quote:
Hi Don - thanks! (don't know how to post it here...!!)
Stephen - well here it is, scanned in from the magazine.
Buying non-showy British
I was interested to read Peter Poland’s comments (By the Lee ST Dec ’07) regarding those of us visiting the Southampton Boat Show wanting something less than a Big White Whale. He rightly pointed out that those looking for what would have once been termed a sailing cruiser had to search far and wide.
I went specifically to look for a 25-footer that handled well without being extreme, had a galley and separate heads and one that would sit on a trailer – not because I wanted to trailer-sail her, but living on an island where there is no cranage I need the independence of being able to haul my boat in and out of the water myself each season.
There was little to see. An obvious contender, the Beneteau 21.7, while displayed with trays of plastic fruit (more form than function?) didn’t have a toilet.
The Hunter was another option but somewhat expensive in its finished state.
Although I did eventually order the boat I wanted during the Show, it wasn’t from a company that exhibited there.
From the same family business that built the 505s I raced as a schoolboy, the boat I chose was a British built Parker 235 with a lifting keel. A factory visit was all that I needed and everyone I met there couldn’t have been more helpful. I have already seen the hull being laid up and I anticipate delivery in January Constructed to order, this boat has received rave reviews and second hand ones are snapped up at once, and there is an active owners association.
I’m not sure if there’s a moral here, except that sometimes the answer to a dream might be found in an industrial unit on a bleak Lincolnshire fen rather than at a glitzy South Coast boat show - with or without the ‘pirates’ with plastic swords and the 500 tons of imported sand!
Stephen Godber, Isle of Mull
Regards
Don Harvey
Web Master
Parker 325 'Calypso'