Would you buy a boat that didn't aesthetically appeal to you....

The first prop aircraft I have flown in my life at an age of 16 / 17 years were rallys and robins, because our gliding club (like most others in Germany) used them as towing aircraft. I even made my private pilot license on one of them.

The Robin DR-400-180R Remorqueur was made of wood, the wings are fabric covered. Very light, very stable and docile in the air and due to its great power to weight ratio the absolutely best tow available. The heavy agricatual aircraft used for towing gliders in the US were never available in Europe.


But the Socata TB-9 Tampico was a pig. With its straight rectangular wing with no geometric and aerodynamic twist but high dihedral and being totally underpowered it was really dangerous. It could kill You without warning during slow flights (it was always to slow ) and during T/O and approach. Thanks god, they are not built anymore.


But back to boats. I was guilty myself, buying and owning a (sail) boat only choosen due to its internal volume and number of bunks and disregarding its really challenging external design. The young fighter pilot with a big family (3 kids, Nr. four inbound) needed a big boat. The harbour on the north sea coast was very shallow (tidal waters) and the boat went dry during low tide and my slip was limited in size.

At that time catamarans in Europe were only built in that country, were they drive on the wrong side of the road. That made me buy a Prout 37 Snow Goose. My kids named her Ugly Dug but we had a lot of fun on our first family sailing boat.



Everybody has a dark phase in his history .

But the interior was awfull UK stile of the sixties. Plain FRP under the roofs, vinil covered walls all over the place, the closed deck forward (no trampoline net) between the hulls was very noisy, when the waves slammed under it. On the hook, the asymetrical anker position made the boat drive on the chain all the time from left to right. And finally the lift up sail drive of the single little Volvo engine was not very reliable.

First there was no other Catamaran available at that time and second I could afford it new at that time. The only alternative I had, would have been a Dutch flat bottom Tjalk. Also my wife would have followed me on almost everthing, one of those would have been far to much for her. Means, the ugly Cat or nothing.

When I was called in by my father to take over the family business and had to leave the military, I sold the ugly duck immediately for a good price to a pilot buddy from my squadron and bought a factory new 25 Meter Jongert Classic Ketch. That was much more like it !!!

Life's a ***** and then you die !