Posted by GregSeaHawk on
URL: https://forum.seahawk17.org.uk/What-s-New-on-the-Site-tp3118409p3495004.html

Today I have completed the main part of the promised site re-build.

The most important part of this is the new, six button horizontal main menu. This is radically different from the previous menus as it attempts to direct the three main classes of visitor, BUYERS, OWNERS and SELLERS, to the parts of the site that will interest them. Most of these main menu buttons have a sub-menu associated with them, so very few pages on the site require more than three clicks to reach them, regardless of where you are at the time.

In addition, the top-level menu includes a SEARCH SITE facility on every page. This comes from a new search provider and should reliably find any content on the site. Note that a separate search facility is available for posts made on the FORUM.

Material from the old version of the site has been rearranged. Now the two most common questions from people visiting the site for the first time ("What should I look out for when viewing a boat?" and "How old is a boat?") have dedicated pages, ISSUES and DATING, accessed from the top-level BUYERS menu button.

The most important additional information gleaned over the last two years has been added to the site. New early sales literature has been obtained. Put together with other information acquired over the last two years, the brochure reveals that early Reedcraft SeaHawks were significantly different to later ones. (The first clues was the discovery that early SeaHawks have exposed concrete ballast). This has led to a reassessment of how to date a SeaHawk - as well as revealing a need to discover more about sail plans.

All this, and further material about Pyecraft boats the destcruction of the superstructure mould tools, has required very significant re-write of the "Description", "History" and "Marketing" sections of the site. Again, all this information is accessed via the BUYERS menu button, as it is assumed that any buyer would want to find out about the boat he is interested in before committing to a purchase.

The OWNERS menu button accesses all the material that used to be under the "Boat Shed" menu option. There is some new material here and many minor changes (partly because some of the material that was in the Boat Shed section has been moved to the new "Issues" and "Dating" pages).

A start has also been made in re-configuring the site so it works well on larger screens (Viewing on Smartphone screens shouldn't be compromised), with larger "Image of the Day" pictures on the home page. The images have also had a make-over, so expect to see new ones when you visit.

There should be more new content to come over the next month, as I work through more material accumulated over the last couple of years. It's been a regret that I haven't been doing much more than maintain the "For Sale" page in this period. Now only the Forum's "For Sale" page remains as I am relying on sellers doing the work for themselves in future, so I can concentrate on other parts of the site.