I recently received a very pleasant e-mail from the Whitby 42 designer, Ted Brewer. Copies of his plans of the boat are available for a modest fee and with that he is prepared to include reasonable advice and consultation. Pretty impressive.
I'm off to the Miami Boat Show on Sunday and and I doubt if most of the boats I visit there (all of which are outside my price range) will be sailing in 30 years, let alone getting support from their designers.
With the design and construction quality of many of the production sailboats now on the market I wonder what boats will be out there in 20years time that are worth rebuilding?
3 comments:
We feel REALLY good about the Downeast 38!!
The way production boatbuilding has evolved (stringer integrated drop-in/glued-in interior liners, cored hulls, wiring harnesses, CNC cut panels, resin-infusion moldings), I have to think modern day production boats will be more difficult to "significantly customize" after production.
Single one-off and custom builds not so much.
Good site Gerry! In the 80's, I spent 3.5 years looking for the 'right' boat for a circumnavigation. While looking, the designs of Ted Brewer kept catching my eye, so I got a copy of his great book on sailboat design. It convinced me his concepts were in sync with my logic, so I altered my boat search accordingly. He also considerately answered some questions on his designs upon my call. Good guy.
In the end, I chose a boat with what I think incorporate some if not much of his general thinking, a 1978 CSY 44' Pilothouse Ketch and have never regretted it. Reengineered and rebuilt most of it to my standards although it was only 13yrs old at purchase date, but have been quite satisfied witht my results.
Many new boats today are 'disposable boats', in my opinion. In much less than 20 yrs., they will be junk and not worth any effort to circumvent the throw away concept. Many of the Brewer designs, the CSY design and others, will be out there 75 years plus.
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