Simon,
This looks to be a very good
boat. When I researched it, apparently
Broadblue has bought this Dazcat
boat design and is now building it in
China.
However, I'm put off by the sail away
price which seems to be around £160,000 with just a few basic options. That's over $250,000 USD. The competition at first seems nonexistent until you have a look at the Mahe 36',
Gemini 105 and what's coming onto the market from
charter. A large number of newish boats >11 meters for around the same retail
price. All with a
bimini, twin engines, and all the bells and whistles. It's what's done Gemini in.
If these boats are in fact being built in
China, I would humbly suggest that
Broadblue will have to revisit their building and pricing strategy to get a toe hold in the Global market place with their new smaller catamaran.
There is a market but the pricing has to make sense, and right now it doesn't. If this boat were priced at a sailaway price of £100,000 ($160,000 USD), they would be able to sell at least 100 boats the first year and be the King of every Yacht show..
There are options to lower finished boat pricing. Bertram Yachts just relocated to central
Florida from
Miami to take advantage of the workforce abandoned by the closed Searay Yacht plants. They are paying a ridiculously low wage to experienced workers who are very happy to have jobs and had to hire accountants to add up all the incentives local, state and Federal
government are handing them. Bertram Yachts (division of Ferretti Group) played the
government officials like they were playing a piano... Brilliantly..There are literally thousands more workers looking for jobs.
Who's running Broadblue these days? This boat has been around since 2008 and it just seems silly to literally miss the boat with a great new design when they could own a catamaran market segment and use it as a base to build on, all because of short sighted management. I guess an MBA isn't what it used to be (sigh)
For whatever it's worth..