Issue 6 : May/Jun 1999
A popular national sailing magazine recently published its picks for the eight best boats of the year. The “pocket cruiser” candidates were priced between $80,000 and $117,000. They were 29 to 31 feet on deck. Near the other end of the scale the full-size cruisers were 42 to 47 feet long and ranged from $174,000 to $460,000. At the top, one luxury cruiser candidate was $2.3 million.
A look through the same magazine 14 years ago shows ads for, and strong interest in, much smaller simpler boats. Pocket cruisers were 24 to 26 feet in those days. What has happened in the intervening years to make the concept of a pocket cruiser grow five or six feet? Ted Brewer writes about some of the differences between then and now in his article, “Stick with the basics” on Page 34.
Another part of the story has to do with the market for sailboats. To survive, manufacturers must react to the market. Today’s market for lower-cost sailboats is mainly a used boat market. It is difficult for manufacturers to compete with the available used boats. They can’t compete on cost but they can try to compete by offering new features and by ratcheting up the size expectation.
We don’t want to give the impression that Good Old Boat magazine is anti-manufacturer. We definitely are not. In this, our sixth, issue we feature the Bristol Channel Cutter, a boat that could be purchased either new or used. It is a vessel worthy of consideration, having a loyal and enthusiastic owners’ group, and a manufacturer that has somehow found a way of staying in business when so many other good manufacturers were not able to continue. Roger Olson’s BCC owners like their boats and they like him. That’s best.
Bigger boats have some advantages, but as John Olin, a visionary and pioneer who has built smaller trimarans in a shop in Chaska, Minn., for 20 years says, “Everything goes up faster than the fun.” Indeed. Is the young couple out there in an aluminum canoe or a couple of kayaks having less fun then we are with our 8,000-pound cruiser? We don’t need all the comforts of home in our boats. We don’t even need all the comforts of home in our homes.
Lin and Larry Pardey have circled the world twice, both times in low-tech vessels less than 30 feet long. They were, however, very high-quality designs and very well built. Lin and Larry are outspoken advocates of traditional craft and traditional sailing skills. They value resourcefulness, self-sufficiency, and simplicity. They would probably say that all the comforts of a modern home don’t belong in a boat. They have said to us that a boat can be too big for its crew.
Your boat should fit you. It should fit your skills and intended sailing grounds. It should even fit your budget. If you treat your boat with the respect and affection normally given to a living thing, your boat will repay that respect and affection as if it were alive.
We know that, for each of our readers, the boat they have now can be the boat of the year.
Have a good season.
Thank you to Sailrite Enterprises, Inc., for providing free access to back issues of Good Old Boat through intellectual property rights. Sailrite.com
