Quote:
Originally Posted by Melrna
I just received the latest Bluewater Sailing and Practical Sailor magazine. The Beneteau 50 was reviewed in the Bluewater Sailing and cleats were discussed in Practical Sailor.
The Bluewater Sailing gave the Beneteau a favorable review. It did agree with me on the traveler-less system. This article gave me some pause on boat reviews by all the sailing magazines and what Ed Massey said about quote " your comments can be misleading and harmful to others and this is particularly true given the reach of the Internet" and "Boat builders, boat dealers and boat purchasers and sellers are part of the lifestyle that we all love so much". The question that begs to be asked is, " Are boat reviews honest without causing harm to manufactures"! With a responsibility of editors to the industry as a whole, ad dollars and the subscription of sailors can there be a true honesty of what is written. My personal thoughts are no. Too much is at stake for the industry as a whole. I believe this is what Mr Massey was referring to on what I wrote. So where can honesty be written and seen by the community of the boating world. The only two places that I can think of is here on the Internet on various bulletin boards and maybe Practical sailor. The utopia of true honesty of boat designs is making the boating industry responsible for making a boat/parts that is safe, good engineering and parts that last more than a few seasons. I believe without it what I am seeing in the recent crop of boats are poor design and engineering will continue for the sake of chasing dollars and market appeal.
Case in point is Practical Sailors article on chocks and cleats. They too are seeing a dangerous trend in inadequate chock and cleat design and engineering for the sake of vanity on a sailboat and dollars. This is inexcusable for boat manufactures to place poorly design chocks and cleats on a modern sailboat. As pointed out in the article, a sailboat spend an average of 94% of the time tied up to a dock or mooring line. The lack of backing plates, cleat placement and cleat design will cause great harm to the sailboat, marina and possible people. As Mr Massey suggested when "If you would like to get past the "skin" of these boat lines", I am afraid most sailors will not like what they are going to see. I know after touring a few factories in my time, there were times I just closed my eyes and want to scream "What are you thinking"! |
Melissa,
I gave up reading the boat reviews a long time ago. The same people that look at those reviews and say, "This is the best boat because Magazine X said so..." are the same people that do not have a clue, do not know what to look for, and probably will never leave the dock much anyways. However, can you really blame the manufacturers? Blame the buyers.
The issue is, in my humble opinion, that the market began to grow away from the traditional sailing boat. People wanted many of the amenities of home. They wanted refrigeration. THey wanted air conditioning. Water makers. Washer dryers. Large showers. Large TV's. Countless electronincs.
All of this stuff requires more stuff. A/c does not run on its own. It requires a generator which requires more space which requires more cost and more diesel. Refrigeration requires a larger battery bank and potential to recharge. Electronics require a larger nav station. Large showers mean large water tanks. Every one of the systems impacts or requires another system. As a result, the boat gets bigger. Bigger boats cost more money - lots more money. As anyone who has ever shopped boats can tell you, cost-foot is not linear, it is exponential.
This has in-turn created a market where larger boats are the norm. However, the cost of these boats is extreme. A new Catalina 400, with any real gear on it, will push the 300+k range. Bene and Hunter are no different. That breaks the budget of many would-be sailors. SO in an effort to keep the costs at a minimum (like 300 is a minimum), they cut corners where they can. Typically, I believe these cuts are not safety related. However, I have seen winch sizes drop, joinery go down hill, fewer cabinets, considerably less access to available space/systems, cheaper blocks and gear, etc. Anything to shave some money off the boat on a production basis.
Now out of all this have also come some technological advances. The new laminates, grids, liners, acrylic hatches, and better ways of making a product and making it cheaper. We also have many losses, like tabbed bulkheads, solid toe rails, tall lifelines, etc. I find many of the things that many of the new boats leave off (especially on the smaller vessels) are things a offshore sailor would appreciate and a coastal or weekend sailor might not even know about!
Is all this bad? I don't know. I have all those systems I seemed to demonize. I probably would not go without them. I also have made MANY changes to my 400 to get her up to spec that probably cost me more than if I had just bought a typical bluewater boat up front. In fact, I am positive they have. But many of the things that they are producing now are fine for how most people will use the vessels. For those of us that see a more distant horizon, make the changes or buy a boat equipped for the ride. I personally would like to see someone like Catalina spec their lines out a little more high-end. When you talk about teh numbers they are talking about for a new boat, another 10-20k really makes no difference. But you know what? People are buying them. If people are buying them as they are, how do we blame the mfg? Blame the buyer. Now about that roll bar they call an arch.... well, there is an exception to every rule!!
Thanks for the writeup.
Brian