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What brands from the 70s/80s would you resurrect?

Great Red Shark

Super Anarchist
8,485
696
Honolulu
What the Hell,  since I'm on a tear....

another good point made by Mr. Spurr (and the book is a good read,  go buy it if ya like tales)   is that the only guys to really make much money in the mass market (setting aside the high end) were either the motorboat guys like Glastron that offered "easy" financing on boat/engine/trailer packages (see:  the automotive model) and the guys like Frank Butler at Catalina that made nearly EVERYTHING themselves - no 'buying in' expensive stuff like hatches and masts for them,  nope - cut and weld raw tubing and have Jose' and Luis use the fiberglass off-cuts to make the hatch covers.

Making the investment in tooling was as much capitalization as lots of guys ever did,  and that doesn't even begin to deliver a finished boat.

 

some dude

Super Anarchist
4,177
171
This whole thread is just wishful thinking for the G.O.D.'s.

I doubt anyone here thinks it could happen in reality.
No I'd really like to have Barient back.  Camber Sails would be amusing to have back (or Windward Sails), but the 21st century world would never let either survive.

 

some dude

Super Anarchist
4,177
171
What the Hell,  since I'm on a tear....

another good point made by Mr. Spurr (and the book is a good read,  go buy it if ya like tales)   is that the only guys to really make much money in the mass market (setting aside the high end) were either the motorboat guys like Glastron that offered "easy" financing on boat/engine/trailer packages (see:  the automotive model) and the guys like Frank Butler at Catalina that made nearly EVERYTHING themselves - no 'buying in' expensive stuff like hatches and masts for them,  nope - cut and weld raw tubing and have Jose' and Luis use the fiberglass off-cuts to make the hatch covers.

Making the investment in tooling was as much capitalization as lots of guys ever did,  and that doesn't even begin to deliver a finished boat.
A place to put your factory may be a bit tougher too.  An acre in Costa Mesa today is a different investment than it was in 1960

 

Great Red Shark

Super Anarchist
8,485
696
Honolulu
As are environmental laws and tax rates.
What,  you don't want somebody smelting lead next to your kid's Elementary school ?      Fuckin' snowflake lib'ruls !!!  (EPA started by one Richard M. Nixon)   -   <this post is a joke>

 
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...

Much as I would love to see a modern production of my beloved Sonoma 30, I have to think a new one would be $ 60 grand, for the barest of boats, with no trailer,  pushing $100 nicely finished - right in the range of the Seascape27/FarEast28 - which are about as big, heavy & complex as the 1981 Sonoma (which were made in Petaluma, - marketing...).   I'm shocked.
When I bought my 47 year old boat a few years back the surveyor listed the market value as 35K. The estimated cost to replace new was given as $500,000. Kind of sums it up there. 

 

Great Red Shark

Super Anarchist
8,485
696
Honolulu
No.   I am NOT going to ask if you liked the taste of paint chips as a kid.  

Nope.  We are Better than that.  Be Best.  Yep.  Nothing to see here.

Moving along. 

 
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Rasputin22

Rasputin22
14,360
3,895
hard.jpg


 

Rasputin22

Rasputin22
14,360
3,895
More to that story

Wallace C. Ross purchased Hard Sails, Inc. in 1954 from a friend, William Hard. Ross had been an account executive at a local Long Island radio station and Hard Sails was one of his accounts.  Ross’s success at sailmaking came during the exploding yachting boom during the early 1960s when, coincidentally, synthetic materials were first available for the crafting of sails. Ross’s work in Dacron gave his staff a medium that held its shape, allowing for the application of aerodynamic theory to sailing. A material holding shape also allowed for relative mass production, especially when compared to the older, individual sailmaking techniques using Egyptian cotton. By the mid-1960s, Hard Sails was using a new device – the computer – to accelerate the design process.

At Hard Sails, Ross made sails for over one hundred national and international small-boat champions. These included many in the 12-Meter class, including champion yachts PhantomeWindigoTempest, and Ondine. Among Ross’ innovations were the radial spinnaker, the spherical spinnaker, and the ball-bearing traveler.

Hard sails was also widely known for their Hard Sails T-Shirts. They were not only popular with sailboaters but also presented provocative messaging for young males to wear  in clubs and taverns, beaches and wherever their normal social activities would stand out to start conversation with females. There were two basic shirts:

 

The Hard Sails Triangle logo was on the left front chest and with one of the following sayings on the back

“Sail with a Hard On”..as seen above, or

“A Hard Man is Good to Find”

As previously explained in the “Clothing with a Message” blog section was the following:

Also important was how you dressed, very important! It always amazed Blue Balls Gear that a T-shirt with a good solid message could be an attractant or maybe just an “ice-breaker” for male/female conversation. For example, there was a sail company in S. Florida that was called Hard Sails. Their T-shirt had the Hard Sails triangular logo and the motto “Sail with a Hard On!” across the back. Blue Balls Gear met more girls wearing that shirt than any Gant shirt and Bass Weejuns shoes could ever do. Hell, a pair of Levi cut-offs and a Hard Sails shirt should have been outlawed! It was like hunting in a “baited – field!” Blue Balls Gear wore that T-shirt until it virtually fell off the body from the rips, tears and holes in it……and that was years and years later.

The Hard Sail Company formed the basis of Blue Balls Gear  and is the driving force integrated in it’s business model……..”Clothing with a Message!”

 
We're still waiting to hear about your boat.

Or does it exist in the same world as your sex life?
We know your  severe cognitive  impairment makes life difficult for you but see the response to your question previously posted.

And seriously you are still trying to get a pic of my massive penis,. Is that why you got booted off that other forms? Sad to be you

Whoever is taking care of you needs to do a better job  

 

ryley

Super Anarchist
5,570
704
Boston, MA
Is it too late to talk about brands we wish were still around, like Freedom? or have we already devolved into name calling? Asking for a friend...

 

SloopJonB

Super Anarchist
71,032
13,852
Great Wet North
We know your  severe cognitive  impairment makes life difficult for you but see the response to your question previously posted.

And seriously you are still trying to get a pic of my massive penis,. Is that why you got booted off that other forms? Sad to be you

Whoever is taking care of you needs to do a better job  
So that's an "I can't because my boat only exists in the same fantasy world as my sex life"

 


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