Your opinion Required please!!!

[Franksalt]

I have viewed a boat which I rather like. It is a 24 footer, home built on the lines of the Drascombe (I was told).

Does it matter if a boat does not have a brand name, such as a Catalina, Hunter, Beneteau, etc...

Your opinion is very much appreciated, before I commit myself. Thanks.

[paulk]

Brand names don''t matter unless they matter to you. Deciding if they matter to you depends upon the skill of the "home builder" and the design of the boat. A beautifully built boat can still be a dog under sail. Brand names and standardized production boats provide benchmarks for construction quality and for performance, reducing risk in these areas to levels the buyer finds acceptable. There are differing levels of construction quality and boat performance even within brand names. A one-off, homebuilt boat may be better built than a Hinckley, but not perform. It may not be put together as well as a folded piece of newspaper, but be a dream to sail (for the short period it is able to.) That is the risk. If it''s worth it to you, it''s worth it. There''s a market for production boats, and there''s a market for custom boats. It all depends on what YOU want.

[Franksalt]

Thanks paulk, for your opinion. I have yet to go with the owner for a sail to see about performance.

franksalt

[Jeff_H]

While the Drascombes have a small but loyal following and one of their boats has the record for the greatest distance sailed aound the world by an open boat, I personally do not think that they sail all that well when compared to either more modern designs or more traditional designs.

When you talk about a home built boat, or even a professionally built custome boat, the quality and reputation of the designer becomes much more significant. It is the designer who does the engineering and determines the sailing ability of the boat. Of course a crude building job can mess up even the best design.

In many ways it takes more skill to design a ''tradition based design'' than a simple modern design. Ideally you want an experienced and well known design. The problem of something that is a ''tradition based design'' is that few top designers choose to work in that arena.

Buying a custom built, custom designed boat, takes more skill than buying something ''off the rack''. Generally you can get some sence of how a production boat sails by asking around. There''s no easy way to do that with a custom boat so you have to be able to sort out the boat''s flaws and that means sailing the boat in a range of conditions and having enough sailing skill and experience with a variety of boats to tell what is really happening. From the nature of the question, it is not really clear whether you have that experience or not, but just as you have asked this question, so will a potential buyer ask that type of question when you go to sell the boat making it harder (and at a smaller price than it may otherwise be worth) to sell.

Good luck
Jeff

[Franksalt]

Thanks Jeff,

I agree with you. I do not have the time nor the experience to test run a boat in different weather conditions and make comparisons etc.... I can also imagine the difficulties that may arise when it comes to selling a home-made boat... (same as I myself am experiencing right now)...

In the meantime I have asked a surveyor to take a look at the boat (which I rather fancied) and he told me straight and plain to forget it. So I am back to square one and in future I am sticking to ''brand names'', I think. Thanks again.