We chartered a 2018 Lagoon 450F to sail around the Bahamas earlier this year. We really enjoyed the company, the sailing was amazing, but I kept finding horrific issues. The door frame was not aligned, cabinets had weird gaps, when we were in a bit of a tumbling wave pattern you’d go into the head and then the door wouldn’t open. Stuff like that. We had a bit of a sea coming into an anchorage. Nothing to complain about but the boat was popping and snapping. Another member of flotilla came over who was looking at the Lagoon 450F and was currently sailing a 46. He pointed out all kinds of issues I had missed.
That got me to thinking about something along the lines of quality and investment into boats. I think between 2000 and 2010(ish) across the industry boat build quality took a nose dive. Not all brands, not all boats, but many. As an example, my 2000 Moody was one of the first models that instead of hardwood floors I have a laminate. Thermofoil is used for many of the doors, cabinets, and furniture pieces. This isn’t “bad” but it isn’t solid wood like in previous generations of boats.
The 2008 recession and the hurricanes wiping out the charter fleet seem to have changed the market.
The centralization of brands under owner groups I think has driven some of this cost containment in build. Boat manufacturers are producing what is a discretionary product for a very small and generally savvy population. Since most people buying larger cruising sailboats are middle aged and the boat is the third/fourth they have some ideas about what they are getting. I think that cadre of buyer may be driving up the boutique quality over quantity manufacturers. Whereas the price point conscious buyers are comparing high volume production boats based on spec sheet and price rather than build and resiliency. With the rise of catamarans, I’ve seen lots of short cuts on boats I’ve helped people with.
I remember my grandfather’s age friends saying nobody would buy a boat that wasn’t a Herschoff or caravel planked. My dad’s age friends were all about the thick glass over solid core or you shouldn’t go to sea. Now a grandpa myself my thoughts are heavy glass, encapsulated keels, foam core (do not use end grain balsa) and my kids are thinking “where is the carbon fiber you old fogey.
The key on build quality I think is we end up trusting that which we have seen tested. We trust that which has survived and lived to see another day. We see quality and resiliency in the vessels that have brought their owners home upon seas of adventure. It is true that more Beneteaus have crossed the Atlantic, but I ask how many have done it multiple times? Over many years? I’m far from a hater of Beneteau or other high volume production boats. I am just aware of longevity.
I don’t think a lot of the catamarans are going to have longevity. The Hurricane summer of Dorian and others wiped out so much of the charter fleet I thought there would be a great reset on quality and capability within the market. I think I was wrong. Simply put I think the manufacturers went cheap and applied as many cost containment strategies as possible to maximize profit. I think post 2008 or so that become a norm in the post-recession period and accelerated because of the great hurricane reset. I do lots of data analysis and I don’t have data to support these assertions but it seems to feel like an explanatory theory at least.