I suppose that in a consumer society, companies make money by producing 'stuff' that needs regularly replacing. If somebody produced a bullet-proof bit of kit, they'd sell a finite number of them then go out of business. Most cruisers have 'stepped-out of' the consumer society, so what we want is the bullet-proof kit that goes on forever at minimal cost!. Almost everything to do with boats (or aircraft) is vastly over-priced. On my (new) boat there is a lot of surface rust in various places where obviously inferior stainless has been used. Interesting to see what the agent says in a week or so when she goes back for some warranty work. To be perfectly fair, so far all faults have been fixed (maker Broadblue, agent Multihull World). Aha, have I started a new thread? Boat was produced in Poland to keep the manufacturing costs down. fair enough, but maybe quality has suffered a bit.