Saturday, February 23, 2013

It's the price dude...

Yesterday's mailbag was sorta interesting so maybe a good time to set the record straight.

First of all, I like multihulls. Sure, I'm somewhat critical of a lot of modern low bridgedeck multihulls fobbed off on an unsuspecting public but, on the whole, I think multihulls make all kinds of sense when they are designed right.

The fact that I simply don't think they make sense for someone making $15 an hour is simply based on the sobering reality that multihulls are just more expensive than someone working as a line cook at Denny's can afford. Face it, when all is said and done, used monohulls have way more bang for the buck...

Which brings us to Wharram, Brown, and Piver. I was not being sarcastic, what I was doing was pointing out that just about the only bargains around in multihulls are boats designed by these three fellows. The reason you can find them for a semi-reasonable price is that a lot of folks built their designs, used them hard, and a lot of them are not in exactly pristine shape. For the record, I can't think of many boats more suited to the whole VolksCruiser lifestyle than a Brown SeaRunner, Wharram Tangaroa or a Piver (well to be honest, a Piver where the builder actually followed the plans)... That said, most used Wharrams, SeaRunners, and even Piver boats in decent shape sell for more than the Volkscruiser can afford.