Are new dinghies relatively more expensive?

Originally posted by Do Different Good response if slightly over read from my simple post.  I try not to criticise classes and avoid as best I can getting tribal. I was simply comparing the commonly used Laser benchmark in terms of cost of materials. My use of the the word better was meant in the most basic monetary way, not saying one boat or level of tech is better than the other in terms of overall satisfaction. I agree that appropriate materials and the most simple solutions are often the very BEST and that more is far from always better.

Compound that with an industry so focused on short boards and you have a recipe for decimating fleets - especially inland, river and light wind estuaries. But hey, sub 250cm was better for shipping from the Cobra factory, so it made totes commercial sense!

Every sport relies on newcomers to replace natural wastage, it's what's killing dinghy sailing right now.

The RYA closed lots of one man windsurfing schools in the late nineties whilst encouraging their vision of big corporate entities and employing school 'inspectors' who were, guess what? Owners of the big corporate schools. One of their classic reasons for closing a school up near Edenbridge was to fail the guy on his rescue boat presentation, so he was forced to stop teaching and fall back on his main job, RNLI inshore rescue boat coxswain.

Not that I could have helped that but yes otherwise I was also part of the decline in windsurfing, mainly by finding other sports and products for the dealer network and myself as a distributor to profit from in the face of the negativity by the forces in play at the RYA. It's the sole reason Kitesurfing and SUP have nothing to do with the RYA when they could have strengthened the body, but it is so riddled with agenda driven self interest groups it is now impossible to deal with, unlike the past when amateur committees with nothing more than altruism for the particular sport drove us to give our time and energy to their cause.

On the question of Formula Windsurfing I was violently opposed to it and wind limits and it was me that forced the compromise of the Hybrid that eventually became the RSX after the original Mistral design the Prodigy was refused by the class as a replacement for the One Design and Pryde refined the concept into the RSX.

My last gasp was to try and introduce the Exocet Kona a 380 step hull with centreboard, but it was refused to be considered by the RYA as an entry level board, hell bent as they were on their fast start shortboard direct to planing teaching method. There is no country in Europe where windsurfing has disappeared so completely and like it or not, the blame lays squarely with our esteemed governing body.

Edited by iGRF - 22 Jun 18 at 10:45pm

I raced windsurfers fairly seriously (every week at my club and pretty much all NW regional events. I also managed the occasional National event) from 1983 until around 2008. I won a fair bit on the NW series and, even once at the Masters (in my very small class). I was aware of Graeme as the Mistral importer/distributer at that time. IMHO the decline of grass roots racing on windsurfers was due to the IYRU and the manufacturers pushing Formula Windsurfing (originally called Formula One but a quick writ from a certain Mr Ecclestone soon put a stop the that) over Raceboards. I'm still bitter about it TBH, F1/W was never going to be remotely suited to most clubs (would you choose a 49er for a small./mid sized inland lake? FW was way worse by comparison) and I remember trekking up to Ullswater for the second day of a national event (from which the NW sailors results would be extracted and included in our series) to spend a day sitting on the beach in a decent F2-3 while the FW biased RO decided that, as there wasn't enough wind for FW (who had an 8 knot minimum IIRC) the rest of us should not race either. 

Edited by Sam.Spoons - 22 Jun 18 at 8:46pm

Originally posted by Mark Aged 42 It may be instructive to compare windsurfing and sailing at this point. Back in the day, when windsurfing was a popular pasttime, there were numerous manufacturers making heavy, slow polypropylene boards which were cheap. Sing along if you know the words - Vinta, Hi Fly, Ypsi, Tiga etc. Then windsurfing went down the performance route, and has finally disapperared up its own arze. The Laser is the equivalent of those boards. It has a heavy hull, crude rig and is popular. If somebody decides to have a go, they can drag a Laser from the bushes at their local club for pence, get 2nd bits to complete the package and be on the water for £500. Maybe less. If they decide its not for them, they can probably sell it on for  what they paid for it.  This is part of the appeal - the low financial risk. The other aspect is the simplicity of the boats controls. When you look at a rigged Laser, especially non XD, there is not a daunting array of multi coloured spaghetti.  In my opinion, the ideal situation is to perceive old Lasers as the gateway boat to the newer classes. Windsurfing has almost no cheap second hand beginners boards for sale, so the number of participants dwindles year on year as the existing demographic ages beyond repair!

There were many reasons windsurfing declined, overseas however it's still bigger than dinghy sailing and I could make a serious argument that the same forces that prevent new classes becoming established were also a large part of the reason the regatta and competition element of windsurfing declined here in the UK. First amongst them was corruption within the RYA which systematically closed dozens of small windsurfing schools, then of course was the refusal to even countenance a yardstick and the refusal by clubs to permit boards to race together with dinghies. Indeed there are still some places where boards are not even allowed on the water on a Sunday, this despite the RYA promising us that by permitting them to be the Governing Body they'd open up inland water to us.
So the only route open to windsurfing was recreation and performance which it enjoyed for the best part of thirty years, it also gave rise to a complete action leisure industry and infrastructure which enabled other sports to prosper often at the expense of windsurfing products.
I could write a book on the subject, but suffice to say the same reasons windsurfing declined are now spreading and affecting this sport and the fundamental reason comes from the top where no doubt corruption and self interest of one sort or another is probably still alive and well and to hell with the rest of us.

Edited by iGRF - 22 Jun 18 at 10:02am