
Originally Posted by
Southern Star
Frankly, I find the suggestion that only those who have actually built (or more accurately, who are in the process of building, or who are about to build) their own boat can have an opinion to be ridiculous. Clearly you have made the decisions which you believe to be appropriate for yourselves; it is sad that you are unable to see that this same decision may not be appropriate for everyone, or even to defend your own decision in a rational way. I expressed concerns that I weighed up when I decided to buy a used production boat and then do my own refit; and while I too am happy with my decision (bearing in mind the likelihood of cognitive dissonance), I would be careful in recommending it for others.
Rather than attacking me for having the audacity to suggest some difficulties for the home-builder, perhaps it would have been better to address some of my concerns. Frankly, I am surprised that the builder of a one-off can buy his equipment/materials at the same price as production builders (or how one would even know that). The concerns about rising material costs, about applying a value to one's labour, about potential difficulties/expenses associated with the bulding space and about resale value are left untouched except for a personal attack: I would suggest that this is neither productive, nor conducive to the sort of discussion that this site should stimulate. Put another way, if you are closed-minded, perhaps you should steer clear of threads that might give rise to a debate about that which you are not willing to debate.
BigCat, I know of your passion for an unstayed bi-rig and, as you are aware, believe it has considerable merit (concerns about tacking aside). In your case, I can fully understand why you have chosen not only to build, but to design your own boat. Having said that, I am sure that you would be unable to inventory the time that you have spent educating yourself in naval architecture just to get to this point. Even you must agree that, even though in your opinion all moderately priced production cats are dangerous garbage, not everyone has the time or inclination (or is prepared to take the risks) to do what you are doing.
Once upon a time there was a website dedicated to cruisers that devolved into an often irrational debate about monohulls versus monohulls. The proponents of the former repeatedly dismissed the latter, making bold and generally unsupported statements and using specific examples of specific boats in order to attack all multihulls. I, for one, certainly hope that his site does not devolve into one where the homebuilders make similar attacks on the production cats that are loved, or aspired to by others.
Anyway, it seems all real 'discussion' is over on this thread and I will take my leave. All production boats are garbage; virtually anyone can home-build a large cat with ease, without help and at huge cost-savings; economies of scale to the production builder are a myth.
Brad