That was sucker marketing spiel. They neither had any intention of selling one at that price, nor have they sold one at that price. The owner of the boat in question, as well as a couple of the owners with builds underway, have contributed in other forums and all of them are paying north of $700,000 for their boats. And that is special pricing for the first 4 orders - after which the price goes up.

Well, maybe not now...

In 2008, Manta was selling well-built and fully and obscenely loaded 42' boats for $500,000, so $700,000 today is not cutting corners to be inexpensive.

My point was that if corners were cut, I don't think it would have been in the two $1 bolts that were missing in the tiller arms. Those had to have been installation errors. Similarly, the leaking windows and lost steps were design errors - not cost cutting.

The rudders are just stupid - they made them themselves and it is obvious that both the webbing welds and the stock used were not sufficient for moderately heavy conditions. Again, this is design and implementation - not cost cutting. The price difference between 6' of 1.5" stock and 2" stock is miniscule. Maybe if they were a full production builder that was popping out 400/yr, then these types of nickel and dime stuff could add up to real change.

Mark