Sail to Trawler - Gone with the Wynns opens the floodgates???

[mvweebles]

Sailing channel Gone with the Wynns is one of the most popular YouTube channels in the business. A couple years ago, they decided to partner with hi-end and hi-tech sail cat builder HH. It was a disaster and they've been un-boated for almost a year.

Turns out their next boat might be a trawler. See this episode from a month ago - they have not announced their final decsion. They mention stepping on several Nordhavns - the wife's thumbs-up is the Nordhavn 63 which also impressed me when I was aboard one last year (@guy with a boat has a N63 but I'm not sure it's the same layout).

Sailors have migrated to sailing cat's for 2-decades. If GWTW move to a trawler, could really open the floodgates. They are well known, well travelled, and well respected.

Something to think about......

Peter

 

[sean9c]

I tried to watch their latest video but as usual I struggle to get to the end. At least from what I saw they haven't said what boat they bought. So are we assuming it's a powerboat?

 

[mvweebles]

I fast forward too. Sounds like they've made an offer and are working through the sales contract. And it does sound like it's a trawler ("expedition yacht" is the term they've latched on to). I'd bet it's a Nordhavn - PAE has the scale and the marketing prowess to deal with something like this. This would swing a lot of boats their way over a 5-year period.

Time will tell. I don't watch sailing channels anymore but I'll keep an eye on this.

Peter

 

[Wtrguy]

I certainly hope a bunch of folks don't start looking for boats in our price range just yet?

 

[lwarden]

I've really tried to watch a Gone With the Wynns videos many times and I just can't make it to the end. I don't know what it is about those two, but I just find them both so annoying.
And I'm usually such an agreeable fellow, ask my wife

 

[slowgoesit]

If I were selling a new boat to the Wynns, I'd go through that boat from start to finish with a fine tooth comb, and ensure that EVERYTHING was in perfect working order. Just ask HH how it worked out for them to sell someone with the following of the Wynns a boat that was, shall we say, not yet ready for prime time . . .

Word of mouth, from personal experience, can be the very best, or the absolute worst advertising you can possibly get in any business!

 

[lwarden]

If I were selling a new boat to the Wynns, I'd go through that boat from start to finish with a fine tooth comb, and ensure that EVERYTHING was in perfect working order. Just ask HH how it worked out for them to sell someone with the following of the Wynns a boat that was, shall we say, not yet ready for prime time . . .

Word of mouth, from personal experience, can be the very best, or the absolute worst advertising you can possibly get in any business!

This seems to be playing out for several YouTube bloggers. Sailing La Vagabond had issues with both their Outramer catamaran as well as their latest Rapido trimaran, some issues made the brands look pretty bad IMO, but they refrained from bashing the brand in both cases. The Corsair trimaran that Tula's Endless Summer also had numerous build issues. They tried to keep the criticism of the brand down, but I think it took a pretty solid hit. The Wynns took a different approach and really torched the HH brand. Delos has a hand in building their new trimaran so if there are issues, I suspect they only have themselves to blame, and Brian is not the blaming type anyway.

 

[heysteve]

I don't know what it is about those two, but I just find them both so annoying.

Maybe it's their bubbly personalities which contrast so starkly with our natural curmudgeonly personalities. And... I'd mention how the guy's haircut bugs me, but I don't want to seem superficial

 

[hollywood8118]

Maybe it's their bubbly personalities which contrast so starkly with our natural curmudgeonly personalities. And... I'd mention how the guy's haircut bugs me, but I don't want to seem superficial

They are a pair ..
Its her goofy glasses that bug me..
Most ( but not all) boating bloggers tend to make boaters look bad in some light. Often they seem to jump around to the next fad as their popularity wains, from rv's to boats to van life to homesteading or whatever. I guess its whatever keeps followers interested. Yacht companies that deal with bloggers must have some form of contract to keep them from getting bashed if all doesn't go well.. Even the best builders suffer from QC issues.
HW

 

[lwarden]

If you really want to be annoyed by YouTubers, try out the Boomershines...
The wife is like nails on the chalkboard to me.

 

[Jeff F]

... PAE has the scale and the marketing prowess to deal with something like this. This would swing a lot of boats their way over a 5-year period.

I don't watch any of these videos, so am completely ignorant.

Are you suggesting that Nordhavn would heavily discount the boat for them in exchange for their promotion of the boat in their series?

 

[ksanders]

I don't watch any of these videos, so am completely ignorant.

Are you suggesting that Nordhavn would heavily discount the boat for them in exchange for their promotion of the boat in their series?

Youtubers live off of three sources of revenue.

1. Advertising that youtube inserts this is pay per click, and pay per view, in reality just like TF.
2. Patron This is a service where you "donate" a fixed amount, normally a couple dollars per episode. Imagine if you had for example 5,000 people each donating $2.00 per week for your episode.
3. Product endorsements. You see this everywhere.

I would imagine that a boat manufacturer would significantly discount a boat when they know that every week a half million people would observe just how great their boat is.

Another source of revenue is "go fund me" this is a service where you create a need and people donate. Another youtube channel "Project Atticus" had a serious problem with their 30' sail boat and needed to upgrade. They created a gofund me account, and solicited donations for their new boat. They raised over $100,000 US Dollars in just a few weeks.

 

[mvweebles]

I don't watch any of these videos, so am completely ignorant.

Are you suggesting that Nordhavn would heavily discount the boat for them in exchange for their promotion of the boat in their series?

If I were PAE, that's exactly what I would do. What better way to tap-into the aging sailboat owner market that latch-on to a popular YouTube couple? PAE has a history of bold marketing maneuvers that have served them well. N40 Around-the-World gig; the Atlantic Rally. Maybe there are some others.

Peter

 

[DDW]

For almost anything on Youtube, and certainly boating vlogs, I go to settings and turn the playback speed up. Almost everything there can benefit from 1.5x playback, a lot of them 2x, beyond that you might as well hit pause and go to some better use of time.

The idea of editing for brevity has escaped almost all of these "influencers". Will Prouse does a decent job of this, not a lot of fluff and dead time, and you can see the many cuts he has made to do that if you watch closely. Even so, most of his can be watched at 1.5x without missing anything.

 

[sean9c]

I'm thinking PAE already has a strong enough reputation and following that they're not going to be interested in giving those 2 knobs anything.

 

[Frosty]

For almost anything on Youtube, and certainly boating vlogs, I go to settings and turn the playback speed up. Almost everything there can benefit from 1.5x playback, a lot of them 2x, beyond that you might as well hit pause and go to some better use of time.

Agree. I consider 1.25x to be the default speed. 1.5x or 2x for faster playback and less agony.

For quick skipping where you want to be able to re-engage as soon as you get past one draggy section, you can (at least on my setup) hold the spacebar down and it will play at 2x until you let the spacebar back up. You can see it go zipping by so you know when to re-engage.

For the opposite scenario, you can pause and use the left and right "carats" (same keys as comma and period) to go frame by frame in either direction. Or left and right arrow to advance or retard by 5 seconds.

But of all those, the faster speed setting is the godsend.

Every once in awhile I find a video where I have to adjust back to normal speed. But not very often.

 

[RDJackso]

I'm jealous. Reminds me of the Dire Straits tune...Money For Nothing.

Hard to believe they can monetize their shtick, but these are the times we live (in). Apologies for ending my sentence with a preposition.

 

[Jeff F]

If I were PAE, that's exactly what I would do. What better way to tap-into the aging sailboat owner market that latch-on to a popular YouTube couple? PAE has a history of bold marketing maneuvers that have served them well. N40 Around-the-World gig; the Atlantic Rally. Maybe there are some others.

Interesting. I guess they'd have a decent marketing budget. If that's where their target market is hanging out it could be a smart move.

I used to be involved professionally in various measurements to evaluate marketing spend. But that was before the rise of influencers. Now I feel like a fossil...

 

[Mac2]

What do you think is going to happen to Bering yachts? Nautistyles, one of the more popular YouTube channels, is suing Bering for fraud. Why would any company screw over a YouTube channel with half a million followers? Not to mention word of mouth-TF has talked about this in another chat.

 

[GMS]

Speculation on line is that they purchased a Globalmaster 50 LRX that was up for auction. The Wynn's toured the boat in an episode a few weeks ago and they make references to an AL yacht in their latest video (and heading to Europe to sign paperwork on their purchase).

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I agree that many of their recent videos are a bit tough to get through, and they come off as sort of knowledgable but also rather naive.

If they did choose to go with the Globalmaster 50 LRX, seems like it could be another HH Catamaran experience, but without a builder standing behind it. I hope not, but there is likely a reason that boat was up for auction...

I do love the "look" of the Globalmaster and the concept of low-maintenance AL hull, but as discussed in other threads, the realities of a metal boat can be very different.

I am actually surprised that the Wynn's didn't go the Nordhavn route once they were introduced to the brand - it makes me question their research a bit.

They certainly have done a masterful job of gaining a following and keeping people entertained (which isn't an easy task).

 

[Jeff F]

I am actually surprised that the Wynn's didn't go the Nordhavn route once they were introduced to the brand - it makes me question their research a bit.

Maybe they wanted it, but couldn't get enough $$ from the company?

If they're professional influencers I wouldn't attach any normal rationale for their choice of boat.

 

[Mac2]

Maybe they wanted it, but couldn't get enough $$ from the company?

If they're professional influencers I wouldn't attach any normal rationale for their choice of boat.

I’ve noticed the sailing channels have an obsession over how fast they are going. I would not consider the Globemaster an expedition yacht. It was built for speed. Great for coastal cruising, but the light weight and semi displacement hull would not be my first choice in an expedition yacht.

 

[Jeff F]

I’ve noticed the sailing channels have an obsession over how fast they are going.

Maybe because the creators have been paid to promote fast boats?

I'm glad I don't watch them.

 

[tiltrider1]

I have sporadically watched the Wynn’s over the years. I think they are good YouTubers. I think they are still inexperienced boaters. So often I have seen them in predicaments that showed a lack of preparation. They speak authoritatively about things that the educated know to be wrong BUT, their audience doesn’t know so the video comes off as well done. I do admire them for running a good business even if they aren’t spreading the best information.

For them to go with PAE might be bad business. To keep their videos exciting they need some disasters so they can have some successes and failures to keep the audience In gaged. For PAE it would be good, they would be able to get in front of a whole new audience for cheap. Granted, this new audience would have a small percentage of conversions so it’s not worth much to PAE. It would be worth something none the less.

Frankly, I would be surprised if the went with PAE, not enough drama.

 

[GrandWood]

If you really want to be annoyed by YouTubers, try out the Boomershines...
The wife is like nails on the chalkboard to me.

For sure, two episodes ended it for me

 

[Jeff F]

Frankly, I would be surprised if the went with PAE, not enough drama.

PAE probably isn't looking for drama.

It may make them a tough sell for influencers. Really, there's endless PAE content out there for those that are looking. I'm not sure they need the Wynns just for brand promotion.

Probably a bad fit.

 

[Jeff F]

Knowing zero about the whole thing, my prediction is that they'll end up with some new brand that nobody's heard of.

 

[Jklotz]

Well, PAE got some good coverage from those 71 Percent guys. Now their N41 is sold. My guess is they will buy a bigger Nordhavn.

Problem with the bad press, if they get that, is there's really no shelf life or expiration to these videos. They will be posted for years to come. Video might be 10 years old, but if you haven't seen it before, it might as well be brand new.

 

[Jeff F]

PAE probably isn't looking for drama.

It may make them a tough sell for influencers. Really, there's endless PAE content out there for those that are looking. I'm not sure they need the Wynns just for brand promotion.

Probably a bad fit.

A much smarter spend for PAE might be buying space to insert their own brief message. Let the influencers bring the eyeballs, then maintain control over your brand with your own content. The old TV model.

Sorry, I've been thrown back to my work days. I retired when this was all getting started and am looking on as a complete outsider. Haven't missed it much.

 

[Jeff F]

Well, PAE got some good coverage from those 71 Percent guys. Now their N41 is sold. My guess is they will buy a bigger Nordhavn.

If they were spending their own money that might be a good guess.

If they're in it for the money then all bets are off...