Friendship 40

JetStream · Post by **JetStream** » Thu Sep 16, 2004 8:18 pm

I don't know if anyone has seen this boat yet. It is at the Newport boat show and looks awesome. The details are decadent. There are electric winches with buttons to be operated by the helmsman's toes, electric primaries etc., etc. Inside, there is standing headroom even though the coach roof looks very low.

The designer tried to sell this design to both Morris and Hinckley several years ago and they wouldn't bite, so he had it built himself. This particular boat was built in New Zealand and moors in Jamestown, RI.

Here is the link:

http://www.fontainedesigngroup.com/news/index.asp?ID=12

Pictures don't do it justice. You really have to see it.

Post by **Tim** » Fri Sep 17, 2004 7:27 am

I love Ted Fontaine boats; when he was with the Hood design team he was responsible for many of the Little Harbor designs, and since striking out on his own has continued to design beautiful, "modern traditional" boats. A Fontaine boat oozes class and style, and always has a certain rightness about it. I have yet to see one featured somewhere that I didn't like. He even manages to cleanly incorporate deck salons and pilothouses without destroying the looks of the boat.

If I had money and wanted a custom design, I'd head for either Bruce King or Ted Fontaine, I think.

Speaking of Bruce King, here's the recently-launched big Hinckley daysailor, the DS42. Looks a lot like a shrunken-down Antonisa.

And, while we're on the daysailor topic, don't forget the new Morris 36, designed by S&S. I actually passed this boat (going the other way) in Eggemoggin Reach this summer.

Small movie of the Morris 36 on the Morris Site

Post by **Tim** » Fri Sep 17, 2004 7:42 am

Gasp...choke.

Sorry, I'm just regaining my breath after it was taken away when I glanced at the Freedom 40 price list, found at the end of this brochure:

http://www.fontainedesigngroup.com/F40.pdf

Base sailaway price: $785,000!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Not including the teak decks you see, or the fancy hydraulic controls, the carbon mast, or many of the other details you see in the photo boats--all of which extras are listed a la carte in the brochure for bargain prices.

Wow. I'm speechless. I guess my measly expectations for what my completed Daysailor might bring could be easily achieved.

Post by **dasein668** » Fri Sep 17, 2004 8:48 am

That Morris... there's something not quite right about it to my eye. I think maybe it's a combination of the white on white look with the truncated squarish house and the too modern ports. Maybe the sheer is bit flat too. Did this strike anyone else? It looks too Euro-power-boat to me, I think...

dunno

Post by **Tim** » Fri Sep 17, 2004 9:06 am

I agree with those thoughts on the Morris. It doesn't quite come together for me. The concept drawings show what is ostensibly a varnished cabin trunk which would be a better look.

I find the topsides a bit higher than I might like too. Keep 'em low...it's a daysailor, after all.

I really only posted the info because it fit in nicely with the genre we were discussing.

Post by **dasein668** » Fri Sep 17, 2004 11:07 am

Definitely fits in.

Actually, it is a great example of how subtle things can make all the difference in the world on a boat.

It's very close, but it ultimately misses the mark for me.

Figment · Post by **Figment** » Mon Sep 20, 2004 10:19 am

This Friendship 40 was striking, but I managed to pass by it at least twenty times over the course of three days, and I must say that the more I saw it the less I liked it.

I dislike the reliance on electric winches and everything-furling.
I dislike the cockpit that's overly spacious... designed for drinking, not sailing.
I dislike that the boom is a good 10' over the cockpit.

Everything about it just seemed a bit out of scale. Like it was designed at 35', then scaled-up 15% because NOBODY would buy a $750,000 35-footer. ;)

Clearly, I'm not their target buyer!

Figment · Post by **Figment** » Mon Sep 20, 2004 10:27 am

I absolutely agree that the Morris needs a varnished wood house. The market would never support that, of course, but I still absolutely agree.

As for lowering the freeboard.... man, there's BARELY "sitting headroom" down there as it is. Modern hullforms just aren't as deep as the true classics, the sole is probably only 14" below the waterline.

Another strange detail..... The sheet (singular) for the self-tending jib is lead to a turning block on a traveler forward of the mast, then UP into the mast at a turning block that's about 15' above deck, then down inside the mast, exiting below deck, runs around the cabin and exits at a clutch near the port cockpit winch. That's one REALLY convoluted run of sheet just to keep the deck so blessedly uncluttered.

I wonder about the boat's downwind performance. I saw no spinnaker gear. True-classic knockabouts with gaff rigs didn't really need spinnakers for downwind work because of the monstrous billowy acreage of the mainsail. With a high-aspect marconi rig.... I rather think that you'd want a foresail larger than the 90% blade. which will be all-but-useless downwind because of the narrow traveler.

Despite all of the above.... the boat had a beautiful feel to it. (sitting at the dock at a boat show).

Post by **Tim** » Mon Sep 20, 2004 10:59 am

But then again, the people who buy these "luxury" sailboats aren't really the most diehard of sailors, typically, so they don't tend to be the type to set chutes and worry about that sort of thing. You can't set a chute with only hydraulic controls, after all! It takes real work. (hehe...)

Boats like these are all about looks, style, doing better than the Joneses, and feeling smug in the knowledge that you spent more on your toy than anyone you know (except your neighbor, who will surely "have to" have one as soon as he sees yours--and so it goes). And also to guarantee that you have to spend more time at the office to pay for it in the first place.

Having not seen the boat in person, I can't comment on the details. I think hydraulic electric controls on a 40' boat are a little silly and don't see why manual controls wouldn't be just fine (and in fact, the hydraulic toys are options anyway). But perhaps if I were 55 and a millionaire, and used to having everything done for me, I might feel differently.

None of this is to minimize the detailing of the yacht, which does appear to be superb.

About the Morris 36:

Figment wrote:I absolutely agree that the Morris needs a varnished wood house. The market would never support that...

Just curious: why do you think the market would not support that? Again, our target market is people who can (and do) afford to hire out all maintenance tasks.

Figment · Post by **Figment** » Mon Sep 20, 2004 11:51 am

Good point.

Perhaps I'm still a bit chafed after spending a whole weekend overhearing people say things like "man, that's a BEAUTIFUL boat! nice and clean, no wood, just beautiful!!"

Blasphemers. I was surrounded by blasphemers and philistines.

I can't knock the Friendship when it comes to detailing and craftsmanship. As you said... superb. There's never a doubt about where that $750000 was spent.

Post by **dasein668** » Mon Sep 20, 2004 1:23 pm

Figment wrote: Another strange detail..... The sheet (singular) for the self-tending jib is lead to a turning block on a traveler forward of the mast, then UP into the mast at a turning block that's about 15' above deck, then down inside the mast, exiting below deck, runs around the cabin and exits at a clutch near the port cockpit winch. That's one REALLY convoluted run of sheet just to keep the deck so blessedly uncluttered.

Actually, that's arguably the best way to run a sheet for a self-tacking jib. It doesn't have anything to do with reducing clutter (the up the mast part?not the down and then below decks stuff... that part really is silly!), but actually improves the way that the car tacks. When I started sailing on Palawan he had his self-tacker set up so that it didn't run up the mast and when beating with the jib fully sheeted in, the car would not really self-tack. I would have to go foraward and assist in order to get the car to go all the way across the deck, and it would always creep back in like 10 inches or so. I don't know the exact mechanics, but it has to do with load angles, I think. Once we changed to sheet lead to run up the mast she would fly across as though it were a zero-friction system.

Post by **Tim** » Mon Sep 20, 2004 3:59 pm

Figment wrote:I dislike that the boom is a good 10' over the cockpit.

It's good if you're an NBA star, though!

Figment · Post by **Figment** » Mon Sep 20, 2004 4:17 pm

AHA!!! so THAT's the target buyer!!! the multimillionaire NBA player who retires and thinks to do a bit of sailing.....

Post by **Tim** » Mon Sep 20, 2004 5:00 pm

Of course, that brings to mind a very Non-PC joke that I shall not repeat here. But it's the title of one of the world's shortest books....

Post by **dasein668** » Wed Nov 03, 2004 9:53 pm

Just got home from the in-laws where I was leafing through a copy of SAIL or SAILING or some such and came across a series of "reviews" of the Morris 36, the Friendship 40, and the Hinkley DS42. From the pics in the mag, the Friendship is definitely the nicest looking from the outside. The Hinckley is pretty sweet too, and definitely has the nice fit and finish down below. The Morris 36 just looked wrong to me. (See my earlier comments about that on this thread.) The pics of the Morris just emphasized my earlier feelings.

Of course, the Hinckley and the Friendship are in the 3/4 million range, while you can have a Morris 36 for a 'mere' 275K....

Sheesh.