Mark42
Fleet Admiral
- Joined
- Oct 8, 2003
- Messages
- 9,334
I believe that the cost of fuel will remain high in the forseeable future, the economy will be very slow to recover, and the boating industry will have a lot of high dollar, expensive to own and maintain merchandise that they can not unload.
I was hoping that eventually something would cause some manufacturers to go back to the pocket cruisers popular in the 60's and early 70's. That way I could pick one up used in a few years that suits my needs.
I was looking at some of the brands of boats that Brunswick owns that I never heard of. Some really cool boats are sold in other contries that I would love to see at a domestic dealer. Check these out:
Flipper Boats (sorry I can't link in their photos direclty) makes this neat midship cabin bow rider: http://www.flipperboats.fi/Gb/Mallisto/630cc?picId=490&showPictures=true
http://www.flipperboats.fi/gb/Mallisto/520ht?picId=486&showPictures=true
How about this "Weekender" by ?rnvik:
Or this Cruiser:
Brunswick also owns Uttern. They make some neat cabin boats like this 6.2 meter:
This one is a little larger at 6.9 meters, but really cool nonetheless:
I'm not a big fan of bow riders because they never offer any protection from the elements. Now that I see now well a midship cabin works with a bow rider design, I really like the concept. You get sun and wind protection with inside seating, helm, and often sleeping accomodations, bow rider seating, and aft deck open area. Maybe my next project will be to modify a 19ft bow rider into a midship cabin weekender. Has some possabilities, no?
The complete access from bow to stern of the two Uttern boats really impressed me. Think of how easy it is to anchor the 6.9 meter boat. Get up from the helm in the cabin, walk through the windshield to the bow seating and drop the anchor from the anchor pulpit. Then walk back to helm, backup the boat, then walk to the stern and drop the second anchor. No climbing through windshields or hatches to get to the bow like in Cuddy Cabins, just walk and maybe duck a bit for low overhead areas. Works for me. Plus if you have kids, you can let them play up front while you and the wife hang out in the rear deck.
It seems to me that if Brunswick wanted to add some smaller cabin/cruisers to the American market, they already have these boats developed. They just need to bring the molds here and start pumping them out.
I found it very interesting to browse the Uttern and ?rnvik websites to see how other contries think and design their boats. They are very neat, clean designs, often with removable cusions on molded in seats for simplicity. I got a few ideas for mods to my own boat from seeing their designs for smaller boats.
I was hoping that eventually something would cause some manufacturers to go back to the pocket cruisers popular in the 60's and early 70's. That way I could pick one up used in a few years that suits my needs.
I was looking at some of the brands of boats that Brunswick owns that I never heard of. Some really cool boats are sold in other contries that I would love to see at a domestic dealer. Check these out:
Flipper Boats (sorry I can't link in their photos direclty) makes this neat midship cabin bow rider: http://www.flipperboats.fi/Gb/Mallisto/630cc?picId=490&showPictures=true
http://www.flipperboats.fi/gb/Mallisto/520ht?picId=486&showPictures=true
How about this "Weekender" by ?rnvik:
Or this Cruiser:
Brunswick also owns Uttern. They make some neat cabin boats like this 6.2 meter:
This one is a little larger at 6.9 meters, but really cool nonetheless:
I'm not a big fan of bow riders because they never offer any protection from the elements. Now that I see now well a midship cabin works with a bow rider design, I really like the concept. You get sun and wind protection with inside seating, helm, and often sleeping accomodations, bow rider seating, and aft deck open area. Maybe my next project will be to modify a 19ft bow rider into a midship cabin weekender. Has some possabilities, no?
The complete access from bow to stern of the two Uttern boats really impressed me. Think of how easy it is to anchor the 6.9 meter boat. Get up from the helm in the cabin, walk through the windshield to the bow seating and drop the anchor from the anchor pulpit. Then walk back to helm, backup the boat, then walk to the stern and drop the second anchor. No climbing through windshields or hatches to get to the bow like in Cuddy Cabins, just walk and maybe duck a bit for low overhead areas. Works for me. Plus if you have kids, you can let them play up front while you and the wife hang out in the rear deck.
It seems to me that if Brunswick wanted to add some smaller cabin/cruisers to the American market, they already have these boats developed. They just need to bring the molds here and start pumping them out.
I found it very interesting to browse the Uttern and ?rnvik websites to see how other contries think and design their boats. They are very neat, clean designs, often with removable cusions on molded in seats for simplicity. I got a few ideas for mods to my own boat from seeing their designs for smaller boats.
You have to go way up into the $100's before they take all the tacky crap out. That is one of the things you don't see anymore in the European built boats. Nice, well designed, modern, robust, easy to clean, functional interiors are standard here.
