On Nov 4, 8:40?am, HK wrote:
Chuck Gould wrote:
On Nov 4, 4:30?am, HK wrote:
Chuck Gould wrote:
On Nov 3, 4:29?pm, HK wrote:
Just read that Albemarle was bought out by Brunswick. Another famous
line goes in the crapper. Cabo was sold last year. Sad to see the
independents disappearing, since they build the best boats.
Where have you been, Harry?
Brunswick has owned Albermarle for quite while now. Basically, they
are built by the same group that makes Hatteras. Many of the upper
tier
trademarks built by Brunswick are pretty darn good boats.
I'm sure they were better boats when the companies that built them were
independent. The newest model Albemarle, for example, is wider and with
less deadrise than the model it will be replacing. That's corporate
conglomerate think for you...take a line of fishing boats and turn them
into something less.

Why would every boat in succession always have to be narrower and with
a deeper V than previous models? Perhaps the new model is intended for
slightly different conditions.

Slightly different conditions? Like what, flats fishing? Dockside condos?

There has been discussion for some time on the more serious "fishing"
boards about the downturn in quality in Cabos by those who know them
well, and the same is beginning to be said about Albemarles. These
comments come from experienced owners who actually know something about
these boats and others of their style. Guys who when they see a term
like "composite construction" used to describe a hull tend to say,
"composite what?"- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

You keep expressing a concern regarding the term "composite."

When I visit some of the local factories, the types and varieties of
materials used by everybody is amazing in its diversity. Gone are the
days when most boats were built simply from mulitple layers of glass
strand cloth and resin. Space age materials such as Kevlar, and a wide
variety of coring materials (going well beyond the traditional and
problematic balsas and foams) are strategically included in the
assembly of materials in the "dry" layup before the vaccuum-assisted
infusion of resin. Many of these specialized synthetic materials are
produced specficially for inclusion in a fibergalss hull. There was a
time when differentiating between "hand rolled" and chopper gun FRP
was sufficiently informative, but in an era of rapidly changing (and
we hope "advancing") technology the general term "composite" is as
useful as "hand laid" used to be. How many of these savvy fishermen
would routinely demand to know "hand laid with what? How many layers
at the keel, at the chine? What is the rove to resin ratio in the
transom?" etc?


As you like to view the boating world from the perspective of a
fisherman, here's a link to an item that appeared in Sal****er
Sportsman. It fills in many of the gaps for folks uneasy about the
"new fangled" terms. :-)

http://www.sal****ersportsman.com/ar...sp?ID=21012214