I just re-read my response to your question about steel vs fiberglass. It is perhaps stronger on the pro-steel side than I intended.
To be clear: My first call when we wanted a new boat was to Nordhavn, for a fiberglass boat.
At the time, we were extremely prejudiced against steel. After deciding that Nordhavn didn't offer 'exactly' what we were looking for, we looked at other fiberglass boat manufacturers (primarily Northern Marine). When things weren't working with Northern Marine, we reluctantly decided to look at steel boats (primarily Real Ships). After some serious study, we started liking the idea of steel, and were going to build a custom steel boat. A side-story of this is that we had hired a consultant to help us evaluate different options. He was 100% dead set against our considering a steel boat. We had to drag him kicking and screaming to any meeting with a steel boat manufacturer, and this issue ultimately caused him to refuse to work with us. We did respect his opinion, and he felt we were making a major mistake. He didn't think we had any idea how much of a maintenance nightmare a steel boat could be.
When Nordhavn offered the possibility of making the 68, we jumped on the opportunity immediately.
However, it is safe to say, that we did personally overcome 99% of our concerns about steel hulled boats, and whereas at the beginning I never would have considered owning one, after all of our research, and in spite of the advice of our consultant -- I believe them to be a viable alternative -- for the right owner.
-Ken W
| Williams, Ken |
2007-03-22 03:16:14
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