eddystone
Well-Known Member
Wonder whether in some way the GT35 is the spiritual successor to the Starlight 35, which YM incidentally wished was still in production?
YM test of GT35
- Thread starter eddystone
- Start date
mdonnelly
Well-Known Member
£316,230 for a 35 foot boat! Beginning to realise it's time to cancel my YM subscription. This magazine is catering to people with a lot more money than me.
sailorman
Well-Known Member
Did they mention the bow thruster & teak decks on a Grand Tourer of 35`
robmcg
Well-Known Member
£316k for a boat with all the aesthetic appeal of a supermarket meringue nest. You have to ask the question, why does it cost so much?
pvb
Well-Known Member
I saw it coming back into the marina, maybe after that test, with much enthusiastic bowthrusting. The price is eye-watering; you could get a better equipped, bigger AWB for less than half that.
eddystone
Well-Known Member
Don't think the web version mentioned the price - still they reviewed a Discovery 57 last year and that costs nearly £1.5M! This is all fantasy stuff for me but how much is a new HR 342, as a comparison.
Billy_Mizzen
Well-Known Member
Ok £300k is steep but she's British designed and built to a very high spec, surely there are a few people out there, willing to shell out for a really sorted top quality cruising yacht.
pvb
Well-Known Member
How high a spec? You can get a fully kitted Jeanneau 379 or a Bavaria 37 for half that.
robmcg
Well-Known Member
sailorman
Well-Known Member
Looked as bland inside as an HR to me with all that fablon lookalike woodReally?
pvb
Well-Known Member
sailorman
Well-Known Member
pvb
Well-Known Member
Which would you sink £300K+ into?
JumbleDuck
Well-Known Member
Three hundred grand? For that? They're having a flipping joke, aren't they? Mind you, the HR343 is bloody awful too - looks like a Westerly Longbow done up by someone who fondly remembers 1980's B&Bs.
Tempus
Well-Known Member
Wish them well, but as someone who has recently been in the market for a new, preferably British, high quality cruising boat having just sold an HR 36 we'd be the ideal market. Regrettably we would not have gone near it - looks like a Beneteau outside and in but twice the price (or more). Stephen Jones designs great boats and I'm sure it's well built but there is absolutely no unique selling point. It's slower, uglier and blander than any AWB. But more expensive as it's heavier.
Am I missing something?
Am I missing something?
Simondjuk
Well-Known Member
Did a railway carriage designer style the interior? It has a similarly dour air.
westhinder
Well-Known Member
I was wondering that too, especially as a 39 is in the pipeline as well.
But the name Starlight is conspicuously omitted from the article. One wonders why. I hope snooks will be along soon with a good explanation.
robmcg
Well-Known Member
The company would probably sell more resurrected Starlight 35's than GT35's. At least the Starlight looks better (inside and out)
eddystone
Well-Known Member
Definitely agree on that; in fact to me the Starlight 39 was one of the best looking boats of all time. But how much would a new one cost these days if the moulds still existed? Re the issue of why does it cost so much:
a) heavier boat = more materials
b) spec of components
c) much less efficient procurement due to tiny volumes - not just prices but much higher waste
d) Fixed costs spread over far fewer units - design and development, marketing, testing, provision for warranties/defects, staffing, admin, premises, business rates etc.etc.
I would guess c &d more significant than a &b. In fact, could still be selling at marginal profit even at that price.
robmcg
Well-Known Member
Moulds are owned by Rusler Yachts (someone on the forum informed me). A new Starlight 35 special order is about £170k or about half the cost of a GT35.
