worst sail boats ever built

[lilly]

It's a rare thing to see a truly horrible sailboat but they do exist. I 'd like to hear about other peoples sightings.
Many years ago I saw a sailboat for sale on a used car lot. It was about 26', white with those smokey grey skinny windows bolted on with dozens of cheap rusting SS 1/4" bolts. It was absolutely slab sided. From the water line to the shear line amidships must have been close to 5'. The alum. mast was about 3 1/2" in diameter. The standing rigging was about 1/4" diameter. You might say "so what, there are thousands of boats like that". But wait, what made this boat so special was the manufacturer had lined the entire interior, including the head liner, with pure white fake 4" long POLAR BEAR HAIR!!!!!!!!!!!! Of coarse it was completely blackened with mildew. Someone had barfed behind the settee years before but I guess they couldn't figure out how to clean it out of the polar bear fur so it was just left. Oh yeah on the reverse transom someone had fastened a huge homemade outboard motor bracket on which hung an very old 60 hp dead engine.
That boat sat on the car lot for many years. Even after the car lot went broke and the building was torn down the boat remained until it's cradle collaped and the municipality hauled the boat away. I think the boat was a 'Reinell'.

[speedoo]

There's one for sale. $795.00. On Long Island, of course.

http://www.yachtworld.com/boats/1364540/0

I remember seeing them at boat shows. Incredibly ugly.

To be fair, Reinell builds some decent looking stinkpotters.

Funny you should mention it.... I just saw the most butt ugly new boat I have ever seen made all the worse because I saw it surrounded by a huge collection of some of the finest in the world.
WHERE? The Sancuary Cove Boat Show, gold coast Australia.
WHEN? last month (May)
WHAT? Mystery catamaran
I know this is a mono section but when it comes to ugly aren't they all equal?
DESIGN? They appear to have molded a set of old "Prout" hulls. The orginal "Prout 37" though had modest bridge deck. No head room. So the hulls would have been sound in original context (adequate bouyancy) but these poor knock offs (as they appear to be, my conjecture.) are hopelessly overwhelmed by the weigth of a full bridgedeck that looks like it was designed by a partnership of Salvador Dali and Donald Duck on LSD. A hidious confusion of curves and square lines.
FINISH? The boat should be named the SY "Lumpy" The flat paint they sprayed her with was not enough to hide all the sins though I'm sure it helped somewhat. I heard an onlooker say that he thought it looked like the grip deck finish was apllied with a mop.
OBSERVATIONS? Though this boat was not yet rigged for the show it showed signs of being way short of bouyancy. With five people that I counted aboard, she sank well over four inches (100mm) above her antifoul at the stern. The first step on the transom was way underwater. From the other side of her I watched as a man sat on one of the high fashion little seats they had built into the pull pits. The bows sunk inches.... it wasn't a big guy. I would not want to be on this beast in a blow. From the way the paint was chipped by the transom from what appeears to have been a minor touch... I suspect the paint was household acrylic. The comments of passersby was good entertainment!
THE WORST OF IT? One of the major mags in OZ regulary takes "advertorial" or cash for comment pieces supplied by the advertiser and prints as a feature (a practice I do not condone and have refused to do) and they are looking pretty dumb now to all the people that actually saw the thing. If I can get a photo up on this site I'll try to post later.

I remember the name Rienell from when I was a boat yard kid in the sixties. They made a respectable line of big runabouts and sedan cruisers that were popular trailer boats for sea of Cortez. Maybe they tried to do a Macgregor thing?

Cheers

[SkiprJohn]

I think that among all the mono-hull sailboats I've ever seen, the American 25, Coronado 41 and any Clipper Marine have to be the worst. As well as how they were made there was an article a few years ago that really slammed the Irwins. However, I think some boats even with the best of reputations may have been put together improperly from the start.

I do have a friend with a Reinell 26 sailboat which really is pretty well designed and not badly made although is a shoal draft and uses a lot of powerboat hardware which I don't care for here in deep water Hawaii. I would rather have the Reinell than any Clipper Marine or American, or older flimsy MacGregor.

Regards, --John--

As soon as you said "Polar Bear interior" I knew was a Reinell. That was my first sail boat. It was very poorly built, but some of the ideas were inovative. 6'+ headroom in a 26' boat. and the layout was very efficient for a boat this size. It was light enough to pull behind a 1/2 ton pickup and did not sail too badly. Stepping the mast was easily done with one person, although I would not by any means consider it a blue water boat, for bay sailing it worked fine. I found that cleaning the interior was just a matter of hosing it out, an a little carpet cleaner worked great. Like any boat, if not allowed to air out, it molded, but the lining was very well adhered to the boat, and was not sagging anywhere. It was a weak hull, and gave new meaning to "flex". Still, there is a design to fit everyone. Some people like hard chines, some like high freeboard. Some still like trimarans THere are lot's of bad designs out there, but I disagree that this is the worst.

[S/V Elusive]

The worst sailboat I ever saw was the one they launched and it sunk right away - now THAT is a bad sailboat.

Tell us more

[Charlie]

Worst sail boat I ever sailed on was a Ketch designed and built in Taiwan. I called it a POS (piece of #$@! 38). Couldn't really sail up wind needed at least 15 knots of breeze to move. Had all this fancy teak work on the outside. I'm not sure if it was the boat or the people I was sailing with but I thought it was the worst sail boat.

[sneuman]

the MacGregor line of sail/power boats. They sail like slugs/power like slugs and look like slugs

[AdamY]

Just wanted to chime in, for the record, worst thread idea ever :-)

I wont submit m y opinion since this thread wiill catch fire when some nice Magregor owner comes in to defend himself :-)

Perhaps you're new to sailing bbs but I would advise against posting flamebait. Perhaps you could try something like "What kind of gun should I use to perform abortions on my vessel to assure I go to heaven to stand beside the one true god." :-p

Cheers,

[bmiller]

Originally Posted by AdamY

Just wanted to chime in, for the record, worst thread idea ever :-)

I wont submit m y opinion since this thread wiill catch fire when some nice Magregor owner comes in to defend himself :-)

Perhaps you're new to sailing bbs but I would advise against posting flamebait. Perhaps you could try something like "What kind of gun should I use to perform abortions on my vessel to assure I go to heaven to stand beside the one true god." :-p

Cheers,

Well I'm pretty new here myself but I nominate this for the most assinine post of the century. Not the original topic just this response, to be clear.

[lilly]

Just for the record I certainly did not start this thread to cause or provoke any trouble but rather just to tell something I thought was a bit humourous. My apologies if I offended anyone.

[lilly]

In the same vane, I know of a case where a guy wanted to build a ferro cement cruiser. Rather than buying plans 'off the self' (maybe there weren't any available) he had some one draw up a set for him. The boat was about forty five feet. He spent almost three years working on it full time. He spent a TON of money buying the best gear/diesel etc. he could find. When the big launch day occured the boat slide into the water and the bows tilted down at least two feet. We were assured that when all the tanks were filled the boat would sit evenly on its waterline. Well that didn't happen. Nothing he tried would level the boat out. I think eventually he stripped all the bits out of it and had it buried.
Another guy I knew home built a huge catameran to sail around the world in. It took him five years, two wives and a girlfriend. He too fitted the boat out with the best and did beautiful joinery. He was motoring it over from Victoria to Vancouver to have the masts stepped. The weather was flat calm and he was sitting on the head up front. He glanced up at the huge laminated main deck beams holding the two halves together and was surprised to notice how much they were flexing. It then dawned on him that he had neglected to glue some of the laminates together. He turned back to Victoria tied the boat up and it sat there for a number of years before it disappeared one day.

[markpj23]

OK - now you've made me MAD!!

WHAT IS THE OBJECTION TO FAKE FUR????

My 1972 Dodge van was lovingly decorated by yours truly with fake fur bedspreads from Sears. Lynx they called it - white with black & brown spots. A little contact cement and voila!! It pains me to say that it actually took First Place in a local custom van show in Virginia Beach VA in 1973.

Oh to be young & stupid again..... but thanks for the lead on my next sailboat!!

well markpj23.... that gets my vote for best post on the thread!

Thanks for the chuckle!

Adam Y's is pretty good too... the one true God.?.....um nah, won't go there.

Cheers