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Valiant 50 |
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Life Begins at 50 |
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| Blue Water Sailing October 2004 |
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The Valiant 47, now morphed into the Valiant 50, has been carrying passage-makers to destinations
both far and near-flung. This Robert Perry double-ender would never be mistaken for the work of any other designer, although Perry himself will be the first to credit those who work inspired him; inspiration from the works of Colin Archer and William Atkin.
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It would be
fair to say that the boats which inspired Perry were known more
for their seaworthiness than their speed, and so when Perry set
out to design a double-ended cruiser he knew he needed to add a
nice turn of speed to the boat. |
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The original Valiant was the
Valiant 40, designed in 1973 and arguably the first "performance
cruiser." Uniflite, a powerboat manufacture in Bellingham, Wash.,
began to produce the 40 and between 1975 and 1983 built roughly 50
boats a year under contract with the founders of Valiant Yachts.
In 1981 Perry designed the 47, drawing on his experience with the 40
and feedback from those sailing his boats. |
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Shortly after the new
47 came online the factory in Bellingham shut down and Rich
Worstell, a very successful dealer for Valiant, bought the
company and moved the manufacturing facilities to Texas.
In Gordonville Worstell kept on building Valiant, one at a time,
by hand, that were capable of sailing the world.
The Valiant 47 was built from 1981 to 1992, with 17 boats built and |
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