by Daen on Thu Nov 07, 2013 6:12 pm
I assume this is a rhetorical question, since the lion's share of boats built since sail number 1800 or so would probably be glass, and my new number is 1979 so that is quite a lot! Obviously people do want glass boats and this seems to have coincided with a boom in class numbers.
As someone who is new to the Sabre, the availability of good quality glass boats (which are pretty much identical) was one of the main reasons to join the class. Wooden boats are actually very expensive in terms of the time commitment (I'd rather spend my time sailing than gluing and varnishing), and unless very well maintained they do not last as long. Less than half the cost of my new boat is in the hull anyway, so for someone like me who doesn't have time to spend winter building a wooden boat (even if I had the space to do it in!), there would be little difference in cost for a boat that does not last as long. I do agree that the wooden boats are beautiful, and that is always still an option.
And since every ply boat is a one-off, that is actually a lot more likely to lead to variations as people manipulate the tolerances. Taking a mould off a proven boat and making well-built versions available in glass is, in my view, a very good thing for the class and flattens the playing field.