Last week brought some very exciting news back to the factory from 4 Sabre owners who have really been putting the miles under their hulls. 

3 Sabre sailboats completed the prestigious (and this year, patient) Newport to Bermuda Race.  ESMERALDE, a 2005 Sabre 386 owned by Bruce and Dorsey Beard from RI raced for its second time the 635 mile trek in the double-handed division and placed a competitive 5th place on corrected time.  Well done Bruce and Dorsey, I was tracking you all the way.  Peter and Jane Sollogub, Sabre 402 Owners will be joining the Beards for cruising in Bermuda…a  great reward for the challenging trip.  Two additional Sabre sailboats joined them in the impressive 200+ boat fleet.  IL BODACIOUS, a Sabre 402 owned by Jeff Urbania and FREEDOM, a Sabre 452 owned by Cary Thompson competed in the 14-boat deep Cruiser Division.  Excitedly, these boats took first and second in class, with IL BODACIOUS beating out FREEDOM by a few hours on corrected time.  We want to congratulate all 3 of the boats that raced!  Impressive feat and more impressive finishes.

The sailboat crowd aren’t the only ones putting the miles to their hulls and loving every second.  We received news from Sally and Oliver Miller that on June 24th after 296 days away from home, they completed a lifelong dream cruise covering 5268 miles of the Great Loop in their 2006 Sabre 47′, ONE OLIVER II.  This cruise track took the Olivers (and adorable puppy, Marina) on a circumnavigation of the Eastern States of the USA.  Their boat blog chronicles the trip in great detail with pictures and stories and stats on mileage and fuel consumption.  This is a must-read and make sure to leave them a comment on their message board welcoming them home!

If any of you are considering a distance cruise or race, I’m sure these proud Sabre owners can be a good resource to you. Let us at Sabre know of your own travels aboard whether close to home or far away.

Blogged by: Sarah

I had the most exhilarating experience running a Zeus powered Sabre 42X on Wednesday.  When Bentley asked me if I wanted to take a turn at the helm, I was more than happy to take  over.  We were cruising along at 30 + knots, the boat was quiet and it was a pleasure to be having a conversation at a normal level.  I then handed  back the helm to Bentley and he decided to show off a little by doing a 360 degree turn at 25 knots in a smooth 3 boat length circle, incredible!  Then I really became empowered when I took the helm again and proceed to dock this 42′ boat using the joystick; keep in mind I have never docked a boat before.  I would have been happy to stay there all day and keep docking the boat it was so much fun!

–Brenda 

Many of our older model Sabre’s built back in the 80’s time frame were equipped with a CNG stove, and have one or two bottles stored in a locker in the cockpit. Over the years these tanks can develop surface rust and degradation. These tanks should be inspected yearly to make sure that they are safe and can handle the pressure of compressed gas. I mention this because we were just recently notified of an incident that took place on a 1985 Sabre 36 where one of the cng tanks exploded, (thankfully no one was onboard) and caused a fair amount of damage to the transom and starboard corner of the hull. There is one company that I am aware of that can service, refill, and I believe replace CNG tanks. They are Corp Brothers. Visit the web site and you will see a list of facilities that they have.

Blogged by: Glen (aka) Chappy

The New York National Boat Show, which started it’s run in 1905, has made a major date shift and moved into December (13-21) of 2008. The move was brought on by a variety of circumstances at Jacob Javits center and by exhibitors wanting to try something new in order to increase attendance. My feeling is the dates are great. I love "the holidays" but they tend to drag on a tad too long for me. Growing up in Australia and Canada, the festivities of "the holidays" started around the 15th of December and by New Years we were ready for the end of it. We American’s (yes I am now a naturalized American citizen) slow down our work in process at Thanksgiving and go back to work in earnest on the 2nd day of January. That’s too long for me so having the show break up "the holidays" is going to feel great. Of course my wife will enjoy some holiday shopping in New York after show hours !

This weekend began the first ever boat show held in Sri Lanka.  My first thought at the glance of the headline prior to reading the news story this morning was – we are a global company – I wonder if we should be exhibiting here?  (I would certainly be happy to go represent Sabre for a few days working those booths in Sri Lanka).  Reading this article in the Sri Lankan Daily Mirror, I realized this is less about globalization of the marine industry in challenging economic times and more about developing an industry in a country that has the resources to harbor the rewarding growth of a boat building and marine trade that may not focus on exporting high end yachts to distinguishing clientelle trying to get a boost on production costs by buying overseas, but developing their own market int heir own oceanic backyard.  Of course there is a huge market for fishing boats, commerical prodcuts, RIBS, dive and tourist operations!  Good for the economic development of the Sri Lankan boat building industry to tap into all of this.  We should be paying attantion – they might have a few good ideas.

There is no doubt in these challenging economic times, many industries have been exploring new global markets for production to keep things moving forward.  It is not a new story that we have seen a lot of boat building go this way as well from our our yacht companies in the USA.  A lot of our owners do comment to me that they feel good about having purchased a US-built boat. I am glad the world of boating is spreading its reaches farther each day to develop new markets – but working for a traditional Maine Built company, I’m glad we still have our deeply rooted history of boat building we are able to carry on here each day.

Blogged by, ~Sarah

We had a very special photo opportunity here in Raymond, ME recently. A few years ago, Sabre was able to take ownership of our original Hull #1 Sabre 28 – the very boat that Roger Hewson designed and built at our current facility back in 1970. PATIENCE has returned to Sabre for some TLC so she can once again be launched for sailing in Casco Bay this summer. She was ready to roll into our shop for prep work just as our Completion Team for production line 2 rolled out the newest Sabre Spirit, Hull #282 – getting ready to get on a hydraulic truck and be shipped off to her ‘patient’ owners in Marblehead, MA.
SABRE has a rich history and to date, has built over 2100 sailboats and over 500 motor yachts between PATIENCE and this latest vessel out the door.

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Almost a year ago, I had the pleasure of attending one of our Sabre Owners Association rendezvous.  It was the Long Island Sabre Owners Associations’ 20th Anniversary.  I got to meet and mix it up with owners who proudly showed me their boats and told stories of all the adventures they’ve had on them.  What I found unique about this group of people was the strong contingent of women owners/sailors.  This group’s first commodore was Nancy DeVries.  She is an accomplished sailor who has done 3 transatlantics, over 30,000 miles at sea from cruising and deliveries.  Another accomplished woman sailor following as a commodore of this owners association whom I met was Anne Peskin.  That night as everyone was dancing away I could see that for this group – the women really brought the level of energy for the boating lifestyle to the forefront in their lives.  I know there are a few of you women boaters out there who have great stories of how you found boating as a passion. 

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I was speaking with my dealer from Connecticut last Monday. Ken Petzold held an open house at his dealership over the previous weekend and his level of enthusiasm was high. Was the focus of an open house better than he had seen at recent boat shows?

Ken’s experience is typical. Most dealers feel open houses get them closer to their clients. By inviting boaters to come to their location their clients experience personal attention and get to see the Sabre models on display in their own time and without a crowd. Most appreciate the quality of these boats far more when they are given this extra focus and attention.

What do you think? Boat Show or Open House?