Supreme Light - New for 2011

[Dan]

I see Herbert Woods are building again and having some new boats.

Does anyone know which Alpha moulds they are?

All the best

Dan

[andyg]

hi dan,was chating to one of the guys in the yard in may,he told me they were ordering two of the alpha dual steer moulds. i see swan craft are waiting on a new design for next season. do you know if this is a new alpha mould ?

[NorfolkNog]

Hi

Swancraft get their hulls from Alphacraft and fit them out themselves. They have recently been fitting out the 35 foot forward drive hulls into luxury 2 – 4 berths. However I understand that there have been some discussions about the possibility of a shortened version of the 44 foot sliding canopy Alpha hull (similar to Swan Regal) although the design will need to allow room for the canopy to slide back on the shortened hull so this is being given some thought as far as I can gather.

Incidentally Swancraft have their latest new build, based on a very nice 31 foot Alpha hull, for sale at the moment via Norfolk Boat Sales in Wroxham. I keep buying those lottery tickets…..

[Dan]

A shortened sliding canopy model seems a good idea, I wonder if the thought of that is to keep up with the planned Richardsons 35ft one or just a natural progression? It would need a fair bit of tinkering because the centre cockpit on their 44ft sliding canopy are a fair size, so I'm not sure they could quickly/easily just chop a section out of the aft cabin, but something around the 35-37 foot to make nice 4 berths out of would be good for the Broads.

On Herbert Woods facebook page it states they are having four new boats next year, if two are the dual steers I wonder if they will be 35ft or 44ft models.

Looking at Herbert Woods fleet I would think some luxurious two berths would fit in and let well as they seem less well represented in this size bracket than in the 6+ berth sizings?

Whatever they are good to see new additions and continued investment, especially under a changed/new ownership too

All the best

Dan

[andyg]

it would be good to see a new mid size centre cockpit design. clive has already said rickos are only building for their own fleet and the current alpha 35 footer is a bit dated. Must say dan when we were in woods yard in may there was a large number of their fleet in and they look a lot smarter then iv seen them looking for a while.

[Broads01]

they look a lot smarter then iv seen them looking for a while.

That's good news. Maybe the 'divorce' from Broads Tours/NBD is having a positive effect? I always think Herbert Woods can be a strange hybrid collection of smart modern boats, up together refitted older boats and some older boats that need some work and aren't particularly good value for money. This year I nosed inside the same Northern Light I hired 10 years ago and the same dodgy tweed upholstery was there - it looked dated even back then! There are some free fuel offers on the website at the moment which makes the pricing more competitive.

Like the idea of a 35 foot centre cockpit. Presumably it will share the hull of the dual steer 35's? I'm not a boat design expert but I can't see the issue with just having a scaled down sliding roof based on the 44 foot, being the same shape but in different dimensions.