As is my habit, every lunchtime here at WoodenBoat, I read international boating magazines. And there are many, many fine ones.
Yesterday I was reading a couple of Dutch and German sailing magazines. One of them (I’m sorry I don’t remember which) had a new sailing dinghy roundup. (OK, I don’t pretend: Neither my Dutch nor German reading/translating skills are very good, but I can generally get their drifts. In this case, I certainly did…)
Production sailing dinghies, one- or two-person, 15-18 feet, and nothing high-tech at all: 1,000 Euros a foot?! We’re talking polyester or vinylester construction. Built in Europe, maybe actual construction is in eastern Europe, where there is wonderful and economic boatbuilding going on right now.
What is going on? Dinghies aren’t systems-dependent, which is how many try to explain away the high cost of new, larger cruisers of power and sail.
I think I need (and rely on) Steve Clark to explain this to me. But–regardless–I think I can count on the WoodenBoat community to make a strong stand here. Certainly we can tout the benefits of wood as the preferred construction material. Now, I think, we can add the much reduced cost (which Meade Gougeon pointed out to me on the occasion of the G Brothers’ 40th anniversary) of wood. Perhaps this will be a temporary aberration (cost-differential), but we need to take advantage of it.
John C. Harris, Dudley Dix, Arch Davis, John Welsford, Michael Storer, Fred Shell, Glen L, Clark Craft, the OK class, all wooden one-design classes… all you visionary and devoted wooden boat designers and builders…. Please post the specifics of YOUR sailing dinghies here, and I will promote them to the mass sailing media. I truly think this is a great opportunity for us to tout our benefits. I will invest in this if you will take the trouble to talk about your own goals and ambitions.
Surely we can do better than 1,000 Euros a foot? I truly hope so.
Yours, Carl
P.S. I’m now back in the office and can give credit where credit is due:
Here’s the source. Yacht magazine from Germany, “Europe’s largest sail magazine” and always a good read. Their issue of October 28, 2009, pp. 22-29. All boats reviewed are “jollyboats” — centerboarders. I don’t know if the prices quoted include VAT and other taxes.
Vision 600 — 6.25 meters long. 17,500 Euros. www.visionsailing.nl
Polyvalk — 6.5 meters. 16,190 Euros. www.ottenhoneheeg.de
Ixylon — 5.10 meters. 9,700 Euros. www.ixylon.de
C55 — 5.51 meters. 13,880 Euros. www.biehlmarin.com
Schwertzugvogel — 5.8 meters. 17.613 Euros. www.bootswerft-mader.de
RS Vision — 4.60 meters. 6,690 Euros. www.onsail.de
Please have at them. Thanks, Carl
Tags: sailing dinghies, wood boats, wooden boats
Carl, it takes time to build a boat. Wood is fast to assemble one-offs, but miserably slow to apply a finish. You can never beat fiberglass, merely on the basis of the finishing cost. Longevity, wood wins. Ordinary fiberglass goes “soft” and has much poorer fatigue resistance than wood, though you can wreck a wood boat slowly, too. Most buyers of new boats aren;t thinking long-term. They are thinking 5 years max. For racing dinghy classes, essentially the *only* people buying new boats are the top of the racing fleet, and they don’t keep them more than 5 years.
As for 14000 euro for a 14 footer? Depends on what you include. Obviously a simple dinghy can be less. But a modern sailing dinghy that goes fast and performs well in lots of weather, is light weight and high performance, that will cost more! Some of those Dutch boats look unappealing and expensive to us in the US. Sailing is very local. Of course you (as well as I) would love the 16m2, a classic wooden boat with trapeze and spinnaker–sort of a heavier older version of the FD.
In the US, currently, the V15, a simple 2-person “board boat” with no spinnaker (boring) costs about $7300 new. A laser is about $5400. That isn’t 1000 Euros a foot. A new 49er from Ovington in the UK is just about 16,000 Guineas (nobody in the US makes high performance dinghies any more). A Rondar 505 is over that, but depends on rigging–and it is a sturdier rig than the 49er and a better all around boat.
Even in FRP construction, it takes time to build a boat. Sure, I can do all the molding of the hull for a 14 footer in 8 man hours. but I also have to wax and prepare the molds. I have to build the molds. I have to join the parts. And for a more high performance boat, I have to rig it–and that is the same regardless of build material and it takes a lot of time.
My vote for the coolest dinghy class of all, one that was originally wood: 5O5. Absolutely joyous boat to sail. My second choice, though 1st choice for family sailing: the flying Dutchman. These boats are in the $30,000 range new, but that is because they are really amazing with detailed rigging controls, and modern construction which does not wear out. Modern “cheap” boats like the V15 and Laser, or older designs like the 470, which “control costs” by prohibiting high tech construction, wear out and become non-competitive in just 2 years of racing. 20 year old Lindsay 505s are still racing at the top of the sport. Kevlar hull, cold molded wood side tanks, decks, and bulkheads, they are more wooden boat than any fiberglass sheathed kayak or Geodesic Aerolite could ever be.
In the US, dinghy sailing was simplified further and further as the size of the racing fleet began to shrink in the 80s. The JY15, the V15, and a number of others, were all touted for how “simple” they were and how this would “grow” sailing. All a total failure. Now we just have very few people sailing dinghies, and the few that do are either in boring boats, or in the few exciting dinghies left. The more fun boats have had a more stable existence: the Lighting and Thistle both maintain active fleets around the country and in fact have as many actively registered racing members as the Laser class! These old designs have a spinnaker, have high performance (especially the Thistle) take skill to sail, can and do capsize and swamp, but are very rewarding and fun to sail. Simplicity is a good thing (the KISS system) but boring is, well, boring, and it is interesting to note that both the Thistle and the Lightning started out as wood boats, still have competitive wood boats in the fleet, and are not boring!
There is nothing wrong with simple boring boats, but we have lots of them now. What is interesting is boats that are imaginative, fresh, and capture the imagination of yachtsmen.