Some needful reading, a postcard from Mars, and the sound of a wolf...
So, a friend dropped me a line because he was thinking of taking advantage of a very good deal on a Fantasia but was somewhat concerned with the amount of negative input he was getting from just about everyone he'd broached the idea to.
Most of the negative reaction seemed to center on the three themes of it being too small, too old, and too cheap.
For those unacquainted with the Fantasia it is a Jeanneau design by Philippe Harlé and
I have written about the design from time to time.
The boat in question is the shoal draft (2'6") version and is going for very cheap. At just over 27" and with a beam of nearly 10' it packs a lot of comfortable living space into a small envelope. It sails well and many have crossed oceans without problems.
What's not to like?
As for being too small, I'll go on record and say that the Fantasia is what I term as a big little boat which is because it has a much bigger interior than a lot of older designs in the 30- 35 foot zone. It's better laid out than a lot of bigger boats so there is a more efficient use of space. I'm 6'5" and I have always been surprised how much room I have when inside.
The Fantasias were well built and have held up very well. Sure an older boat will require some work but, since it's a smaller boat, the budget for any needful rehab or improvements will be reasonable and won't break your budget.
An older Fantasia might be cheap but, from where I sit, that's a good thing. Fact is that an older boat should be cheap and if you follow any of the YouTube "I just bought a boat and I'm going to throw money at it" channels you'll see a lot of folks buy too expensive old boats and then spend silly money ripping all the stuff that reflected the higher price out only to replace it with even more expensive stuff. The question is not whether to buy or not buy a cheap boat it really should be whether to buy a good or bad boat...
In my mind an expensive bad boat is a lot worse than a cheap good boat every time.
Just do the math...
Listening to Jupiter & Okwess
So it goes...
