fair to say that many of us are fairly hidebound when it comes to buying a yacht. We want a glassfibre boat with one mast and two triangular sails. Nothing wrong with that but, after testing the new RM 1380 cruiser/racer (see p38)- but there will be many who note that she is constructed from epoxy ply and take a sharp intake of breath. I am well versed in this hidebound attitude. Back in 2010 I purchased a Norwalk Islands Sharpie 29. This was a light displacement epoxy ply cat-rigged ketch with unstayed wooden masts. The boat was, let's be candid, interesting. Yet the thing that made most people wince about her was the fact that she was epoxy ply constructed. Well, let me tell you that this was absolutely the least of my problems. In five years I had everything possible go wrong with the boat; from the main boom snapping in two, to the lower rudder pintle shearing in the Needles Channel. Yet one thing I never had a problem with was the epoxy plywood construction. That was fine.
