The new Seawind 1370 has made its marketing debut using social media. Facebook and Youtube and Instagram and such. No expensive ad spends on magazines or boat shows or other conventional marketing approaches of days gone by. Imagine the money they’re saving, and how the boat selling world has changed in the last few years. A lovely couple on the sailing vessel Ruby Rose has done a lot market research into all the currently available catamarans and produced a video series about them (apparently) then approached Seawind to collaborate on the new 1370 and produce a series of videos to help market the new model. The lovely couple is part of a group of people known as “influencers”, and in return for their marketing efforts they get compensation in the form of discounted merchandise. In the cruising world those folks generally get free stuff for their boats. Inverters, solar controllers, watermakers, you name it. Maybe even free boats!
We’re friends with a young sailing couple who are influencers. They’ve got a large group of followers on Instagram and create marketing videos to post on Youtube and other platforms. In truth what they do is a lot of work. Recently they got new LiFeP04 batteries for “free”, but that was after a couple years of lobbying the provider, and once the batteries finally arrived they’ve worked their butts off on the installation, then produced a series of videos beginning with opening the packaging all the way through the installation to finally extolling the virtues of their new lithium batteries in comparison to the lead acid batteries they removed and chucked out.
The dream for many is to live where they want, how they want, and still to make a living. Our influencer pals are out here sailing in a virtual paradise, supporting their habit with their efforts and doing just fine. In contrast, I put up with a daily commute for over 30 years, working in a factory environment with a ton of company procedures and rules to abide by, getting older and progressively out of shape and developing elevated blood pressure. Who do you think is smarter?
I’m not bitter or twisted about how I led my life, just noting there’s more than one way to skin a cat, and it seems to me that our influencer pals are skinning that cat pretty cleverly.
One silly thing the initial Ruby Rose marketing video focused on was the projected sailing performance. The lovely couple extolled the virtues of the 1370 at 15 tons weight, sailing along with 25 knots apparent wind at 110 degrees. Blasting along at 19 knots! Who cares? Wind conditions like that lead to big choppy wind waves and an extremely rough, noisy ride. Virtually impossible to sleep, cook, or even move around the boat without hanging on. At speeds like that a mistake in handling can lead to a lot of damage or injury. As Richard Ward told us in 2005, you can make a Seawind 1160 go really fast, but you’re not going to like doing it for very long. It’s hard on the boat and the crew. We spend a lot of effort to slow JollyDogs down to improve safety and ride comfort. Our pals on SV Taipan, a 20 ton, 50’ long monohull made a passage a while back, departing with a Craig Schoening design catamaran capable of blistering speed. After 4000 miles their passage time only differed by 6 hours. Why? Because sailing a performance cat at blistering speed is only something one does in a race or perhaps when trying to outrun some sort of nasty weather. Forget cooking or sleeping.
Experienced cruisers are looking for safety, comfort, and taking care of our HOUSE, not abusing our investment or ourselves. We can make JollyDogs go really fast but unless the seas are flat that doesn’t matter. Big winds mean big wind waves and associated banging and thumping and jerky ride and hanging on for dear life.
The lovely couple on Ruby Rose should emphasize light air performance. That’s what differentiates the typical condomaran pigs from the performance cruisers Seawind is known for.
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