Gunboat 55 for sale so quickly?

[Cavalier MK2]

Originally Posted by MarkJ

I contend its different.

Gun boat was a singular company that required a singular client... and that type of client imho wants to be on the winner, not the one just gone bust.

Shrewd, very Shrewd....

Mind you the mind set of people who value image over substance lets them be (lets change a consonant , cheaper than continents and buy a vowel....)

Screwed, very screwed....

[alansmith]

I always viewed the GB like high end Lambos and Ferrari. High end market, high cost of maintenance, easy to break them, and very sexy. Give me an Atlantic Cat any day and I will never quibble about not getting a GB...Wish them well and feel sorry for anyone who got stuck in a bad deal.

[MYTraveler]

Originally Posted by Symphony

anyway, why would someone wait two years to get their dream cruising yacht then sell almost immediately?

Lots of possibilities, but most likely:
1) Changed life circumstances (divorce, disability, death, etc.)
2) Changed financial circumstances (the market is down)
3) Disappointment / Dissatisfaction with the boat
4) Upgrade

[peterp]

Well folks thank goodness I have read all the posts relevant to the 55 GB for sale, those comments have put me right off I will hang on to my trusty Lagoon 400 a bit longer and take my A$3.5m cheque back to the bank, whew!

[Symphony]

I reckon you should split your savings with me since i posted it originally.

I'll be in Hervey Bay next year to collect.

[StuM]

Originally Posted by MYTraveler

Lots of possibilities, but most likely:
1) Changed life circumstances (divorce, disability, death, etc.)
2) Changed financial circumstances (the market is down)
3) Disappointment / Dissatisfaction with the boat
4) Upgrade

I know of someone who spent two years and megabucks on upgrading a sail cat and just as he was finishing the task, decided to buy a big powerboat instead. He put it on the market and eventually sold it without ever having sailed it.

[SVI]

The answer is - weight. Too much weight. The 55 was projected and sold as 10T. The Tocatta is over 13T. This seriously impacts her performance.
All IMHO, of course.

[CarlF]

Originally Posted by SVI

The answer is - weight. Too much weight. The 55 was projected and sold as 10T. The Tocatta is over 13T. This seriously impacts her performance.
All IMHO, of course.

Hadn't heard that. There was some discussion after the Rainmaker loss that some pictures from the stern made her look low on her lines. Some said it was just the waves. Perhaps not...

[sheldon957]

Gunboat International being sold at auction. They specifically call out the 55 as one of the reasons for bankruptcy, though nothing bad about the boat. I will give them $100k cash for it.

Gunboat International will be sold at auction | Trade Only Today

[yeloya]

Originally Posted by estarzinger

It is not clear if they will be able to do that or not, because they appear to have been selling these boats quite a bit under their actual building cost (we know this from the chapter 11 documents), and if they price them to have a margin above their cost there may be no buyers (this is speculation).

That's strange..
If a boat like GB 55 cannot be manufactured at less than 2,5 Mio USD, the failure is inevitable as noone can price her higher than that. One of my friend has ordered a one off boat specifically designed for him by Dubois ( see the boat here) 400 | | Dubois Yachts
which was manufactured in high tech materiel (epoxy, carbon, kevlar, etc) by a company in Antalya-Turkey. This company basically builds megayachts and had also built the first couple of Swiss cat 52 and are very good. I asked the GM of this company what was the cost of this 60 footer, the answer was " a bit less than a 1 mio Euro everything included, ready to sail".

Assuming that the manpower cost in China is max the half of what it is in Turkey, I cannot figure out how the cost of GB 55 is more than 2,5-3 times of this 60 footer.. I am sure that the wages for skilled labour in China is well above the chinese average, but the skilled labour in Turkey also is comparable to those in Europe.

Very strange, to say the least..

Yeloya

[estarzinger]

^^ the records suggest that the gunboats took 35-45k labor hours of gunboat labor (eg that does not include subcontractor labor, which was also significant). That's massive. They shifted factories and workforce and models and never really got into any sort of good production rhythm. And Peter is a sales guy and not really interested in production process and management and never had an excellent COO to do that.

[smj]

Originally Posted by yeloya

That's strange..
If a boat like GB 55 cannot be manufactured at less than 2,5 Mio USD, the failure is inevitable as noone can price her higher than that. One of my friend has ordered a one off boat specifically designed for him by Dubois ( see the boat here) 400 | | Dubois Yachts
which was manufactured in high tech materiel (epoxy, carbon, kevlar, etc) by a company in Antalya-Turkey. This company basically builds megayachts and had also built the first couple of Swiss cat 52 and are very good. I asked the GM of this company what was the cost of this 60 footer, the answer was " a bit less than a 1 mio Euro everything included, ready to sail".

Assuming that the manpower cost in China is max the half of what it is in Turkey, I cannot figure out how the cost of GB 55 is more than 2,5-3 times of this 60 footer.. I am sure that the wages for skilled labour in China is well above the chinese average, but the skilled labour in Turkey also is comparable to those in Europe.

Very strange, to say the least..

Yeloya

The Gunboat 55 wasn't built in China, it was built in North Carolina USA.


Sent from my iPad using Cruisers Sailing Forum

[yeloya]

Originally Posted by smj

The Gunboat 55 wasn't built in China, it was built in North Carolina USA.


Sent from my iPad using Cruisers Sailing Forum

Thx.

That explains part of the problem but I just part of it..

Yeloya

[Polux]

Originally Posted by estarzinger

. . And they discovered that it is not. It is too much work and too sensitive to sail/wind conditions and needs a pro captain and crew.....

Even on the bigger ones I had always see them sailed by a crew but that was not the idea that lead to built them:

On the words of the creator Peter Johnstone : “I wanted to sail level without putting everything away everytime we went sailing. I wanted large enough spaces for true privacy and relaxation. I wanted to be able to walk around without bumping into everyone and everything. ...”

Don't seem to me that one can get true privacy while needing a crew and probably the bigger boats need even more a crew than the smaller ones and the 55 is the smallest of them.

[44'cruisingcat]

You shouldn't need a crew to sail a 55 foot cat, and I doubt that one is needed to sail the GB 55.


To RACE it, is a different story. But to simply cruise, a couple should be easily able to manage that size boat.