South African quality (or not)
One of my few posts to this list was made a couple of weeks ago after I
spied a nice-looking Africat power cat here in Grenada. I was surprised that no
one commented, and when I told a good friend, who has sailed his non-charter
Lagoon 37 for over a decade, he said, "I'm not surprised, I'd never buy a boat
that was built in South Africa. Everything built there is cheaply made."
We have seen some astounding examples of that in S.A. sailing cats but
surely there must be some quality builders?
Regards,
John
"Seahorse"
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John,
You are quite correct, there are many good examples of catamarans
built in
South Africa, and unfortunetly you have one, maybe 2 not so well built.
Show me in country where all the boat builders are perfect.
Let us consider, all the Mooring Catamarans are built in SA, the St Francis
42 and 50,
voted as best built boat at Miami Boat show, Voyage Charter Cats, the
successful Africat
and Aventure Powercatamarans, designed by Lavranos and Wright.
It is a pity that one rotten apple can be the judge of many perfect ones.
Lesley
----- Original Message -----
From: Truelove39@aol.com
To: power-catamaran@lists.samurai.com
Sent: Monday, April 21, 2008 1:36 PM
Subject: [PCW] South African quality (or not)
One of my few posts to this list was made a couple of weeks ago after I
spied a nice-looking Africat power cat here in Grenada. I was surprised
that no
one commented, and when I told a good friend, who has sailed his
non-charter
Lagoon 37 for over a decade, he said, "I'm not surprised, I'd never buy a
boat
that was built in South Africa. Everything built there is cheaply made."
We have seen some astounding examples of that in S.A. sailing cats but
surely there must be some quality builders?
Regards,
John
"Seahorse"
**************Need a new ride? Check out the largest site for U.S. used
car
listings at AOL Autos.
(http://autos.aol.com/used?NCID=aolcmp00300000002851)
Power-Catamaran Mailing List
In addition to cats that Lesley mentioned there is Gunboat and several custom Chris Whites coming from SA.
I also find it interesting that this was a comment from a Lagoon owner. Not to disparage Lagoon, but I often hear Lagoon and Fountaine-Pajot referred to as the "Buicks" of the fleet, "built for charter", "built to a price" or perhaps those comments are just from the Catana and Privilege folks justifying the high cost of their cats.
Are these boats better than their reputation or are some of the lesser SA (and shortly arriving R&C Chinese boats) lowering the bar?
I realize most of these are sail craft on a power list, but many of these builders are expanding into the power market.
--- On Mon, 4/21/08, Truelove39@aol.com Truelove39@aol.com wrote:
sailed his non-charter
Lagoon 37 for over a decade, he said, "I'm not
surprised, I'd never buy a boat
that was built in South Africa. Everything built there is
cheaply made."
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