Why did they think it was a good idea?

st599

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Get a RIB with an outboard on a trailer and then your options for boating are unlimited…. I can’t believe I’m saying this…but…look at BigPlumbs…he and his good lady go out wherever whenever they fancy…have an adventure and tow it home. You, with your Spanish sunshine will have unlimited options.
The propulsion doesn’t matter…what matters is utility…river, lake, canal, sea…no storage costs or worry. Be on the water should be your primary objective…
The only problem with that is (and I say this as an RYA powerboat instructor), RHIBs are utterly dull. 10 mins whipping around and high speed and you're bored stiff.
 

oldmanofthehills

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Konsort Duo is the sub-30-footer I'm too tightfisted to buy, even though it's the only boat I know that I would gladly move on board today and not want to start making changes.

It's a rare bit of design - Westerly made it comfortable for a couple instead of assuming a usual crew of five or more. Took me 25 years before I realised how good they are.

Now, unfortunately, headlining is an issue aboard most examples.
The Consort duo is reputed to sail like a brick s….house. One owner I met claimed it was the worst sailing boat he had ever been on but I imagine others are worse.
The achilles 24 by comparison is a narrow gutted crew hating design that at least sails well. They made same errors in achilles 29 where one has to stand on cooker to get into cabin and sleep in cubby hole about from ground if in the forepeak.

Plenty of good 29 to 32footers out there. But if you want cruising think of living space and usability, not streamline speed
 

Wansworth

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The Consort duo is reputed to sail like a brick s….house. One owner I met claimed it was the worst sailing boat he had ever been on but I imagine others are worse.
The achilles 24 by comparison is a narrow gutted crew hating design that at least sails well. They made same errors in achilles 29 where one has to stand on cooker to get into cabin and sleep in cubby hole about from ground if in the forepeak.

Plenty of good 29 to 32footers out there. But if you want cruising think of living space and usability, not streamline speed
It’s women who are to blame……wanting to go sailing and taking everything and the kitchen sink🙂
 

Greenheart

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I'm looking at motorboats now. I'd love to say I'm joking, but I'm serious. Not Sunseekers, but displacement hulls which may be run relatively frugally.

After 40 years sailing, I'm only now realising that (for someone on the fence about the sense of buying another boat, of any type) most of what makes boats such a doubtful prospect in terms of manageability, usability and therefore value, just disappears if they weren't designed primarily to be sailed.

I'd prefer the option to sail as well, but compared with the necessity to treat wind as primary propulsion, the cost of fuel is not intolerable. The appeal of boating turns from a sweaty commitment to hoisting, handling, furling (and paying for) sails, while routinely being disappointed by what the vessel can achieve...into a luxurious prospect of chartwork and steering, reliable passage times and seclusion from uncomfortable obligations. It's very tempting.
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Wansworth

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I'm looking at motorboats now. I'd love to say I'm joking, but I'm serious. Not Sunseekers, but displacement hulls which may be run relatively frugally.

After 40 years sailing, I'm only now realising that (for someone on the fence about the sense of buying another boat, of any type) most of what makes boats such a doubtful prospect in terms of manageability, usability and therefore value, just disappears if they weren't designed primarily to be sailed.

I'd prefer the option to sail as well, but compared with the necessity to treat wind as primary propulsion, the cost of fuel is not intolerable. The appeal of boating turns from a sweaty commitment to hoisting, handling, furling (and paying for) sails, while routinely being disappointed by what the vessel can achieve...into a luxurious prospect of chartwork and steering, reliable passage times and seclusion from uncomfortable obligations. It's very tempting.
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Certainly a low powered motor vessel really offers many of the aspects of a sailing vessel and obviously shares the navigational aspects.Close quarters manouvering has its skills to be learn and applied…….a little steadying mizzen could be incorporated 🤔😏
 

Chiara’s slave

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The only problem with that is (and I say this as an RYA powerboat instructor), RHIBs are utterly dull. 10 mins whipping around and high speed and you're bored stiff.
Ordinarily, I’d 100% agree with that. But round here it’s like having a second car. Plus it’s the service boat for the sailing. We couldn’t do what we do without a RIB. We have a small one, sailing partner has a 6.5m one.

The original topic though, I’ve been kind of armlocked into some Contessa sailing, a 26 and a 32. The massive jibs are ridiculous. Just hard work.
 

Greenheart

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The Konsort Duo is reputed to sail like a brick s….house..
When I read such comments I always wonder if, like me, the propagator is hoping the asking prices for forty-year-old Duos will drop! :)

Despite the build-numbers showing five times more Konsorts being sold than Duos, a same-age Duo is now usually priced at least 40% higher, which I doubt reflects the original list prices. I suppose the buoyant value of the Duo stems from its uncommon versatility in a marketplace crammed with yachts similar to the standard Konsort. I like the standard Konsort, but I'd readily pay £10,000 extra for a Duo, as long as the headlining was fixed.

The Duo seems to me a great design. Westerly took an already popular hull and rig, neither grand nor limitingly small, and added a deck saloon allowing its treatment as a pure motorboat, in which no passage need ever be discouraged by UK weather. The sailing bias of the standard Konsort (and all yachts designed mainly to sail), is escaped in the deckhouse, providing a warm dry helm and views unavailable from the standard Konsort's saloon.

As I'm nearly ready to embrace displacement-speed motorboating to escape what I like least about sailing yachts, the inferior sailing of the Konsort Duo (which Westerly adapted largely to ensure mature couples could cruise into retirement, in comfort) is no price to pay, it's something I'd be indifferent to. Meanwhile, if the wind was favourable and assuming I could really be bothered with all that nonsense, the rig allows sailing too. I still want one.

53431376278_99a901bbcb_c.jpg

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Bouba

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I saw this in the boatyard and thought of Wansworth….it has residual masts so can still pretend to be a yacht…it is heavily built, enough to think it probably wallows. It’s redeeming feature is it’s attractiveness and boaty look…especially the bow…I will try to get another picture if anyone asks
 

Minerva

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When I read such comments I always wonder if, like me, the propagator is hoping the asking prices for forty-year-old Duos will drop! :)

Despite the build-numbers showing five times more Konsorts being sold than Duos, a same-age Duo is now usually priced at least 40% higher, which I doubt reflects the original list prices. I suppose the buoyant value of the Duo stems from its uncommon versatility in a marketplace crammed with yachts similar to the standard Konsort. I like the standard Konsort, but I'd readily pay £10,000 extra for a Duo, as long as the headlining was fixed.

The Duo seems to me a great design. Westerly took an already popular hull and rig, neither grand nor limitingly small, and added a deck saloon allowing its treatment as a pure motorboat, in which no passage need ever be discouraged by UK weather. The sailing bias of the standard Konsort (and all yachts designed mainly to sail), is escaped in the deckhouse, providing a warm dry helm and views unavailable from the standard Konsort's saloon.

As I'm nearly ready to embrace displacement-speed motorboating to escape what I like least about sailing yachts, the inferior sailing of the Konsort Duo (which Westerly adapted largely to ensure mature couples could cruise into retirement, in comfort) is no price to pay, it's something I'd be indifferent to. Meanwhile, if the wind was favourable and assuming I could really be bothered with all that nonsense, the rig allows sailing too. I still want one.

53431376278_99a901bbcb_c.jpg

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Don’t forget the Hunter pilot 27. Pretty similar design brief and seem to be more about.
 

Greenheart

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Indeed, the Hunter is appealing for that rarest blend of characteristics - a twin-keeler with inside helm, that is nevertheless said to sail quite well.

It strikes me as a significantly smaller boat though - not more than about 60% of the Westerly's displacement.

But I suspect that in ensuring the Hunter 'Pilot' could sail as well as a normal yacht, its designer reduced its capacity as a motorsailer. It looks to me as if the slippery lines of the coachroof which improve windward work, make the rather low inside helm (located right at the aft end of the saloon) a less good place to see from.

Accounts I've read by owners seem to echo this. It's the old inescapable fact that an imposing wheelhouse allows great visibility as long as you're inside, but if the design insists that the helmsman must also have a good view from the cockpit, the prominence of the inside position tends to be compromised.

It's fair to point out also, that the Hunter, while smaller and more lightly built, is newer than the Westerly and hence they're about the same money now.
 
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doug748

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Ordinarily, I’d 100% agree with that. But round here it’s like having a second car. Plus it’s the service boat for the sailing. We couldn’t do what we do without a RIB. We have a small one, sailing partner has a 6.5m one.

The original topic though, I’ve been kind of armlocked into some Contessa sailing, a 26 and a 32. The massive jibs are ridiculous. Just hard work.

Don't tell Wansworth:

1717960710635.png

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Wansworth

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I saw this in the boatyard and thought of Wansworth….it has residual masts so can still pretend to be a yacht…it is heavily built, enough to think it probably wallows. It’s redeeming feature is it’s attractiveness and boaty look…especially the bow…I will try to get another picture if anyone asks
Is that what you think of me🙁
 
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