Date: 4/16/2001
Name: Kyle Jacobson
email: sj21-2552@geocities.com
subject:New San Juans
I for one believe that there is still a market for this boat. Hunter just started making a 21 foot boat last year that is selling for around $12000 with a trailor.I haven't seen one up close but from the pictures I would rather have a new SJ21.I know that there are usually used Sj's available, But lets face it I haven't seen many sell that didn't need at least some work to go sailing. Some of our boats are showing some age. Not every potential sailboat owner is looking for a project either. There are always people that want something new that is ready to go now without having to spend hours fixing it. How many of us but new or newer cars instead of "project" cars?
In my humble opinion the long term future of the class would also be brighter with some new hardware. I 'm not sure how many hulls have been lost to damage, sinking, or just plain old age. As more boats are retired the less we have left to draw from for the class membership and good used boats will get harder to find.
An intersting comparison is the recent redesign of the Santana 20. They modernized the deck layout to "update" the boat but keep the hull unchanged. Part of the reason they did this was that the class "began to dwindle." In this case the class worked with the builder (WD Schock) to modernize the boat.
I'm not sure how many Santana 20's are out there but I suspect we have a more popular boat to begin with (with or with out a new deck). For interesting reading look at their website. www.s20.org The Sailing World review section has some good info.
How much excitement would be generated in your fleet if you had the first new sj21 in about 15 years?
The reasons that made this boat popular in the first place still exist. Things like fun/easy to sail, easy to trailor, easily rigged, active class organization etc..
Basically I would just like to more of these boats out there.
[Return to Harbor Messages | Create New/Followup Message]