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pilothouse king

pilothouse king

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USA
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15' Hobie Power Skiff w/90hp Yamaha-owned 28 years. Also a 2001 Bayliner 3788 that I took in trade
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Nice boat indeed! Although that swim platform has me confused, it looks like half a swim platform, and the other half has a Pasarelle, interesting.
 
Menorquin

Here is a link to the builders home page. Open for business in Spain.

Really a good looking boat and the engines look like someone cared for it too.
 
Thats a really good looking boat!

I love the downeast style, and the woodwork looks first class!
 
I think passagemaker did a article on those boats a few years back...they looked really impressive.
The woodwork looks great...the only negative are the green engines..I have a green monster... not a real fan.
Hollywood
 
When I was first cutting my teeth as a broker I worked for the brokerage who imported that very boat. They never did sell it and went out of business last year after 33yrs. The boat is beautiful but US buyers were not interested. The boat also is very, very thirsty. The price was 400k if memory serves.
 
Certainly.
Menorquin is a model coming from the general design called as "LLaud" in Spain in Balearic islands (Menorca) and is very well known.
Initial models were totally open for fishing.
They have been making many derivatives to improve her abilities for comfort and planning in order to improve speed in the full displacement hull with some sort of "V" transom hull and swim platform. This is why transom is strange as are attachments to the original design.
They are very reputated for seaworthiness and good finish and you can see many of them in Valencia and Balearic islands in Spain.

Menorca Island waters are difficult as you have sudden gales with waves up to three meters in minutes. This is coming from the west winds running between the Pyrenees and Alps mountains, making the Gulf of Leon to be known as one of the most dangerous areas in the Mediterranean, and Menorca is just straight tin that wind jet.

Big cruisers ships like "Explorer of the seas", etc are cautious when coming from Genoa to Barcelona as the voyage could be very uncomfortable for the passengers due to cross seas.

Generally foreigners believe that the Mediterranean is a calmed sea, and this is wrong.
Generated waves are high in amplitude and very short in length, avoiding the boat to recover from the initial wave and crashing in the base of the following one.

You can see this in my video in youtube,

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=gb+42+mediterranean&sm=12
 
I looked at Menorquins closely about 6-8 years ago (the 40 and 43 ft models), and took one for a sea trial. I also looked at a very similar Llaud made by another company, Myabca, of which very few were sold in the U.S. (I may have been on the only one imported).

I echo alberto's comments. They are beautiful, well-made boats, with breathtaking interiors. The interior wood craftsmanship was the finest I've ever seen on a 'production' boat. They were also very solidly built, solid glass. Even the superstructures had no real 'core' material, but used heavily saturated glass coremat. The boats felt like they were hewn from a solid piece of steel, very reassuring.

The performance of the boats was a little strange. As alberto said, the Llaud hull was originally intended as a double-ended full displacement hull, at which I suspect it excelled. In order to gain speed, both Menorquin and Myabca added extensive, structural swim platforms which were really flat section hull extensions (molded in with the Meorquin, and bolted on with massive 'pipes' on the Myabca). With twin engine power, the newly added flat after sections allowed the boats to semi-plane, getting speeds in the high teens.

They have a LOT of exterior wood. It's gorgeous when freshly varnished, but a lot of time would be spent keeping it up.

The one I sea trialed handled short steep waves extremely well, no pounding whatsoever, a very smooth and stable ride. But, it was a fuel hog, and threw a big wake at above displacement speeds, suggesting that the hull form was not particularly efficient at those speeds (which is not surprising, as it is a displacement hull modified and pushed to semi-planning speeds).

I liked them very much. But, since we tend to cruise at semi-displacement speeds most of the time (14-16 kts), the Menorquin would have been very thirsty. I think if someone cruises at displacement speeds most of the time, and uses the planning speeds only occasionally, they could be a fabulous boat.
 
They are strange. And probably very inefficient as they are a modification of a FD fishing boat. Many people put a plastic thing (fin) on the cavitation plate of an OB to reduce stern squat. These boats have a similar thing (board, panel, plate) attached to the stern at approx WL. The idea is to give the boat semi planing capabilities. It works somewhat well. But I suspect that a SD hull designed for the purpose would be much more efficient.

But the Spanish builder builds beautiful boats that are probably as sound as they are beautiful. There are lots of people that tend to like unique things so on that plane I'm surprised it didn't sell. That explains why they fell off the map.
 
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The most famous manufacturer in this area is Belliure.
They are very reputated for sailboats, but also in the last year offer a sort of fast trawler top quality, better than menorquins and with original design.
Belliure | Tras la estrella
 
I also looked at two of these boats in our search for our first trawler. They were gorgeous boats, low profile, heavy and solid. Machinery spaces on the smaller versions, from what I recall, were very tight. There is a 52 here in Sarasota. The keel looks like something off a Viking ship, and beamy, wow. Everything about the boat looks and feels massive. The Volvo is a good engine, but I didn't want to be married to Volvo with those twins.
 
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I saw one years ago at a boat show I didn't go aboard, I beileve it was smaller than 52' it looked very well finished the "swim platform" looked strange to me. To me the pictures in the OP the interiror make it look tight for a 52' boat.
 
I really like it.

I am also quite happy to see a trend having developed whereby the price range where I will be looking when it's time to buy puts me into some very nice vessels.
 
Exactly.
Standards in wood, design and layout are below GB.
In fact some of them at moorings, feel very curious making questions about GB, as there are no many trawlers in Spain
 
Endurance said:
I looked at Menorquins closely about 6-8 years ago (the 40 and 43 ft models), and took one for a sea trial. I also looked at a very similar Llaud made by another company, Myabca, of which very few were sold in the U.S. (I may have been on the only one imported).

...

They have a LOT of exterior wood. It's gorgeous when freshly varnished, but a lot of time would be spent keeping it up.
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I've seen at least two here on the Chesapeake. One is (I think) a 39' at Herrington Harbour North, and the other (I think slight larger) was at the Hyatt in Cambridge when we were last there. I spoke with the owners of the second, and they really liked it. I thought kind of odd-looking, since the swim platforms jar the lines of the canoe stern. Wonderful wood work, but I expect that'd be boatloads of maintenance.

Endurance, I think I've seen you in our marina, maybe just prior to your most recent cruise southward? Hope you're doing well...

-Chris
 
MC Escher said:
I really like it.

I am also quite happy to see a trend having developed whereby the price range where I will be looking when it's time to buy puts me into some very nice vessels.
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That "trend" is called time, and depreciation. The longer you wait to buy, the cheaper machines will be as time is ticking on, and used machines (unless classic cars) don't go up in price. What cost $800k new in 2000 sold for $450k by 02, and $190k by 2013. Old Hatteras's and Rolls Royces, which cost a fortune new- are begging on the market now. I just sent my mother comps for recent sold Rolls Royces because she thinks her furniture she bought new in the 60s is valuable. NOT. Along with Silver being at $20.00 an ounce and gold at $1255., as a reminder her Silver isn't worth much either.
The gamble is: Will you even get the time to buy, as nobody knows when their time is up. Saddest thing I see (and I've seen it hundreds of times over the past 30 years I've owned my Brokerage) is guys waiting to buy when: "Kids graduate from college, Kids get a job, daughter get's married and moves away, win the lotto, AND waiting to retire". Then I later see the widow (only twice ever the widower)who tells me "it was so sad, Bob died last year". Poor bastards worked their whole lives, waiting to live the dream (gonna buy a motorcycle, gonna buy a motorhome, gonna buy a boat) and didn't do anything but leave their wives rich. How do I meet the widows? They show up with new younger boyfriend and buy a boat with 'Bob's' insurance. Thanks Bob! lol
As I heard a Jewish Broker YELL at a Pilot he was showing a boat to right after 9/11.. "You know what those pilots on those planes would had told you? BUY THE BOAT-I WISH WE COULD! (yeah that was ballsy, but he made a good point)
As a disclaimer.. I got lucky- one day in my mid 20's I was coming back from sailing on Lake Lanier (north of Atlanta) and stopped at a little country store to get some (more) beer on the way home, an old timer in overalls saw my Top Sider shoes, and said "a young man like you shouldn't waste your life up here going in circles on a lake, go down to the Ocean, where you can go some place". I went home told the wife "Bobby Jo, a angel just instructed me to move back to New Orleans!" and the rest is history. Thanks old man!! (he looked just like the geezer in the bank during the robbery scene in the movie Raising Arizona) Better young and playing (research) than working! It worked out fine.
 
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Your preaching to the choir with me. I tell clients/lookers this very thing all the time. This is your life right now. The time is now you don't know there will be a tomorrow for you. "My only regrets are my economies".
 
Go small and go now.

All this talk about "passage makers" on the forum lately reminds me of a listing story Tucker Fallon shared. He had a guy listing his boat(sub 40' Carver aft cabin I think) and the guy mentioned pair of water makers on board as equipment. He asked where he had been on the boat and he said South America and back.
 
healhustler said:
The keel looks like something off a Viking ship, and beamy, wow...

...The Volvo is a good engine, but I didn't want to be married to Volvo with those twins.
Click to expand...

:ermm: Cognitive dissonance! Love the viking, hate the vikings.
 
pilothouse king said:
That "trend" is called time, and depreciation. The longer you wait to buy, the cheaper machines will be as time is ticking on, and used machines (unless classic cars) don't go up in price. What cost $800k new in 2000 sold for $450k by 02, and $190k by 2013. Old Hatteras's and Rolls Royces, which cost a fortune new- are begging on the market now. I just sent my mother comps for recent sold Rolls Royces because she thinks her furniture she bought new in the 60s is valuable. NOT. Along with Silver being at $20.00 an ounce and gold at $1255., as a reminder her Silver isn't worth much either.
The gamble is: Will you even get the time to buy, as nobody knows when their time is up. Saddest thing I see (and I've seen it hundreds of times over the past 30 years I've owned my Brokerage) is guys waiting to buy when: "Kids graduate from college, Kids get a job, daughter get's married and moves away, win the lotto, AND waiting to retire". Then I later see the widow (only twice ever the widower)who tells me "it was so sad, Bob died last year". Poor bastards worked their whole lives, waiting to live the dream (gonna buy a motorcycle, gonna buy a motorhome, gonna buy a boat) and didn't do anything but leave their wives rich. How do I meet the widows? They show up with new younger boyfriend and buy a boat with 'Bob's' insurance. Thanks Bob! lol
As I heard a Jewish Broker YELL at a Pilot he was showing a boat to right after 9/11.. "You know what those pilots on those planes would had told you? BUY THE BOAT-I WISH WE COULD! (yeah that was ballsy, but he made a good point)
As a disclaimer.. I got lucky- one day in my mid 20's I was coming back from sailing on Lake Lanier (north of Atlanta) and stopped at a little country store to get some (more) beer on the way home, an old timer in overalls saw my Top Sider shoes, and said "a young man like you shouldn't waste your life up here going in circles on a lake, go down to the Ocean, where you can go some place". I went home told the wife "Bobby Jo, a angel just instructed me to move back to New Orleans!" and the rest is history. Thanks old man!! (he looked just like the geezer in the bank during the robbery scene in the movie Raising Arizona) Better young and playing (research) than working! It worked out fine.
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Agreed. I wouldn't spend two or three years of my life looking for a boat to use (unless I've already got one). That said, I look at boats akin to bicycles; buy the frame, everything else is (and will be) replaceable. Buy a good hull and you can make it your own.
 
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Northern Spy said:
Agreed. I wouldn't spend two or three years of my life looking for a boat to use (unless I've already got one). That said, I look at boats akin to bicycles; buy the frame, everything else is (and will be) replaceable. Buy a good hull and you can make it your own.
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Dang...I was close to that theory!

I bought a good engine and rebuilt the hull, decks, cabin and just about everything else around the 2 year old, rebuilt Lehman...:facepalm:

You are correct though..I have the same philosophy...I just screwed up not checking the hull more carefully...and unfortunately trusted the surveyor.
 
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It's a very flat vee bottom grafted onto traditional topsides....not a happy marriage and far from what I would consider seaworthy. Fine for a calm day and flat water.

Menorquin.JPG
 
Spy,
"Buy a good hull and you can make it your own"

That's about what we did and it worked well. Can't blame the PO for much of anything as most of it's my doing.
 
Spent four months looking for my boat. Ended up purchasing a new boat, a simpler (but more expensive and lengthy: eight months from order to delivery in my case) process than buying one used. ... In that regard, I've just hired a company to pump out the Coot's black-water box: nasty business sucking stinkies.
 
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Buying a hull and making her your own

This is a good way to end up with a really expensive old boat. I just spent three months helping finish just such a project. The owner and wife had spent four years non stop trying to complete a restore of a Gulfstar 50' sailboat. The owner a pretty talented craftsman finally decided that he would rather be cruising than spending the next year or two working on his boat. Building a boat this way has to be your hobby because it makes no sense cost wise. If you factor in your time working on the boat that you could use earning money at your job, the cost of retail pieces for your project, the learning curve mistakes that get to be redone. Even if your buy the parts at a huge discount they are nowhere nearly as cheap as the used parts installed and working on a used boat. I believe buying a boat in the best shape you can afford and maintaining what breaks as you use it makes far more sense. You get to use the boat immediately, and you only need to fix what is necessary to use it safely. If you have the talent to take on a project as complex as rebuilding a large boat than you certainly have the talent to maintain one. How many boat adds include the owner had just spent some ridicules amount of money on a refit, and for a fraction of the cost the whole boat can be yours. The home built Bebe trawler in Lodi is just such a case. The owner builder had so much time and money invested in his boat he couldn't accept the actual valve of his boat, he probably still can't. I'm starting another sailboat this week, the owner is in love with a thirty year old 30' sailboat, he just had the hull the whole boat stripped and gel-coated. The engine replaced. and I'm going to install teak decks and redo the interior teak. The rig and sails will need attention as well. Do you think it makes sense? You tell me.
 
Scary said:
How many boat adds include the owner had just spent some ridicules amount of money on a refit, and for a fraction of the cost the whole boat can be yours.
Click to expand...

That describes our boat perfectly. The PO (whom I'm now good friends with) sold us the boat for less than 20 cents on the dollar not counting any of his time. Fresh from total refit.

If I can duplicate that, we will upgrade, Until that time we'll continue to enjoy what we have.
 
But if looking for something in particular and on a certain budget and time frame...sometimes you have a heck of a compromise on your hands.

I have done what most people consider a huge makeover while living aboard and have put over 4000 miles on her in the 3 years I have owned her.
 
Re the huge stern platform on the Menorquin, Bill Parletore commented that it is the only boat he knows of that comes with its own dock.
 
ranger42c said:
I've seen at least two here on the Chesapeake. One is (I think) a 39' at Herrington Harbour North, and the other (I think slight larger) was at the Hyatt in Cambridge when we were last there. I spoke with the owners of the second, and they really liked it. I thought kind of odd-looking, since the swim platforms jar the lines of the canoe stern. Wonderful wood work, but I expect that'd be boatloads of maintenance.

Endurance, I think I've seen you in our marina, maybe just prior to your most recent cruise southward? Hope you're doing well...

-Chris
Click to expand...

Hi Chris, thanks for reaching out! Yes, we were at Herrington Harbor earlier this year, our first stop on a little 10 day trip down the bay. We also went to Tangier Island, Smith Island, and Solomons. Hope all is well with you too!
 
psneeld said:
But if looking for something in particular and on a certain budget and time frame...sometimes you have a heck of a compromise on your hands.
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Exactly right :thumb::thumb:

An experienced and well seasoned boater such as you is uniquely qualified to take a chance on something I would pass on. I've met too many folks who decided on a fixer upper boat based only upon purchase price that later discover the cost of renovation and repair is directly proportional to their time/ability to do the work.

I feel sorry for a couple of miserable trawler owners I've met that bought something they should have passed on. Our budget left us with a wide selection of project boats in our initial size range. My hobby is boating not renovating so our compromise was to purchase a smaller boat that met our current needs better anyway.

Time frame did not apply as ours is strictly recreational use only. Time is a definite factor for those whom live aboard.
 
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