Frankenboat - what's yours?

A certain 400 sailor has been less than complementary about the Spice too (though I believe he has, at least, sailed one). Topper (and RS/Laser) have a history of ditching classes that fail to take off, fair enough, I guess it makes sound business sense. Boss, Buzz, Iso, the Sport series and the Blaze amongst others. In some of these cases a new rights holder and/or the CA takes up the slack but with an SMOD you can't just go to your local dinghy builder and get one built to order like you can with pretty much any of the traditional classes.

Edited by Sam.Spoons - 26 Feb 17 at 3:44pm

You are right, there are exceptions but the analogy with motorcycle racing is a good one. However one make bike race series are based on a machine that exists outside of the race series. Dinghy racers don't have a pool of existing dinghies to modify so many a modern racing sailboat is designed to be a race boat first (with some exceptions, L@ser being the obvious one) and a recreational sailboat second. (not sure that explains what I mean very well mind you)

Edited by Sam.Spoons - 26 Feb 17 at 4:55pm

Thats how I look at it. I like mine... even the colour (and yes it is a yellow one). It's not exactly an ISO rig (it's slightly bigger) but ISO is a good source of used sails for the Spice (It stops being bargain basement if you have to buy new) though the kite is a bit tiddley.

Originally posted by Dougaldog Sam, I have to be careful as (a) as a writer I don't want to be seen as being overtly for or against any boat or builder. It's safer to stay objective and leave the opinion casting to others who are far more interested in promoting their own view (like saying that the L 5000 was 'decades adrift': for the millionth time, stop exaggerating!) and then there is (b) - I have found myself in trouble in the past for expressing a less than enamoured view of a boat in the old TI range. I really did get my collar felt for that! What is so easily forgotten is on how the launch of a boat - any boat - has to be seen in the context of the wider state of the sport 'at the time of the launch'. So, the idea of the twin wire Buzz had been a 'non-secret' for a number of months. I'm pretty certain that  the plan was to change the hull form from the Buzz, not hugely, but yes, there were to be changes. The rig needed beefing up and is NOT an ISO rig, the main was a much better shape than the original boat. The Spice, certainly from the experiences with the demo boats, wasn't a bad package at all and if looked at from the viewpoint of a crew having a lot of fun, it did a pretty good job when there wasn't really that much of an alternative bar the 14s and bigger beasts. So what happened. If I wanted to write about how NOT to launch a new dinghy, with a few names changed to protect the innocent, I'd write about the launch of the Spice. Bearing in mind, again, that stricture about everything being in its time, that bilious yellow colour was a turn off but that was nothing to the 'sales message' that was coming out of Maidsone/Ashford - 'at the time'. Seen like this, you've got the opportunity to have more bullet proof fun ( they're pretty hard to break - I tried) at a bargain basement price - what's not to like! D

I bought a Spice myself as it is how I transferred from windsurfing to dinghy sailing.

My wife was getting bored with windsurfing as our standards were too different and invariably she would be waiting in the car while I was enjoying the waves/wind. She thought dinghies would be boring, so we looked at a Spice. The logic being I would teach her how to sail (she had never been in a dinghy before) and I would learn to helm and trapeze while teaching. That way we will be learning together.

The Spice turned out to be perfect for the job. It was one of the most fun dinghies I have ever sailed, especially in big breeze (25knots plus). The beach boat equivalent of an I14, simple, easy to sail and a lot of laughs for your pound. It was only when we started to race it more on PY that it's shortcomings as a racing boat came across. It was still fun and we did win the odd club race, but it's width, lack of length, lack of chines along with a rig that was possibly too powerful for the hull and not powerful enough for us meant the PY racing was generally unrewarding.