Why dont they make them like that anymore?

cameronke

cameronke

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Wasn't sure whether to post here or on the Classical Boat forum but...

I was discussing how devastatingly beautiful the yachts of William Fyfe of Fairlie were and how these craft were built on the beach with relatively low tech tooling. I understand that they would have been very labour intensive with highly skilled craftsmen. Have all these skills died? is there the demand for such a craft these days, for instance rather than buy a hand built Aston Martin howzabout a traditional yacht? Are there people keeping these skills alive?

Why dont they make them like that anymore?



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cost cost
plus those beautiful lines compromise the space people want these days
also not sure about aston martin these days
build quality is fairly shocking

<hr width=100% size=1>my wife wants to dance on my grave. I aim to be buried at sea
 
They do. Just that us mere mortals can't afford them. If I ever make enough cash, I'd buy one of the Spirit 37's as a racing and coastal cruising boat. If...

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<A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.spirit-yachts.co.uk/>http://www.spirit-yachts.co.uk/</A>

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There are still the skilled people around, albeit that the skills have become bit rusty. I had a bedroom fitted out with modular furniture, and during the course of discussion with the fitter, discovered that he was an ex-Camper & Nicholson shipwright. Something of a come-down on the dexterity front and what a waste of ability. Nice bedroom, though

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Probably because you can't sail one around the world on your own in some ridiculously small number of days.

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Probably because you can't sail one around the world on your own in some ridiculously small number of days.

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Well,
some 5 years ago, I saw Alan Staley of Faversham Iron Wharf yard building a Chuck Payne 26 footer in wood in the shed. The workmanship was lovely. It was commissioned by someone who for some reason went bust on the deal. I was offered the boat and was hugely tempted. It wasnt THAT expensive.
Maybe the answer is to contact someone like that. I also have a friend who builds bespoke bedrooms for a living, who is just laying down a Van Der Stadt 39 in his barn in deepest France! All is not lost.

Jim Dew

<hr width=100% size=1>Second Chance - First Love. 2nd Hand Wind Instruments for sale anyone?
 
They would, its just you can\'t afford it

While there are a lot of very pretty and affordable boats around in grp, I don't think Mr Fyfe built yachts for the masses in his day, and if you are sickeningly rich you will be able to afford to have a yacht of such beauty built for you today. I suspect these boats are still as expensive to buy and run in real terms as they were when new.


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spoke to a guy recently who had been a plumber then for personal reasons had chucked it in and spent 2 years learning traditional boatbuilding skills. he was then forced to go back to plumbing to earn enough to live on.

there just aren't enough people who value a traditional job above modern construction enough to pay twice the price for it and put up with the worries of worm, rot and wet bilges.

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They are still building Sunbeams in wood at Mylor, though the chap who knows how is in his 60's, there is also another local shipwright who will build you a Vertue or anything you have planes for in wood. So they are there, but a dying bread, to-day we think you can learn everything from books and a college lecturer. It's how to generate the feel for a yacht in someone, the thing that gave Fyfe, Nics and the rest that classic lines, and there is no reason why the same cannot be true for plastics boats either.
Then of course try buying the timber, that is a nightmere for Sunbeam build.


Brian

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I saw one of his Sunbeams at Southampton a couple of years ago, beautiful. I think they said she cost £27,000 which didn't seem too extreme for a modern classic. My late father had one.

<hr width=100% size=1>John
<A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.allgadgets.co.uk>http://www.allgadgets.co.uk</A>
 
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