Grand Ambition

I read the book and enjoyed it quite a lot. What struck me the most was how little the Allmen's were involved in the overall construction. They hardly visited the boat at all during construction and seemingly spent just minimal time on the initial planning.

The book certainly did not leave the reader with the feeling that Trinity yachts are built to a standard associated with Feadship, Lurssen, Huisman or other top European yards. But the Trinity yachts are not priced at that level either, and one should consider that Trinity yachts evolved from a builder of rough and ready oil support vessels. The exquisite craftsmanship and impeccable engineering of European yards took many decades to develop.

I just finished Grand Ambition myself, and I agree with you in that it doesn't leave you with a great feeling in your mouth about Trinity's. However, you do need to realize that what was going on at the time this was being written, I don't think a whole lot of people knew what to expect. I was at the Trinity yard and was able to take a quick tour of LL about a month before she was due to be delivered. I was very impressed with the overall appearance of her, even though they were still fairing the inside of the skylounge, and priming the fuel system.

In terms of the Von Allman's, you have to respect their decision to continue to "stay the course" and not default on the payments. While LL is definitely not a Lurssen or Feadship, I think we all would agree that we would be more than exstatic to take the Captain spot on her (at least me) or be able to own her. I think you have to go into a Trinity knowing that your not coming out with a Bugatti or Maybach, but more so a BMW or MB, which don't get me wrong are great, but there is always something better.

I've also seen a lot of Evan Marshall's work, and it's always first class, I think he was put under difficult situations from both the Allmans and Trinity, and it still came out shining.

I just finished reading the book. It never really said trinity's quality was bad. It was more about the delays and financials.

It seemed the project manager wasn't really on top of things. Plus the lack of interest from the owners lead to delays.

From reading this book, it seems like the $20 million or more you save building a Trinity yacht is well worth the delays. I believe, most problems could have been fixed with a good project manager/owner involvement.

What was so interesting to me was the fairing process. Seems Trinity goes overboard on it's hull finishes! The paint layers are half inch thick alone! (did i read that right) wow!

The only Trinity yacht I was on for longer than the ordinary boat show visit, was the 184 ft, 1999 Explorer yacht PANGAEA. I was not impressed by the quality of this boat, inside and outside. I can not say, whether this boat was an representative example of the Trinity build quality, but IMHO, from the quality of PANGAEA to the level of quality of a Rasselas or a Lady Sheridan or a Solemates II is a long, long way.

And b.t.w. the thinner the fairing, the better the hull . (old chinese saying ?)

They had to do something to smooth out the speed bumps.