I dont think they get enough credit for some of their good ideas like the integration of aft cabin and cockpit on the T46/F43. FWIW I ran a F43/410 for 2 seasons and never had a problem with it (unlike some supposedly higher quality boats I could mention)

 

[Nick_H]

I have a T46, and have yet to see any boat of a similar size I would consider swapping it for. Its 6 years old but looks like new (testament in part at least to the build quality), has so much space inside it feels half as long again, total privacy for you and your guests, and only modest compromises in the cockpit to accomodate the rear cabin. Also looked at the T47, and whilst I didn't like it as much, I don't agree its as bad as all that. FWIW it still makes MBY's list of top ten flybridge cruisers.

 

[Planty]

Hear, Hear to that. Just interested to know whether the F43 was at LIBS. I have one that is brilliant, mate wanted to order one at SIBs but it wasn't there? Ordered it anyway but seemed strange that a boat with such credentials should be absent, "No room" was the excuse and I too have heard "expense" as a downside, but very few Aft Cabins that don't look like theyv'e had an extension added in this size so I would have thought a winner for Sealine??? Is it perhaps that it just keeps on selling and residuals are really good so don't need to "sell" them ??? Paul

 

[rickp]

There was an F43 at LIBS.

Rick

 

[Deleted User YDKXO]

F43

I remember they did the same thing with the S37. It dont show up at SIBS 2003 (I happened to ask because we used to own one) and a few months later the S38 appeared
My guess is that they're going to update the F43. Maybe they'll make a single aft cabin model to cover both the F43 and T46?