Many a yachtie conversation down the club bar over the entire last two decades has fallen on the topic of what the next little starter cruiser-racer will be? What will family man and woman now establish themselves with something they can both take the family out in, boil a kettle for pot noodles for the kids, take a pee pee in doors and then on the other side, go out an growl at other boats on the start line and take no prisoners on the first mark....
This is really in the 22/26 foot range. The days of the hunter 19 size for overnighting are for most punters over, people are just plain bigger and want more space and creature comforts. Janneau keep on chipping away with often their lowest entry as the Jan'26, which Beneteau usually avoid but have had some wee cruisers and the 21s and the 27 in the last decades. Then there were those Argentinian boats, and then the CB66, now there are the comet-26, the fareast 26, the seaquest boats...yep there have been variuos new innovative designs excluding the whole plethora of 20/27ft sports boats with or without accomodation and a heads.
Most of the new propose one design, with maybe a class sail maker, and some manufacturer support...Still nothing has come close to making anything really happen, in the numbers which the Maxi77 and the Hunter Sonata have.
Just what is the next Hunter Sonata then or Maxi 77? The answer is of course for these economic times......the Hunter Sonata or the Maxi 77.
On the one side you have the new economic era, where average wages in many EU countries dont have the same leverage to average house prices they used to, they are far in excess and to an extent people in the UK are now sadly first time buyers aged 37!!! Secondly what is left over from mortgage or rent quickly disappears in higher energy bills, the season ticket and it has to be said a hell of a lot of keeping up with the jones's when it regards a BMW in the driveway, eating out and frequent holiday trips and romantic mini-breaks to get away from the rat-race.
In the 1970s people used to get away from the rat race by using their bloody boats, all weekend. Many had moorings or drying out harbours. Marinas to begin with were fairly reasonable for craft under 1.6m draft as they could use up space on the inner berths. People spent a lot of their disposable on the boat, and even the humble Sonata was quite often owned in small syndicates. The boat was of course both sport and holiday, and those romantic weekends or family rat race forgotten over nighters.
However it is not just a case of a lot of people being skint, although that is a big part of it. The richer half of society have become richer based on lower taxes, higher relative pay rises or relatively lower costs and higher profits if they run businesses. The older generation have done brilliantly out of the housing market, especially if they invested in second properties in the 80s and early 90s, their equity release and access to capital is monster. Modern day gentleman now has of course a 50>50 which often goes belly up, costing him money. Very few boat owners are ladies to this day, outside dinghies. Also when my generration are old enough to get equity release or down size, the baby boomers will be dying off and in their dotage, and there will be a glutt of property, suppressing out resale and equity. Bugger.
On the other side though, many people do have access to equity release and do have rising salaries and could go out and buy a 24 footer if they were keen sailors. Here in comes the rub.
If you are a keen sailor and want to do both cruising and racing, then you want to either have a one design or you want a killer handicap. Alternatively there is of course the rebirth of the quarter tonne events. Your other alternative, which many keen sailors have gone with, is to sod cruising if it isnt on a charter boat or your parents or freinds comfy cruising boat. They go purely racing, and this peaked in the 1990s with the Corks and the 707s in particular, which seem to now by shift of owners or shift in demographics in the UK gone over to SB20s/SB3s and on the continent the Schmelges second hand or the rather good Platu 25, which actually sleeps two.
If then you are said keen sailor, but still very keen on sleeping and pissing on board, plus popping kettle on for a brew up, then you want One Design racing as mentioned, and then in the UK you still cannot beat the Sonata for numbers and enthusiasm. Perhaps now the majority of sonatas are actually cruising rather than racing, but some are still prestine regatta machines, rarely used for mere frivolities like cruising, while others race every wednesday they can on the Solent or the Clyde and take August on a trip to N France or doing West Highland Week on board respectively.
And the same goes for the maxi 77 and the spinnaker stripped Folk Boat in Scandinavia. Tonnes of the things.
There is frankly little point in spending more cash in terms of capital outlay versus running costs when you consider that you will get some great amateru OD racing at the Sonata nationals or regionals, and good round the cans if you have a class start on club nights.
In the UK bigger is the sigma 33, perhaps the Impala still in a couple of clubs. The laser 28 has disapated away. The sigma is a big old pig, which does not sleep its competitive racing crew having only five adult berths on most of them. Its sails are quite a lot more expensive, and marina costs are in the Solent, astronomical. True it is an admirable 3 person cruiser, but a pig to helm in force 4 with poor visibility, and a horrible feeling on the helm especially when you start dead running of course (Sonata being another David Thomas rolly polly, but at least at a budget price with cheaper spinnakers when they rip on a chinese gybe!!!)
Soon the much nicer to sail bene first 31.7 will be more affordable and i have often tipped this to be the sigma, x99, contessa and some other boats too replacement since it is falling in price and has made fleets in Dublin and the continent. It also can sail to a reasonable IRC, and it was built for a good many years so there are newer hulls available if you want to upgrade a little. Better space, much better off wind, and a nicer feel on the helm all round that the sigma 33 or the X332 for that matter. The little Dane is a well built boat and seems to be holding its value, having once been a star of IRC racing, and developing a south coast OD it seems to have disappeared(?) maybe just depreciating away until a fleet developes again with my generation.
In terms of bang for buck though, the second hand Sonatas and Maxi 77s are just hard to beat. If you buy one of the new and very good moving 22/28 foot offerings new around 30-40 thousand pounds complete ready to race, then you are looking at a big hit if you need to sell it of maybe the VAT in the first year. Also small OD fleetts have a habit of just imploding, one good boat leaves or the reseller moves onto the next boat to show off round the cans, and then another leaves, another is too busy suddenly and you are left with potentially a crappy IRC rating or Py or CYCA, and following round the big boys in their bad wind, or never being able to beat the bandit handicappers on corrected.
If however you could make a 26 foot x332 / elan 333 then you could go out and clean up in big events where the cruiser racer rating means you could just sail a good race and be ahead of 90% of non IRC optimised boats on corrected. This is what those two boats did for a good few years in their slightly larger class break. Also then you have the issue with as the 332, it fell often out of full OD due to roller furling configurations and sail wardrobes. The 333 never did bother with OD, despite it being as good a candidate as any of the 1990s 30-35 foot boats.
In short then you and I on around average wages or even 15% above are not going to afford the size of boat our parents and older siblings did. We were on the property ladder too late, and no one helps us negotiate wage rises. There will be no really galvanised demand for a new small OD. Some boats like the Albin Express are also having a renaissance due to the costs, but also they are using eastern european lay up for class association cooperation on new builts or new hulls, which keeps the whole wheel moving. Perhaps that will happen with the Sonata plugs, being shipped off to Lithuania, Thailand or China to produce a boat delivered with dacrons and an outboard for under 30 grand?
As I say the rich have got richer and dont want to start with the idea of being down in the hoi palloi. Wealthier prospective owners tend to have raced on friends boats and chartered boats for cruising in Greece and The Adriatice or the Caribean. They want creature comforts. They want 40 foot. They are no longer gentlemen with a desire to win in OD, they want to sail in their own wind with a good HC all day and avoid meeting other boats at the marks.
The hoi palloi sail Sb20s and dinghies, with a renaissance in some classic wooden dinghy fleets and old fashioned spinnaker boats in the last ten years, probaby down to price being at no-longer-depreciates. For bigger boat racing they are like me, crew with a grudging realisation that the Sonata or the M77 make damn good financial sense no matter what era you sail them in!!!
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