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From: Faure, Marin (no email)
Date: Wed Feb 01 2006 - 17:14:21 EST
>Rich wrote: I notice that GB has ceased production of the 42-foot
model. I'm not sure about the 32- and 36-footers that along with the 42
placed them in the market position they enjoy today. Instead of just
calling our boats "older" models, GB, as it moves into its new
generation is referring to us old farts as the "Heritage" models.
Production of the GB32 ceased in (I think) the late 1980s or early 90s.
The GB36 was discontinued the first time in the later '90s, but it was
revived for a short while a few years later before being discontinued
for good. The dilemma both models posed to the manufacturer was that
the quality of the materials and workmanship that went into the boats
eventually forced their prices higher than the market was willing to pay
for a 32 or 36 foot boat. A Grand Banks is a very well designed and
built boat, but it got to the point where a potential buyer could get a
32 or 36 foot trawler with very good quality from other manufacturers
for a substantial amount less than a Grand Banks. Grand Banks did
re-introduce the GB36 in the late '90s but in an "economy" version.
Little or no exterior wood, minimal accessories, lower-cost interiors,
and I believe all of them were single engine unless the buyer specified
a twin. But the boat still wasn't competitive price-wise, and by then
most GB buyers wanted larger boats anyway. So after a short run, the
GB36 was discontinued once and for all.
While the so-called "Heritage" Grand Banks boats from 32 to 52 feet are
great boats, technology and hull design have advanced to the point where
to remain competitive, Grand Banks had to make some changes. The
Eastbay was one direction to go, a completely different kind of boat
from their traditional trawlers. At the upper end, the company
introduced the Grand Aleutian line for the folks with the really big
bucks. The new GB44 represents the company's new direction in
trawler-type boats. Interestingly, a recent article in Passagemaker
quoted the Grand Banks CEO as saying that their next boat is likely to
be an "entry level" Grand Banks, possibly a 36' model. However, this
boat would take advantage of the new developments in technology and
efficiency (whatever those might be).
What's particularly interesting is that he said this boat is likely to
be assembled in the US. Grand Banks boats are made by installing
complete, pre-assembled cabin modules into the hull. It's far cheaper,
the CEO said, to ship the modules around than the completed boats.
Since the US and Canada are Grand Banks largest markets, the feeling is
that it will be more cost-effective in the long run to make the new
36-footer's modules in the company plants in Singapore and Malaysia and
ship them to the US for installation into the hulls than to ship the
completed boats from Singapore or Malaysia. One of the potential
locations he mentioned for the US assembly plant was Washington State.
I assume the hull of the new model would be made here.
"Heritage" has become a popular, politically-correct term to use for
anything old or out of production, be it computing systems, airplanes,
or boats. (At Boeing we refer to our heritage model 737s, 747s, etc.,
versions of these planes that have been superseded by the most modern
version). The naming police seem to feel that "heritage" implies the
product is still good even though it may be out of production. The more
logical among us simply say "old."
______________________________
C. Marin Faure
GB36-403 "La Perouse"
Bellingham, Washington
[demime 1.01d removed an attachment of type application/ms-tnef which had a name of winmail.dat]
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