It takes an amazingly short time for Hanse Yachts to construct our new sailboat— they’re supposed to start putting it together in mid-November and get it ready just a bit over a month later! The impatiently waiting buyer, though, is waiting impatiently.
My mother isn’t helping. She keeps insisting we should just sell the boat before even receiving it. “Sailing is dangerous. There are much easier ways to get yourself killed“, she mutters, “and I have nightmares about it“, she sighs and looks at me a bit disappointedly.
(Inside my head I keep hearing this song from Tangled, beautifully sung by Donna Murphy.)
I don’t quite agree with my mother, but I do think that buying a sailboat is a somewhat crazy and emotional decision. There are much easier ways to do almost anything (including getting from A to B on water while admiring the scenery), but that’s not what it’s all about.
It’s about dreams.
Or maybe not? I can’t speak for anyone but myself, but for me it’s about dreams.
Dreams of being a better person, of living a meaningful loving life, and eventually, of course, of being able to leave something behind that might someday be meaningful to someone else.
“Dude, it’s just a sailboat!“, I hear someone thinking out loud, and I agree, that is a valid point as well 🙂
Yes! No Pictures.
Why I started writing this post is because I just received an email from our dealer saying that Hanse unfortunately does not provide any “making of” pictures of the boat during the construction process. It’s a shame.
People buying from other yacht manufacturers often post beautiful stories about the build processes (see this about an already completed Besteaver 49ST and this ongoing one about a Southerly 480), and it would have been nice do the same.
It’s a “production boat”, though, with an incredibly short build time compared to the yachts above. Hanse churns out a brand new 388 in about a month while the Besteaver 49ST project above took over two years from start to finish.
Being good at mass production isn’t anything bad, though (just look at Elon Musk and Tesla, I think he feels the same). Quite the opposite: having streamlined and efficient processes can be the perfect recipe for getting out quality products at a good price, and that’s how I hope it will turn out for us as well.
But don’t overdo the efficiency and streamlining thing, please, Hanse Yachts. Remember that for many customers, it’s all about that dream, and having good ways of keeping it alive.
(And yes, once we get the boat we’ll do our part, promise to keep ourselves alive as well, and hope that maybe my mother’s nightmares will end.)
Ta-ta and sweet dreams to all!