Fantasia vs West Sail
Hi Terry
I'm curious about the Fantasia as I'm shopping for a WS 32 in the bay area (sfo) at this time.
How is the durability compared to the WS? Also, these are Taiwan made, how is the quality?
The design looks great. We intend to cruise with 4 on board, a teen, pre teen, mom and Dad (me).
From what I can tell the cabin layout looks nice.
Any advise for a potential buyer?
Steve
Hey, Cheepguy.... From Cedar Mountain in North Carolina... raining
Where in SF Bay Area? We are originally from Alameda. Inshallah's first birth was Ballena Bay Marina, Alameda from which we departed in 1980 with three daughters on board 11 - 13 -15 yrs.
Advice --- you have to get aboard a Fantasia, inside it, to experience it. Jules is right. There is something magical about the interior design for a 35 footer.
WESTSAIL: Many are quite different because many were owner built from the hull up. The hulls and decks are very strong. The interiors can be works of art to plywood junk yards.
A friend of ours built his WS from a bare hull in Alabama, launched her and sailed her via Mexico to St John USVI where he settled down. After about 20 years she was thrown on the beach by a hurricane and later refloated. Last year I saw this same vessel, INFINI, in Colombia and Panama in the hands of a young man on his way to Vanuatu. She was in rough shape but she was making the voyage just fine. He had little money and decided he would rather voyage than repair Infini.
FANTASIA:
Fantasia durability, and Tiawan: over time every boat has problems no matter where it is built.
HULL is similar to WS. One inch glass at the keel and 5/8" at the gunnel. Inshallah has been on two reefs over the years and both times escaped with minor damage. No hull delamination as many Fantasias were built before the industry changed the formula for the resin that caused the problems.
ELECTRICS: In 1975 I was worried and continued to worry about the electrics in the Tiawan bulit boat and nothing has failed. False worry.
Quality of the workmanship is wonderful; the teak joinery a work of art.
The bad side:
STAINLESS STEEL: made in Tiawan was of poor quality. Much of it has failed, cracked, broken, etc. Any SS that is related to safety should be replaced, the rest of it you can just keep polishing.
SS CHAIN PLATES: The thru the deck chain plates are a poor design as they leaked and I finally replaced them outboard the hull and much larger than the originals. Fully 30% of the plates and fastenings had flaws that were only evident once removed.
IRON FUEL TANK: In time (25-30 yrs) the iron fuel tanks rust and will need replacing and that means removing part of the main cabin.
ENGINE: The "Pisces" (Izusu): The Izusu part was fantastic and never missed a beat in over 25 year. Everything that "Pisces" attached to marinize it failed, some many, many times. One gets to be a good mechanic.
WOOD MAST (only on the early models, alum later): Well built but needed rebuilding after 25 years. The wood mast is still in Inshallah after 34 years. Vessels with wooden masts seem to have less violent motion at sea or at anchor because of the weight aloft.
PLYWOOD: Plywood in a marine environment delaminates after about 20-30 years. The glues break down over time. Some of it is very difficult to deal with as it is the foundation for something else, i.e. cabin sole, etc.
WEATHER HELM ON EARLY MODELS: Bruce Bingham, the Fantasia designer, was a genius at interior design and an idiot at hull/sailing design. The CE (center of effort) was designed wrong by over 20%. We fought the weather helm from SF to Europe and back to the Caribbean before we solved it it.To cure the problem we added a 4 foot bowsprit and later we added 3 feet to the aft end of the keel. We removed the rudder and interior steering gear, added 3 feet to the keel and then replaced the rudder at the aft end of the new keel. Inshallah will now steer herself for days at a time. She now sails at least a full knot faster than before the alterations and much more comfortably.
LIVING ABOARD WITH KIDS: (What are the ages and sexs?)
Having had some small experience in living with teenagers aboard a small vessel I have a piece of advice. For adult and teenage sanity you each have to be able to get away from the other. I would buy a vessel where you and your wife can have a separate cabin from the main cabin, and it should have a separate cabin from the main cabin for the kids. Everyone needs their privacy. You will love yourself later. This was our intention when we bought Inshallah but we had no idea how important it was.
Over the years we have know many WS 32 owners and none of them had an aft cabin. They had a fore cabin and a main salon. The aft cockpit precluded that design, although I suppose it is possible.
The Fantasia interior design is one of the best I have seen in a 35 footer. The aft cabin is a refuge for the adults. The forepeak a refuge for the kids. The main salon and cockpit are a common area for everyone including guests.
Just for the fun of it, before you buy a vessel without separate areas for all the adversaries, try moving into a area of your house that has the square footage of your intended vessel -- two areas like the main cabin and forepeak. Remember the main cabin doubles as the kitchen so you have to make one of the areas next to the stove and frig. If you have a large kitchen, you could separate off a section of the kitchen for whoever intends to live in the forepeak, the others live/sleep in the stove/frig area. If the kitchen is small, you could set up the hallway as the forepeak area. Remember, no one gets to live outside the assigned area with the exception of going outside the house whenever one wants to.
When you get used to that, pretend the Jolly Green Giant picks up the house and shakes the hell out of it to simulate a storm -- hang on.
Oh, and start your home schooling early to give yourself time to iron out the wrinkles. We found it more difficult than we thought but well worth it.
If you are seriously considering a Fantasia and you have not seen a Fantasia, and I mean the interior and exterior, I recommend that you do. One cannot imagine the difference from other 35 footers without experiencing it. As a liveaboard vessel for a family of four I think the Fantasia is head and shoulders above the usual WS.
Hope that helps some....Terry and Laurie and Ariel (Schipperke)