BCC - what would you pay?

BCC Forum
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This was a thread over on Cruisersforum.
http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/showthread.php?p=1438414#post1438414

My reply:
Quote:
Originally Posted by Jim Cate
IMO, the BCC has long been an overpriced item. It is attractive to traditionalists, and the build quality is generally good, but really…

We’ve known and cruised in company with several BCC’s. My personal observation is that they are not nearly as fast as their proponents claim, they are very wet in any kind of a seaway, and the accommodations are cramped, and engine access is poor, and…

But, the Lyle Hess cult is alive and well, and that seems to drive up the price. If the mystique is valuable to you, go right ahead and spend the money. If not, well, there are a lot of nice boats in that price range!

Cheers,

Jim
I didn’t buy my BCC because of the mystique or the Pardeys. I bought it because it was as well built as you can get and an excellent sea boat. The most comfortable and dry boat I have ever sailed on. I have no idea what BCC’s you have known, but your description is totally off base.

After working as professional skipper for 15 years I had a lot of experience on all kinds of vessels up to 85’. After owning a Lyle Hess design for 22 years (16 on an engineless 22 Falmouth, and now 6 on BCC ) there are few other vessels I would consider for myself.

Would I buy one again, you bet. Are the over priced, not really.
You must compare apples to apples.
People seem to focus on the 28’ number. This is the most erroneous number to judge the size of a vessel.
Compare the BCC to a Crealock 34
On deck length 28/34
Length waterline 26.25/26.25
Beam 10/10
Draft 4.83/4.92
Displacement 14000/13500
Ballast 4600/4800
Sail area 673/533

Oh, and the long bowsprit. You just need to knock out one wood fid and the whole thing slides inboard. So you only have to pay for 30’.

Keep in mind the displacement number. Probably one of the more important numbers in judging the size of a vessel. Note that the USCG issues licenses based on tonnage, not on length. Also custom boat builders usually base a bid for a custom build on the displacement. A price per pound as it were.

Now go price a Crealock 34
Pacific Seacraft Crealock 34 boats for sale - www.yachtworld.com

I also would bet big money that I would beat a Crealock 34 into port by 2-4 days on a passage from San Diego to Tahiti. And that could mean we beat a storm in, or get the last of the ice cream supply.

I have ridden out 3 hurricanes on my Falmouth, the small sister to the BCC. I was so confident in the construction that I went to bed just after the eye of a cat 3 past by. I was also in a very good hole.

So I would say, without reservation that the BCC is good value. Make no mistake, she is a serious sea boat, not a floating condo.

I’m I trying to sell my boat? Not in the least. If I can I will pass it on to my heirs.

Oh by the way, the price was CAN not USD, so take off 10,000

IMHO

Gary Shanti’s blog
“two wrongs don’t make a right, but three lefts will get you back on the freeway”

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Mr. Jim Cate has obviously never experienced a BCC in good weather.

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Mr. Jim Cate has obviously never experienced a BCC in good weather.

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Perhaps, a used 42 ft. Hunter or Beneteau is a better choice for Mr. Cate.

5

Don’t be so cruel Rod.

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My apology.

R

7

Well, son of a gun. Here’s Jim who is not impressed with the BCC. That’s okay. The BCC is not the end all of great sailing vessels. It does have it’s draw backs. It is heavy (and comfortable in a heavy sea). It’s not as fast as a light weight Catalina (I’ve owned one) nor as fast as a Beneteau in bay waters. It looks a little chunky with a beam of 10 feet to 28 on deck.

But back in the 70’s, before GPS, AIS, and all the other electronics turned loose the near-ready sailors who waited in harbors around the world until they could get every possible upgrade available before venturing offshore, I wanted a boat that I could trust to keep me alive when everything else turned to crap.

And I got it in a BCC from Sam Morse. A bare hull, number 22. My wife and I finished the boat except for an engine and left San Franciso two years later for New Orleans on the Gulf coast. We sailed her everywhere. Into the occasional marina and through some really serious weather…and the boat never once failed to perform on keeping us safe.

I can’t explain why we feel “safe” in our BCC more than any other vessel, even 72 footers, but our boat has never once failed to perform exactly what we asked of her.
Even when we though it was asking a lot of a strickly sailing vessel. (We now have an engine…missed too many beach parties for lack of wind).

We’ve lived aboard now for 33 years and now at 70 have no thoughts of moving ashore, despite a debilitating stroke. Trust me. Twenty-eight feet is plenty big enough; whether at sea (where handling is easy) or ashore (confortable so).

Is the BCC overpriced? Maybe to the general public. When I heard years ago that the latest boat sold for something like $250,000, I choked. We paid $12,000 for the bare hull in '77. We finished the boat and launched at something like $24,000.

But our BCC is part of us now. We will never sell her and when we pass we have a friend who we will give her to for free.

I continually hear of people who search for the perfect boat for themselves and always include the consideration of what they can re-sell it for. That’s economics, not a boat lover. I think they are nuts. They are treating sailing and trusting there lives to a financial consideration, the two which do not go together, IMHO.

So I say this to Jim. Go and live your life and I wish you well. You have already missed one of the most rewarding experiences you could have ever know.

And please don’t ‘dis’ the BCC.

1 Like
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Well, Jim, if you think the BCC’s are over priced now, contact Channel Cutter yachts in Port Townsend. That’s if you have a half a million to spare.
If you are worried about being wet, you probably shouldn’t venture onto a sailing yacht.
As far as speed goes, there is no way that a 26.3 foot water line is ever going to out pace a 35 foot boat in settled Bay sailing. However… my time from the Galapagos to the Marquesas (3000 nm) was 19 days and five hours. That’s an average speed of 6.504knots.
During my solo circumnavigation, Flyer, kept me warm and safe and dry.
It took me two years. Had I not stopped and talked to all the people that told me that she was the prettiest boat in the harbor, the voyage would have been considerably shorter.
Cost of building the boat: $100,000+
Time spent: 10,000 hrs.
Sailing her: priceless