[PUP] Motor/sailing Vessels

[Peter Sheppard]

Bruce said:

I speak from experience. You need to make long ocean passages on various
designs to reach definitive conclusions. Too many people read the hype,
buy into it and become converts without any experience in alternatives,
settling for a conventional production boat they can afford. There is
nothing wrong with unconventional if you have the experience to evaluate
it.



Of course, one can make the point that going to sea in anything is far
worse than not going at all.



Bruce,

One of the reasons why people read the hype, buy into it and become
converts without any experience in alternatives, is because they can't
get any experience with alternatives - co's there ain't none. Reminds me
of the old adage "Bring together a man with money and a man with
experience, and you'll soon find the man with money now has the
experience, and the man with experience now has the money" The good
chance the original man with experience will turn out to be a designer
or builder of boats trying to turn a buck seeking to find some obscure
point of difference.

Now with regard to "fat" monohulls and particularly your mention of
Nordhavn's (note correct spelling) which I presume you regard as the
people that buy into the hype, then how come these people spend so much
time out on the water and snorkel in locations like in your desk photo?
They are much, much, too busy enjoying themselves to try and reinvent
the wheel. Also how come these converts will wait up to two years for a
hype boat to be built? How come most of the brokerage boats available
belong to people who are moving up in size because they want even more
of the hype? One Nordhavn owner has his boat in brokerage, wait for it,
to contract for a smaller one to be built because the 55 was just too
big for him he found on his recent trip from California down to Chile
and back - single-handed. Shame he didn't go further south because he
would have run into two other Nordhavn's currently flitting back and
forwards around Cape Horn. These two boats aren't contemplating a better
design; they are too busy thinking about going to Antarctica.

"Fat boat" - my "fat ass".



Peter