Swallow Boats has a new website

[Peter Taylor]

*For the dose of pedantry readers may have come to expect from yours truly, the phrase 'something being no object', which I use myself sometimes, is not so much bad grammar as non-sense. We all know what it means, but what does it actually MEAN?!

From Latin... "object" is "something thrown in the way"  - so it does make sense?!

[Tony]

Michael!

Re: "Watercraft" Magazine.
I just read it, fer Gawdssakes!   An acting, unpaid, subscribing reader at that, I would like to add.
I have more in common with Baldrick than the editorial staff of WC , with whom I have never at any time been professionally closeted – not even as a plumber! (Writing the odd article on socks and hats doesn't make me the WC fashion correspondent nor yet an editorial  co-respondent! )

My previous post was obviously composed on a dog watch as it was strangely curtailed, for which I apologise. (Premature Posting Syndrome, no doubt.  It happens to old blokes now and then.)
Try this version:

1. Do I read "Watercraft" magazine?    That you should even ask! Forsooth!
2. "...give the poor man a chance.."   A quote from B. Franklin (I think) " If you want something done, ask a busy person." ....and I stand by my original comment.
3.  Origin of the phrase "Money no object" et al . If you  really care, click here; http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/money+is+no+object
4. Need a crew for all them (fantasy) boats?  Not I! Check out the video.  (Third hand from my Yacht Club's Newsletter)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TfLucdha2DM

[Michael Rogers]

Thanks, Peter and Tony. I do care, Tony, I really do. As you admit to loving 'string' (so do I, up to a point), my thing (one of them) is sorting out unusual words/phrases. I missed that particular dictionary entry, and must accept that 1782 first recorded usage represents a respectable provenance. I thought, wrongly, that it was modern and a sort of verbal greengrocer's apostrophe. I will henceforth cease harrumphing in that direction. Peter's unpacking is likewise erudite and convincing.

Tony, re your truncated previous offering - I had visions of you blowing a gasket and being unable to continue, so am relieved. I have noted your relationship with WC and will not risk provoking a vascular hypertensive reaction again.

Yours soothingly.

[Peter Taylor]

Returning to the subject of the thread!..... I think that the division into "production boats" and "bespoke" is good in that it will indicate to someone ordering an epoxy ply hull such as the BC20 that this may take significantly longer to build, but you do end up with a custom boat.  (Although where the epoxy-wood version of the BC23 sits in this division is not made clear!)  When I ordered my BC20 Matt told me that they start building boats in the order that they are ordered - which may or may not be true - however they are not certainly completed in that order, since the GRP hulls take so much less time to assemble.  Had I realised that at the time I would have still ordered my BC20 - however I would have had a more realistic expectation of when it might be finished! The production/bespoke division (and Matt;'s comments below) makes that clear.

The pictures look good and site has a clean look... but I think someone at SB needs to go through the text. For example, the BC26 is described in the future tense, much of the BC23 description is copied word for word from the BC20 (prospective customers will likely read both!), and the BC20 text describes the BC23 as "(more details soon)". Meanwhile Julian is still pottering around with his Suzuki 2.5hp outboard!

From the sound of their success at and after Southampton (good to hear!) Matt et al. are no doubt busy building boats - but having commissioned a swish new site it would seem a good time for a bit of a text spring clean!

Peter

[markbatey]

And on the subject of marketing, for those of you who don't follow the company's Facebook page, here's a link to a recent radio interview with Matt etc on Radio Wales http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b04tvqg7
Skip to about ten minutes in to find the bit you want.