Swallow Boats Name Change

[Matt Newland]

Dear All,
Following a great deal of thought, we have decided to change the name of our company from Swallow Boats to Swallow Yachts.
With the increase in our range we think the new name better reflects what we are producing; although we continue to produce the full range of Swallows, our order books are now including signifcant numbers of the bigger craft and so Swallow Yachts really does describe our business.
I know it will take some getting used to, I hope you understand our reasons and am sure it will roll off the tongue easily enough in time!
Best wishes,
Matt

[David Hudson]

Good luck to you all under your new name!

[Peter Taylor]

A "Swallow Yachts BayCruiser" sounds much less like a speed boat!
Peter

[Matthew P]

Congratulations Matt, and your team, for expanding your business and products!

What's the difference between a boat and yacht please?  Does this mean I can upgrade Gladys to a yacht? 

Matthew
BR20 Gladys 

[Rob Johnstone]

Best wishes to Swallow yachts and all who sail in and with her! Do we get new decals for our Swallow Yachts?
Rob

[Michael Rogers]

Delighted to hear that business is good: very best wishes to Swallow Yachts.

It is not for me (or any of us) to say that the change of name is a mistake, so I won't. As a certain Miss Capulet once remarked, 'What's in a name? That which we call a rose [boat/yacht] by any other name would smell [sail] as sweet'. (She made no recorded comment about whether it would SELL as sweetly.)

However, I think the best my little Trouper can muster in the new order is as a yachtlet. As she's already a junklet, it's all become a bit (t)wee..........(sigh). Well, in this instance small IS beautiful (said he defiantly).

Michael

[Jonathan Stuart]

Congratulations to Matt and the team on the success of the business that has driven this change. It's good to hear that this doesn't change the business's focus and I suspect that the owners of smaller boats don't care about the name while the branding may be more important to those spending a considerable sum on a larger yacht.

Given the name change I will update various pages on the website. Unless anyone has any violent counter views then I assume we should also change the name to be the Swallow Yachts Association and the URL should change to http://www.swallowyachtsassociation.org, although I'll ensure the current http://www.swallowyachtsassociation.org continues to direct to the website too.

[Lara]

Hello everybody

Thank you for all the good wishes and the generally positive response to the change of name to Swallow Yachts.  It's busy here as usual; generally busy because it's summer time obviously(!!) and in the run up to the Southampton Boat Show it's chocka-block here, but we've got lots to be excited about... we're on the marina for the first time at the show and we'll have the GRP BayCruiser 26 with us, which is a debut, and then obviously it's the first year we'll be there as Swallow Yachts so there's plenty to keep us out of mischief in the next few weeks!!

We're still the same people though, with the same wish to do everything we can for all Swallow owners to enjoy their boats and yachts of all sizes way past the point of waving you off down the drive with a new boat... so of course please get in touch if there's anything we can help you with.  Or just give us a phone first thing one Monday morning over the next month or two to see if we remember to say "Swallow Yachts" when we pick up the receiver 

Best wishes
Laura

[David Hudson]

Laura

"Is it allowable to make such a blatant commercial plug on the Owners' Association forum?"

ps Good luck at the show!

NB My tongue was firmly in my own cheeck when I wrote this!

[Tony]

".....and I suspect that the owners of smaller boats don't care about the name while the branding may be more important to those spending a considerable sum on a larger yacht."

Much as I regret the change of name I feel that Matt has made the right decision.
A “boat” can be defined as something you can pick up and put on a “ship” so it correctly describes most, if not all,of the range. However, Joe Public (especially the Joe's with 70 grand looking for a home) would much rather confess, modestly, that they are having a “yacht” built for them by this family firm in Wales “....all done by hand...local craftsmen...etc, etc....” than talk about a “boat” - something that drunks fall into the Serpentine from  on August Bank Holiday.
Matt has obviously studied the market and realised that he isn't going to have much of a pension if he relies on the likes of Michael and I to come up with the readies! His Trouper and my CBL are damn good boats of their type but how many have been ordered?  They will not add a great deal to the Newland Estate even if built by the dozen, like the BayRaiders.
Anyway, anything that's got a head's (with shower) a solid fuel heater AND a 'fridge is definitely a Yacht, not a boat and will never be seen flying a DCA burgee. 

(Hmmm! Why don't I sell “Four Sisters” to the highest bidder and spend the kids inheritance on a BC26?  Not many yachts give you the option of towing OR sailing to Greece for the summer – and think of the money I'd save on hotel bills!)