The subject of the extinction of the traditional boat builders and designs of my youth (Pearson, Sabre, Tartan?, Hinckley?, O'Day, and many I don't remember) is an interesting subject. We owned a Pearson 39 yawl (Hull#16) for 24 years and she was all the boat we ever wanted. She took us where we wanted to go safely and she provided all the amenities we wanted at the time. This after owning 2 Pearson Ensigns and a Pearson 30. I was still working during those years. But when retirement presented itself we wanted to spend more than 2 week vacations aboard and we wanted to bring our dogs. So we took the heart wrenching step of deciding to sell our beloved yawl and go to a newer boat and design. We had not even thought about looking at boats at the boat shows. We had no idea what was out there. So off we went to brokers with our wants and needs. So they naturally led us to the big 4 of production sailboats-Hunter/Beneteau/Catalina/Jeanneau. This was during the dark financial days of 2007-8. So I asked, why them? Why aren't you showing us Sabres, Tartans, etc. Answer was of course price/availability/amenities. I never saw myself as a Hunter/etc owner. I was a traditional sailor. Many times we actually sailed to our destination in our P30 and P39. But when we started looking at Benes, Hunters, Catalinas, etc. we were totally blown away by the engineering, quality of construction (PH.D. ME here) and the amenities. Tons of stowage, huge tankage, first rate wiring and electrical panels, huge bunks, big and powerful engines, fridge and freezer, (we lugged block ice for all those years), oversize winches and first quality deck fittings, heat and A/C, and on and on. And good sailing performance with innovative rigs for old salts. We were literally overwhelmed by what we could buy in our price range. And comfort to boot. We saw everything we wanted/needed and it came down to fractional versus masthead, appeal of the galley and associated stowage, and factory extras. So we decided on Hunter and have no regrets after 8 years.

So here's what I think happened to the traditional guys in part at least. The big 4 of production boats just adapted to design and manufacturing technology much, much faster than the traditional builders and they looked at the demographics of their potential customer base. The traditional builders remained in high labor cost areas and maintained a very high level of craftsmanship required in assembly and fitting out. Thus their cost really priced them out of the production boat market. They were building a semi custom boat rather than a production boat. The big four substituted computers for hand fitting as in automobile design and fabrication. They targeted people like my wife and myself who were approaching or in retirement and wanted a sailboat but a sailboat that provided easy boarding, cockpit control of both sails, modest size headsails, and good performance under sail and power. Gone were the teak toe rails of my youth requiring backbreaking semiannual torture to keep the varnish intact, mysterious one off wiring and plumbing with hardly a drawing anywhere to help in troubleshooting, big headsails required to make any headway in light air, no ability to power into a sea when we had to get there, and so on. We loved our yawl (and still do) but we love our new girl as well.