News flash: cool fast boats sell.

Scott T-Bird · Dec 13, 2017

Jackdaw said:
When Ford made a retro Thunderbird in 2002, the first year sales were low but OK as everyone that would ever want one bought one. The sales then dried up and the thing was canceled after 2 more years with a huge loss to Ford.

I was thinking the same thing about the Thunderbird. Since our boat is named "Thunderbird" I often fantasize about owning one of those in matching burgundy color with the canvas on our boat. I've liked that car ever since my grand dad owned one in the early 60's. I've often seen one of these later versions (in burgundy) parked in an outdoor lot at a client's building and have been soooo tempted to track the guy down and make an offer to rescue it. It has to be suffering from the outdoor environment. But Sue isn't very keen on the idea and I don't have the will to insist. The window for me owning one is probably closing.

BTW, the interiors of those new boats is pretty appealing to me, particularly because of the gains in performance. I'd guess that Sue would also favor the new interiors over the older, traditional.

sailnoproblem · Dec 14, 2017

Wow classic muscle cars. I have a 67 RS Camaro, that I restored. I have to disagree with comments that there design would not sell today. Mustang, Challenger, and Camaro are all brought back with retro designs, and doing quite well. Yes the advancement in technology is amazing. But the design is still retro.
On another note the XKE was a mechanical piece of s#&t. You had to buy two because one was always in the garage to be fixed. I don't see how it's design was used in any of todays models?

TomY · Dec 14, 2017

sailnoproblem said:
On another note the XKE was a mechanical piece of s#&t. You had to buy two because one was always in the garage to be fixed. I don't see how it's design was used in any of todays models?

I said that, but I don't know much about cars. I wasn't talking about under the hood. I was referring to design that lasts, that's style. I see the XKE's form in design today. I don't see the other cars details in anything. Design that is fleeting, is fashion.

Take the Vespa, the first one was built in 1946.

Today, it's still a stylish scooter. The roads are packed with them in Italy, and around the world. How many scooter designs have come and gone while the Vespa has endured in a pleasing form? While nothing is the same mechanically, it's still with many of the same design elements 60+ years later. I think that's because of the Vespas function, as well as it's form.

Back to boats: I think many of the present boat design elements are fashion in the current line up of Cruising World Best-whatever contest, and won't endure as the style of boats to come.

That's not unusual. Improvements are being introduced, I don't see that much of a new trend evolving, yet. I think the sailboat production industry is searching.

Meriachee · Dec 14, 2017

TomY said:
While nothing is the same mechanically,

Actually, you take away some of the credit @TomY . The first picture of the Vespa shows a front wheel that does not have a dual fork attachment, something that is only in the last few years becoming mainstream in the motorcycle world. It is not only the same mechanically, it may have been leading edge. (Of course not knowing where Vespa stole the idea from

)

jwing · Dec 14, 2017

Jackdaw said:
Back to the original point, the clear trends emerging today:

Fast light boats; cruising boats than can plane
...

I was with you on the fast, light boat until you started talking about cruising boats. Sometimes while cruising, weather will pin sailors in at anchor for days. In anchorages that are not perfectly protected, I would rather be on a heavier boat.

Barnacle Bill · Jan 8, 2018

Just a note on J/Boats - they really focus on one design racing (all the boats are the same and no handicap) for their racing designs. Through the years they have designed some pretty neat and comfortable cruising boats - even for livaboard purposes - but their emphasis is always on performance. They don't want to build a slow boat and that is their fun factor. And, the J/100 is really designed as a day sailor and requires only a crew of one or two with non-overlapping headsails. So, a "full compliment" of crew hardly is the case and so it goes. As a matter they have marketed it as an old man's boat and even have put the hydraulic backstay crank underneath the tiller so you don't have to turn around and tighten the backstay. Regarding tubby boats, well, there are those, but usually they are very comfortable down below and that might be the big appeal to the owners. They also might be really well built and suitable for off shore passage making. Island Packets aren't fast boats, but they are shallow drafted, built really well and you see a lot of them in the Bahamas where the water can be skinny and you can get your ass kicked getting and sailing there. But, for those with the need for speed and sailing closely into the wind, they might not pass muster. It's all about your priorities.

Barnacle Bill · Jan 8, 2018

Regarding cored boats, there are more and more of them seen on the market place for both sail and power. Kady Krogen, which is considered to be one of the premier trawlers out there has gone from solid fiberglass hulls to cored hulls and so that lightening up of displacement enables them to plane now, where before they were displacement hulls that plowed through the water. Fuel consumption and time to reach destinations drastically change because of this. Early sailboat construction, including J/Boats, didn't know about vacuum-bagging and so there were a lot of failures with cored hull construction. But, after vacuum bagging and resin infused processes like Bill Seiman's SCRIMP development they were able to build very strong hulls, with exact ratio's of resin and cloth, eliminating all air pockets (large and small), maintaining quality control and adhering to weight restrictions (which is particularly important with race boats) so that there was a very well built product that lasts a long time. They would even include motor barriers and hull structural grids that were incorporated all at once instead of making these things separate components to be affixed in the hull after the hull had cured. That created chemical bonds rather than mechanical bonds (even if fiberglassed in place). Many mega yachts are built from Aluminum, but there is one company (at least to my knowledge) who builds fiberglass cored hulls and they have been doing it for many years (ChristensenYachts). I might add that Everette Pearson who was a pioneer in fiberglass construction for many products beyond boats, died over the holidays at 84, and he was one of the people who started using vacuum bagging and resin infusion construction at the git go. Many of the luminaries who started this sport out in one way or another are departing our world unfortunately. Like Gary Mull, Tom Blackaller, Ted Hood, Carl Schumacher, Paul Elvstrom, Lowell North, Peter Barrett.......I digress.

danstanford · Mar 14, 2018

Could we build one like this for a new one design? Yes I know it is prohibitively expensive (pretty much all carbon) and too big, but it sure is sexy!