Why is this 28 'sloop priced 60K over our CD28?

[bhartley]

I actually have TWO 25Ds Robert... I wouldn't even have to sell you Pyxis! But the Concordia is still a bit out of my budget.

[Klem]

If we are going to argue over beautiful boats, I would take a NY 32 over a Concordia. I would still certainly take a Concordia though. Even if I could afford one, I wouldn't have enough sailing time once I finished the maintenance. For that reason, I would take a morris over either unless I could afford to pay someone to do the work.

[Joe Myerson]

For that reason, I would take a morris over either unless I could afford to pay someone to do the work.

Hey Klem,

If you could afford a Morris, you could probably also afford to pay somebody to maintain your Concordia or NY32--at least for one or two seasons.

Seriously, these are all beautiful boats. Although not quite in the same class, I'd add some of the Crealock designs, such as the Pacific Seacraft 34 that lured Bob and Becky Dugan away from their trusty 25D.

--Joe

[Klem]

Hey Klem,

If you could afford a Morris, you could probably also afford to pay somebody to maintain your Concordia or NY32--at least for one or two seasons.

How true. I guess that I just need to keep dreaming.

[Markst95]

When I get the urge to move up a little a Stone Horse Cutter would be nice! Love those tan bark sails.

[Steve Darwin]

Visited Essex, Conn. the other week and saw this Crocker boat moored in the river: http://crockerboatclub.com/?p=410

"You're just too good to be true.
Can't take my eyes off you.
You'd be like Heaven to touch.
I wanna sail you so much."

[Joe Myerson]

To get back to Maine Sail's comments about Hinckley, a group of investors with no apparent knowledge or interest in building quality boats took over the company from the last member of the Hinckley clan.

The NY Times had an excellent article about this back in 2009. Here's a link to this piece -- I don't know if it will work for people who don't subscribe to the newspaper (as a dinosaur who worked for three decades for print papers, I still do), but it provides a good paradigm about what's happened to the boat-building industry:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/10/busin ... wanted=all

Beautiful, hand-crafted boats have become expensive to make, and the profit margins on individual boats just aren't enough to satisfy investors looking for "growth" each quarter.


As anybody who visits the Maine Boat Builders Show knows, there are still craftsmen out there who eke out a living building wonderful watercraft. I doubt that any of these entities (yards or boatbuilding operations) are investor-owned.

This forum isn't the place to discuss whether this is good or bad economics, but it certainly is not good for making quality boats.

--Joe

[drysuit2]

http://www.woodenboat.com/wbstore/index ... cts_id=749[/img]
http://www.amazon.com/Book-Wooden-Boats ... 0393080110

[kerlandsen]

Built by Willis J Reid.
His grandson is a VP at my place of employment and about to retire. Great to see the name around. We have been talking boats for years. He will be missed around here.

Thanks for the link.

Kyle

Visited Essex, Conn. the other week and saw this Crocker boat moored in the river: http://crockerboatclub.com/?p=410

"You're just too good to be true.
Can't take my eyes off you.
You'd be like Heaven to touch.
I wanna sail you so much."

[Leonard Lookner]

We went to Bass Harbor in 2005 to look at a Morris Justine that we thought was just the right boat for us. I am a fan of Chuck Paine and think the 36 is quite a special boat. Well it happens that there is a Cape Dory 36 next to the Justine that had been refitted by Morris and was less then 1/2 the asking price. Guess what? We had Morris do a few things before we took delivery, met Tom, and were treated like we had just ordered a new boat.