Scanmar 31 & 33

[hoppy]

Wondering if anyone has experience with a Scanmar 31 or 33. Seems like a better than average boat. Hope to sail Bahamas to Venezuela and maybe some off shore as well.
Would likely pull the Volvo and upgrade to a Yanmar. Appreciate any feedback.

[sailingfool]

My feedback - find a European yacht BBS and post your query there. Most US boaters have probably never seen a Scanmar. Try to be sure the cost of the new engine (say $10-13K) is coming out of the price of the boat...
On a techniocal note, I think "Bahamas to Venezula" would reasonably qualify as offshore...

[gulls]

Perhaps you are looking at the Scanmar 31 located in South Carolina, (Charleston)???
I looked at that boat as I thought it had everything I was looking for ..... BUT

My overall impression was not good - I describe it as a poorly finnished Swedish Hunter - mostly cheap and nasty below - made me wonder what else was poorly built.

I really wanted to like the boat and spent over an hour crawling around looking at everything I could - the more I looked, the more I realised this was not the boat for me.
This particular boat has been converted (very poorly) from tiller to wheel steering - not a good idea in my opinion - particularly the way it was done. There are several other weird-isms with the systems on the boat.

As I said, this was not the boat for me - yet it may be suitable for someone else. I just didn''t get a fuzzy feeling, which is sad because as a design I really like a lot of the ideas: fractional rig, aft head, quick hull shape etc.
I think perhaps the boat has potential if you were to do some refitting and redesign.
Good Luck, let me know if you need more specific info.

[WHOOSH]

Hoppy, one specific European (and English speaking) BB to which you can post your question is http://www.ybw.com/cgi-bin/forums/wwwthreads.pl as this is the Practical Boat Owner/Yachting Monthly forum.

A second, far more distant source would be the UK''s Hallberg-Rassy owners assn. as many of these folks are somewhat knowlegeable about the variety of Swedish and Baltic-based boat builders. They are at http://www.hroa.co.uk/discus/

Perhaps our general view of boat building has been unavoidably altered by these huge accummulations of C''s, B''s and H''s plus a sizeable smattering of J''s and IP''s we see at the boat shows. Much like New England, most boat building in Scandianvia and the coastal Baltic is done by small builders, each of whom must solve the infinite # of design and construction issues in ways with which they are familiar and which tradition suggests and, to the extent they have it, new technology provides for. IOW there can be much variability involved in boat building. I find it pretty fascinating to see how specialty knowledge, over time, evolves into a cottage industry within an industry - e.g. the Dutch excel in steel, the English understand the bilge keel underbody, the Belgiums are world leaders in sailboat floatation, and builders in Finland and Sweden excel at joinerwork and ergonomics.

Regrettably, it isn''t wise to generalize and think all (e.g. Swedish) yards produce similar levels of quality or even offer similar design quality. That may explain the comments about the Scanmar above...and it doubly justifies seeking out info from folks closer to where the boat is built.

Jack

[hoppy]

Thanks to all for the feedback.
I was interested in the Scanmar 31 in
Charleston, SC. Two telephone calls and an
e-mail were ignored by the listing broker.
Glad that I didn''t buy a plane ticket.
Will see what I can dig up on the 33 as it
is double the 31 price. Thanks again!

[aria31]

Originally Posted by hoppy

Wondering if anyone has experience with a Scanmar 31 or 33. Seems like a better than average boat. Hope to sail Bahamas to Venezuela and maybe some off shore as well.
Would likely pull the Volvo and upgrade to a Yanmar. Appreciate any feedback.

Hi, we have a Scanmar 31 and have been to the Bahamas. I like my Volvo-Penta engine, still loyal and trustworthy. Great boat, fast into the wind, lovely, and taught (it's got stories to tell).

Jose