Neel 51

[NEEL51-3]

We are a NEEL 51 owner.
The boat concept are awesome but the built quality is very very poor.
The shippyard are not really reactive for after sale services.
We had spent a lot of time to change a lots of things.
We can send you details if you wish (in French unfortunately) The price of the boat is really very high for the quality provided

[beauris]

i m also a neel owner however it’s the distributor whose responsible for after sales services. in any case i’m a taker for the details, french is allright it s what i speak everyday

[NEEL51-3]

I will send you a link very soon
In our case, our only interlocutor is the shipyard which was on the front line for the sale of the 51.
It's a new boat that we have bought to the shipyard.
The responsaible for the after sales services is the shipyard

[MathiasW]

All, we are a couple of NEEL trimaran owners and friends and have recently created a user forum to exchange thoughts specifically about the NEEL tri. Things to fix before they break, useful additions and modifications. So, it is all about sharing experiences to help others...

Here is the link, if you are interested:

https://neelownersgroup.createaforum.com/index.php

Cheers

Mathias

[Astroman]

Originally Posted by django37

2090 nm

Newbmbie Question. What is Engine Hour Factor? Saba 50 in 3rd with less than half engh (10.67) than the first two lagoon. And the Privilege, which I like, at (38). Neel at 20.92. Can you explain what this means?

[SVNagambie]

Originally Posted by CaptainRivet

or stay away from the boat if the manufacturer neel is not able to get it right for that amount of money you pay for a new neel.
Unfinished and trim out would put the costs much higher and then there are a lot better alternatives out there.
The 51 has the better "worse" quality but the 45 I saw was a desaster and I am sure I saw not all that was done wrong....

@beauris: you must have a really high tolerance level not to get fustrated if you buy a new boat and have to redo it more or less completly...I assume you got a good deal that made it feasable to fix all the issues.

I really like the neel design and several clever solutions but the desasterous building quality put me off and creates an overall mistrust. Ans whats waiting underneath and I can't see if the obvious stuff is already screwed up. Really a shame for such a good design but poor execution.

Its just wonders me that some people are so desperate to buy one and accept that finish quality level.

NEEL owner here.

I surely wouldn’t buy the first few units of a new NEEL model, but they do make upgrades and modifications as they make more boats. FYI our 47 is hull#30.

The primary reason one buys a NEEL is that it is simply (more than) a multihull’s worth of space with a hull design that sails truly like a monohull. Is is far lighter than a comparable Cat of similar size, much faster, and has far more storage. It is built by a lifelong lover of the sailing experience for others who are in it for the sailing experience as opposed to a comfortable small house that can be moved from place to place on the water.

It is also much cheaper than an equivalent sized catamaran. We investigated 3 boats seriously: Seawind, Nautitech and NEEL. Outremer was just waaaay too expensive, and Schionning too much work. We did not consider anything other than performance cats, because we valued a fast and comfortable sail over massive fridge size and luxury fittings. The minimalist interior suits us just fine: less stuff to break and clean!

For comparable-sized boats in Seawind (1370) and Nautitech (46), we would have paid $350K to $450K more for the same options. We went with a sparsely optioned boat and have added a lot of aftermarket stuff. We were at the marina in La Rochelle for 6 weeks fixing little things here and there, but it was all minor stuff, easily fixed and there were loads of other (FP, Catana, lagoon, Nautitech…) boats all getting similar fixes during the same time frame. Several had been there even longer and had much longer lists.

I would say we had absolutely no more issues than did others with more expensive boats of other brands I did, however, watch those folks wait for days for workers to show up while NEEL was super-prompt, sending workers within an hour or 2 sometimes.

One design point that is way underemphasized, IMO, is the technical basement and engine room. It is massively useful to have a standing-room tech room with all your equipment, wiring and ducting/plumbing fully and easily accessible. We recently fit 11 people into our engine room (separate from the technical room) with room to spare. The ease of working on mechanical systems cannot be emphasized enough, and could have almost convinced us alone to buy the boat, even if we hadn’t loved other things about it.


Eric Bruneel came at least twice a week to personally see how things were going for us. I have absolutely no complaints about NEEL, or their service. I love the fact that they are a smaller company as the people there get to know you, and treat you very well.

Do we sometimes swear when we encounter a sloppy install on something? Absolutely. Does it shatter us? Nope. Same thing happens with other boats and none of it is safety related. Do we wish NEEL would take more care with some things? Yep. Would we buy another NEEL again? In a heartbeat.

For the record, we chose our boat shortlist at the 2019 Annapolis show. We weren’t even considering the NEEL bcs of the Ruby Rose review. In the end, we got on it simply because there was no queue, and we had time to waste. We are so glad we did. Incidentally, the Ruby Rose reviews are all garbage. The whole series is super-biased, inconsistent in the application of criteria to different boats, and focussed on things that simply don’t matter in the long run. Shoddy trim install isn’t great, but can be easily fixed. Slow hull design, underpowered sail plan and cramped mechanical access cannot.

One fine point that most folks seem not to appreciate is that, in France, the law dictates that the Broker/Dealer is responsible for managing after sales issues, not the manufacturer. It is very important, therefore, to be choosy about who you buy through. If anyone is seriously looking and wants a recommendation as to a good NEEL broker, please PM me. I am happy to advise in that respect.

[Sos]

Great report - thanks

[CaptainRivet]

Originally Posted by SVNagambie

NEEL owner here.

I surely wouldn’t buy the first few units of a new NEEL model, but they do make upgrades and modifications as they make more boats. FYI our 47 is hull#30.

The primary reason one buys a NEEL is that it is simply (more than) a multihull’s worth of space with a hull design that sails truly like a monohull. Is is far lighter than a comparable Cat of similar size, much faster, and has far more storage. It is built by a lifelong lover of the sailing experience for others who are in it for the sailing experience as opposed to a comfortable small house that can be moved from place to place on the water.

It is also much cheaper than an equivalent sized catamaran. We investigated 3 boats seriously: Seawind, Nautitech and NEEL. Outremer was just waaaay too expensive, and Schionning too much work. We did not consider anything other than performance cats, because we valued a fast and comfortable sail over massive fridge size and luxury fittings. The minimalist interior suits us just fine: less stuff to break and clean!

For comparable-sized boats in Seawind (1370) and Nautitech (46), we would have paid $350K to $450K more for the same options. We went with a sparsely optioned boat and have added a lot of aftermarket stuff. We were at the marina in La Rochelle for 6 weeks fixing little things here and there, but it was all minor stuff, easily fixed and there were loads of other (FP, Catana, lagoon, Nautitech…) boats all getting similar fixes during the same time frame. Several had been there even longer and had much longer lists.

I would say we had absolutely no more issues than did others with more expensive boats of other brands I did, however, watch those folks wait for days for workers to show up while NEEL was super-prompt, sending workers within an hour or 2 sometimes.

One design point that is way underemphasized, IMO, is the technical basement and engine room. It is massively useful to have a standing-room tech room with all your equipment, wiring and ducting/plumbing fully and easily accessible. We recently fit 11 people into our engine room (separate from the technical room) with room to spare. The ease of working on mechanical systems cannot be emphasized enough, and could have almost convinced us alone to buy the boat, even if we hadn’t loved other things about it.


Eric Bruneel came at least twice a week to personally see how things were going for us. I have absolutely no complaints about NEEL, or their service. I love the fact that they are a smaller company as the people there get to know you, and treat you very well.

Do we sometimes swear when we encounter a sloppy install on something? Absolutely. Does it shatter us? Nope. Same thing happens with other boats and none of it is safety related. Do we wish NEEL would take more care with some things? Yep. Would we buy another NEEL again? In a heartbeat.

For the record, we chose our boat shortlist at the 2019 Annapolis show. We weren’t even considering the NEEL bcs of the Ruby Rose review. In the end, we got on it simply because there was no queue, and we had time to waste. We are so glad we did. Incidentally, the Ruby Rose reviews are all garbage. The whole series is super-biased, inconsistent in the application of criteria to different boats, and focussed on things that simply don’t matter in the long run. Shoddy trim install isn’t great, but can be easily fixed. Slow hull design, underpowered sail plan and cramped mechanical access cannot.

One fine point that most folks seem not to appreciate is that, in France, the law dictates that the Broker/Dealer is responsible for managing after sales issues, not the manufacturer. It is very important, therefore, to be choosy about who you buy through. If anyone is seriously looking and wants a recommendation as to a good NEEL broker, please PM me. I am happy to advise in that respect.

I visited a Neel 47 hull 13 yesterday and this was by far better then bad 45 I saw and 51 too. Also the owner stated that Neel was very responsive and fixed a lot stuff. So it looks that changed for good, happy to hear as I like their tri a lot, the new 43 is great.
They bought over cat sales/Klaus Titze in Germany and Neel was responsible for fixing everything, not the broker.
What they did was getting the bare minimum from factory and installed everything else aftermarket in La Rochelle, took them 6 month but all worked fine. Especially all the electronics, they got all installed aftermarket.
This seems like the way to go with Neel.

[Cloroxbottle]

Originally Posted by cwjohm

Hi

Thanks for that youtube reference. It was very informative. It definitely confirms that Neel's quality control is non-existent. I would not be as patient as this owner with all the defects he details, given the money spent.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ba8tbK8OoFY

This seems to confirm it. Unfortunate too, because it seems like a nice idea.

[SVNagambie]

Originally Posted by Cloroxbottle

This seems to confirm it. Unfortunate too, because it seems like a nice idea.

That’s the 3 year-old Ruby Rose review I discussed in my post as being garbage and incredibly biased.

[CaptainRivet]

Originally Posted by SVNagambie

That’s the 3 year-old Ruby Rose review I discussed in my post as being garbage and incredibly biased.

To be honest the ruby rose review was quite true, it was the same tri I saw on the fair some month ago BUT that was a quickly nailed together demo tri with a lot of flaws and repeated the story of the 45 demo boat. Don't get it why you don't take extra care for your demo boat....
The owner of the Neel 47 told me also that his broker advised not to buy hull 1-10 as they get experience with the first lot and then change processes and fitments according to that...
Buy bare as you can and refit aftermarket was his advice too then Neel are a great value for money.
Especially the smaller 43 and 47 there is not much available with performance aspects in the same price range and length.
For the 51 price you get a performance cat in the 45 ft range with the same room, performance and better build quality.

[mako]

Originally Posted by CaptainRivet

For the 51 price you get a performance cat in the 45 ft range with the same room, performance and better build quality.

Give some examples

[dalav8r]

Neel claims Cat A…the Belgium courts disagree https://neel51williwaw.wixsite.com/c...e-ship?lang=en

[malbert73]

Originally Posted by dalav8r

Neel claims Cat A…the Belgium courts disagree https://neel51williwaw.wixsite.com/c...e-ship?lang=en

What does “non-stailable” mean?

If you’re going to try to paraphrase legal-speak on your personal website to sound conclusive at least spell the most basic words right.

(Content sounds a bit slanted on that link)

[Mark424]

Originally Posted by malbert73

What does “non-stailable” mean?

If you’re going to try to paraphrase legal-speak on your personal website to sound conclusive at least spell the most basic words right.

Not everyone in the world is a native english speaker. I don't want to be judged on my spelling and grammar, so I don't judge others. I've been in lots of foreign countries and the native speakers have always been very gracious and helpful. Try it.