When did you get your brokers license? That's great!!

--
"j" ganz @@
www.sailnow.com

"Capt. Rob" wrote in message
ups.com...
It's amazing to see the ignorance and bad info from this group's
members. Most recently Jeff posted shots of a 235 transom problem and
some new fella mentions being aboard a Beneteau that appeared lightly
built. On top of that dopes routinely comdemn a builder based on
looking at a few boats. Catalina, Hunter, Beneteau, J-Boat, Tartan,
Pearson, C&C and many other popular builders have fallen victim to this
idiocy.
EVERY boat and design must be fully evaluated ALONE and not based soley
on previous experience or heresay in the groups like this. Here's an
example: I recently brokered two Irwin yachts. They were both built in
the early 80's. One had soft decks, and many serious problems. Much
effort had gone into fixing the problems. The second example had gotten
very little care in it's life, but the decks were solid, and the boat
had few problems. The difference in build quality, even visible in the
interior was shocking. The bad boat had missing backing plates and
joinery that was very poorly done.
My Beneteau 35s5 is not built like Oceanus series boats. It's much
better built. 35s5's have circumnavigated, raced offshore commonly and
have survived heavy charter use better than most. The interior is far
better than any current interior in the Oceanus and First series hulls.
Her hull/deck joint is not the same as the Oceanus series and she
carries discontinous rod rigging. After looking at 3 examples before
buying my 1990, I found all to be solid and sound, varying mostly is
cosmetics due to race history. Her swim platform costs the interior 15
inches, the same as a C&C 36XL (A bigger boat) and yet the 35s5 has a
bigger interior. There is no history of blisters, keel problems, rig
problems and those odd ports are far heavier and thicker than those
found on a C&C, Express or Tartan.
After looking at Oceanus and newer First series Beneteau's I was
generally turned off by the builder, but a surveyor friend informed me
of certain models worth looking at: The 1st 345, 35s5, 38s5, First 35,
First 38 and a few others. I was glad I listened after taking a look.
As to the idiotic comments from John Cairns (He owns a Catalina 28 fer
cripes sake!), the 35s5 is not a low cost boat. It cost more than C&C,
Express, Tartan, Sabre and other good makes when new. And it still will
cost you 60K + to buy a good one now, which is a lot for a 16 year old
racer/cruiser of 35 feet.
Is the 35s5 the "best" boat? Hell no. But it does offer a host of
features combined rare for her size at the time of her construction.
Doug was unable to turn up anything to match her and the truth is that
few boats did until the mid and late 90's. I looked at Tartan 34,
J-Boat, Sabre and other respected names and was always unhappy with
what I saw and in some cases shocked...as with the awful Tartan
designed for dwarfs. If was shorter, I still wouldn't want the 1988
Tartan 34 because her fit and finish was beneath the Beneteau. If the
Tartan was of a stronger build, it wouldnt matter for the light type of
sailing and cruising we do.
In the 35s5 we own a fast, fun and reasonably plush cruiser that
doesn't look like most other boats (thank god). Everyone who's come to
check her out raves over her and adores the interior. Maybe she'll be
dated one day....so is a Block Island 40. If that sort of thing matters
to you, then you should talk to Sloco.
Now that I think about it.....I DO own the best boat afterall!!!!

RB
35s5...face it...better than your boat!
NY