How many new boats have you ordered in the last 20 years?
If the market didn’t want it all the makers wouldn’t be doing it and those who didn’t would sell more boats! You might optimise production with a feature nobody wants but you don’t optimise revenue! A simple moulder interior would probably be more profitable than an “ikea-esque” fit out.
which recent boats have you been looking at where this is not the case? My perception is that production boats in the last 20 yrs have designed this in because downtime is lost revenue for charter boats so it matters?it may not be the case on anything too small for charter market where space is a real challenge.wandsworth said:
mmm… I’m not sure many people want a boat to smell like an old boat! When I was buying, I rejected quite a few possibilities just from looking at the pics, but when I actually got on board the nose probably rejected more than my eyes!
One. And 7 used, where several were considered and dropped, among others for their interior.
8 boats in 20 years suggests you may not know what you want any more than the manufacturers.
The lazy highly caveated stereotype is unnecessary in sailor-reluctant sailor relationship of any any gender combination and also for enthusiastic partnerships where a bit of below decks comfort is not perceived as a negative. My hypothesis would actually be that when designers stopped treating “sailing” as being for the husband and “below decks” for the wife - that’s when they started selling more.
I think your second para is bang on though!
I didn’t see Stemar’s characterisation as lazy or stereotypical, especially as he qualified it with ‘many or most’. I’m not sure about ‘most’, but a secondary position for the wife is certainly the case with many of those that I have met, with several on the reluctant side, including our club’s ‘ferry wives’ who would go by boat to the Netherlands to spend inland time on the boat. I have also known and sailed with couples who were equally keen, as well as a few wife-owned boats and boats sailed by two or three ladies who were perhaps just good friends.
Why do they have to look like a modern attic accomodation with greatefforts made to cover up or diguies the fact it’s a boat on the water with an engine to propel it and sails and ropes and all the cubbies,sails in the foclsle are great to sleep on all round access to the engine and fuel tanks etc a good safety feature etc,etc why this demented fear of anything actually nautical being visible……just pondering
Looks to me as though the new layout has something to brace against while cooking, which the old one lacks. Neither appears to have fittings for lee cloths but both designs have sofas where they could be fitted. Both have plenty of handholds to move through the boat, but only the second seems to have something to hold while entering from deck in a seaway while the first has you stepping next to the kitchen sink on the worktop.
The days of the Stuart Turner have long since gone. Do you need any access to engine apart from the usual periferal bits? Come to that I can access my engine very well- better than in my last 2 boats with their narrow beam & wooden bits. I do not have to empty a quarter berth to get to a failing smelly engine.