SMODwatch from Racing Classes Review

I think what most of us like about your data analysis from the review is that it saves us having to do any maths. As for it being incomplete/inaccurate, that is up to the classes. Maybe if the RS class associations filled in the forms, rather than RS (I'm assuming they don't, here, could be wrong) would we get better data?

Maybe GRF can dig out the 500 stats so we can compare them with it's rivals? I'd like to know how it is comparing to the Fireball now, as at Whitefriars it has killed them. I'd be surprised if that has happened in too many other places, though.

Originally posted by alstorer RS I believe run their class associations. It's been part of the key to their success.

My impression, having talked with the chairman of an RS class association, is that members set the direction but RS provides the operation e.g. secretarial support, website etc.

SMODWatch 2008
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As before, just looking at two handed adult racing classes. I shall have to consider reworking this if I post again next year because there seem to be fewer and fewer such classes about...

I reckon that sales of two string and equivalent (B14) boats are less than half they were ten years ago. You would have thought, with the first generation of 29er sailors well into their 20s now, that the skills base capable of handling the extreme boats is so much bigger that the performance boats would be thriving, but no.

How is it, for example, that there were 40 buyers for the rather (IMNSHO) then nasty and antiquated I14s in 1991, but in the last few years, when the class can, for the first time in something like 60 years, genuinely claim to be near state of the art, and are about twice the boat to sail, people only want 5 or 6 a year? It seems as if high performance boats are just going out of fashion.

Its interesting that Laser and Topper have effectively dipped out of the racing class market. It begins to look to me almost as if sailing is going the way of the motor industry, where racing is a minority activity principly handled by specialist concerns, and the majority of vehicle purchasers are not interested in competition. This strikes me as a very big challenge for sailing clubs, especially the inland ones. Start a new topic if you want to discuss that folks, and lets try and avoid last year's sub ideal OT rants...

Thanks to Nick Peters I have RS numbers for the last year even though they're not in the YY document. I note that not only did the RS association secs not send the new boats built numbers he gave them, they also sent YY different latest sailnumbers!!

Rude health
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RS 200 78, sail numbers suggest averaging 75 a year
RS 500 89. Its very early in the lifecycle yet these, but RS must be pleased so far. Its perhaps marginal whether I should have included this class in the list and not the Feva, which is also doing very well.

Picking Up Again
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RS 400 36, sail numbers suggest they had a bit of a blip in 06/07 and are recovering from that.
RS 800 27, again the sail numbers suggest they only sold about a dozen in 06 and 07, so my thoughts that they were begining to look rocky were correct, but things seem to have improved.

Still kicking
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B14 - 5 last year from 2
Tasar - 4 up from 3

Back in the Emergency Ward
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L4000 - no boats again, 1 in last 4 years

Still wriggling in the coffin
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Iso - 1 boat this year, 2 since 2002

Still Nailed to the Perch
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Nah, I'm not going to list them, its too cruel:-)

Us, Keep Track?
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49er - no sales figure again.
29er - no sales figure again.

I particularly mistrust 29er/49er sail numbers which have never seemed to have a big relationship with boats sold in the UK.

No report at all for the 59er. The customers just didn't come. This is a shame, because its a boat I thought would have done well. That proves what *my* opinions are worth!

As for the 29erXX, I'm beginning to wonder if they've actually sold any at all..



Edited by JimC

In that case the published sail numbers suggest that 128 of 129 worldwide 29ers were sold in the UK, and 23 of 25 worldwide 49ers. They're by no means the only classes for which the data is problematic, and you mustn't take this survey very seriously.

As for SMOD or not, I think for most of us if a class isn't measured and is controlled by a manufacturer or consortium of manufacturers it counts as a SMOD. The class on the list whih could probably object most to that categorisation, if is indeed objectionable at all (its usually used as a sales point) is the B14 where I believe you can pick your own supplier of sails and they have to measure rather than meet specification. AIUI the 49er and 29er were developed by (different) consortia of manufacturers.

To me at least, a non Single Manufacturer one design is a class like the Enterprise or Tornado, where rights are held by the Class Association and the various components must be constructed to fall within a range of measurements which are intended to provide "room for error" in construction rather than differing shape, and there is normally much more freedom on things like fitting layout, choice of sailmaker and so on. However the boats are all intended to be the same basic shape, and the same person gets the designer's royalty.

A restricted or development class is one where the rules are framed to deliberately enourage variation in design, and the person responsible for the shape of the individual boat is entitled to the design royalty.

Naturally every single shade of gray in between exists, one design hulls with development rule sails, one design rigs with development hulls, and I can think of one class at least which, if my memory serves me right, permits very open development of rigs with single manufacturer hulls!



Edited by JimC

Kenny, thanks for the kind words...

One thing to remember is that whilst numbers can tell us what people are doing they can't tell us why. Maybe all those Solo buyers are the hundreds of Fireball and 505 sailors from the 60s and 70s, splashing out on a new boat every year because they know there's no point in saving up cash that will only get used up in care home bills in another few years, whereas the grandchildren who might like to buy Musto Skiffs or Foiling Moths are desperately saving up for mortgages...

And then when I was young we teenagers normally had older boats than the sailors of our parent's generation, but these days it seems to be the reverse, and it seems to be considered that the kids should have the latest and bestest kit. You can maybe see that in boat sales...

If this is the case it seems to me that it may have its downsides... As I have got older and earned better money I've been able, by and large, to have nicer and newer boats. It must come as quite a shock to have to move from having decent newish boats to having ratty old ones when you have to pay for them yourself, and I can imagine people giving up sailing for a few years instead...

Edited by JimC