Effective from 1st March 2003 Kip Marina has leased its new and used boat sales
activites to Peter's plc one of Europe's largest boat sales operations. Peters
will trade from Kip under the divisional name of Opal Marine and will provide
new boat sales for Bavaria, Legend and Island Packet Yachts together with the
Fairline and Rodman range of stinkboats.
The boys in the Kip brokerage are enthusiasts enough to know how to differentiate
between a fine sailing yacht design and a mere marketing chore and I reckon they
must be pretty disappointed to lose the Elan dealership. Hopefully Bill MacKay,
who helped develop the range in the first place, will be able to put together
some sort of local distribution for the Elan range.
In our opinion it's a bit of a comedown from Moody but the Bavaria range of yachts
will probably sell quite well at Kip given their remarkably low price (whether
they are cheap because of efficient production and not simply because they are
built down to a price remains to be seen). They are however targeted firmly at
the price conscious cruising market and nobody would dare suggest that they are
performance yachts. I hope for the sake of the future secondhand market that the
Kip sales team will at least try to persuade prospective owners to take any deep
keel options that happen to be going.
The Legend range is something else altogether. The first example (above) has arrived
in Kip already and is a bilge keel Legend 326. Judging by that specimen the American
designed Legend range appears to have been inspired by the style and grace of
the magnificent Cadillac Eldorado. To further the motoring analogy I was reminded
of the story about the famous Italian car designer (I think it was Guigaro) who
was invited to inspect the then new Triumph TR7 at the Geneva motor show. The
great man stood in silence for quite some time absorbing the profile while British
Leyland executives waited anxiously for his pronouncement. After a full 5 minutes
he had still said nothing . Then he walked round the back of the car and emerged
on the other side where he stopped dead in his tracks. The crowd were silent.
' Oh my God' he said. 'It's the same on this side as well.'
This is the cockpit of the Legend 326. Shaped like a paddling pool you can see
how well suited it is to West Coast cruising with a panel heater in front of the
binnacle (or it it a trouser press?) . Also those little seats hanging out the
back look fun although one would have thought that there would be space for a
proper heads inside. Wheel steering is standard as it is on even the smaller Bavarias
where tillers are not even an option. With a very large roach mainsail there is
no backstay; extremely aft swept spreaders and ungainly deck mounted struts being
deemed sufficient to keep the mast up. However what hadn't been fitted when this
photo was taken is the huge stainless steel cockpit gantry on top of which sits
the overhead traveller. Never mind, when the rain hood is rigged on that it is
impossible for the helmsman to look up and be reminded of the rig. On their website,
Opal Marine claim that the bilge keels amount to only a minor trade-off to the
fin which to me suggests either a great deal of wishful thinking or that the fin
version is also pretty poor.
It's hard to imagine a boat like this finding an owner in Scotland, even at a
low price. With a bit of luck it'll sit about for a while until everyone stops
staring in horror then it'll be trucked quietly southwards. Well maybe not. Meantime
it's worth remembering that you can buy a Jeanneau in Largs,a Beneteau in Ardrossan
or even a secondhand Moody at Kip.
