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pondmonkey View Drop Down
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    Posted: 10 Oct 12 at 4:18pm
Originally posted by G.R.F.

The Biggest con ever carried out was the suggestion that everyone buying the same dinghy was somehow a good thing and the use of the term 'Class' to utilise the quirky British adherence to its own 'Class' system with it's snob appeal.

If ever the perpetuation of inferior products was an art form, it is characterised by the dinghy world.



But alas it was no con, quite the contrary... if you study the history of the classes which have proved popular, many were developed within a rule set to enable competitive sailing from home builds or Fred in the Shed for a bit of beer money.  Sailing's big boom period in the 50's-70's was a revolution against the elitism of the yachting establishment... it's very foundations were around rule limited classes and equal competition (terrible word for the 21st century, but this is sailing nomenclature after all)   The lipsticks just extend this ethos with a bit of commercialisation and convenience now the skill set for building in wood was essentially removed from the curriculum.  Maggie's boys ensured we were service-sector cannon fodder rather than actually having any skills or dirty hands, so now we have to buy our boats rather than build them... hence the drop in numbers when you value judge disposable income verses disposable time.


Edited by pondmonkey - 10 Oct 12 at 4:21pm
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Post Options Post Options   Quote Guests Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 10 Oct 12 at 4:57pm
Thanks Chris,

I totally take the point that a good product is more than just a list of good technical features - it needs to offer the whole package, and the features need to lead to benefits.

Despite the fact that the design is, in my not very humble opinion, 'better' I do not yet have the wider aspects in place to make it a better offering to the mainstream consumer than the alternatives.

Too many small builders seem to think that carbon, for example, is a benefit. It isn't. It is merely a feature. The benefit might be that the lighter, more easily driven hull will stagger less in gusts and so send you swimming less, thereby tickling your ego and making you feel good, but even that isn't the case if real weight savings aren't achieved.

I have no desire to offer geeky products - my ambition (laugh away) is to enter the dinghy market with a handul of complimentary mainstream designs that are 'better' not by virtue of being faster but by being more responsive to user input, more reliable, less hassle, better value, more practical, etc.

Re the hull lines. The forward sections are fuller and more rounded than a Bethwaite hull, so maybe a little Woofish, but obviously the Cobra is not as fast and powered up as a 12. The idea is not so much about being able to (tight) reach with the kite, but more about not feeling bullied by the kite. I have some basic theoretical (unvalidated) polars comparing the 100 and Cobra, I'll see if I can dig them out tonight.
      
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Post Options Post Options   Quote Guests Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 10 Oct 12 at 5:02pm
I do agree with Graeme that class association members interests are not always (often?) the best interests of the boat product. Builders get caught between appeasing existing customers and attracting new ones. And whilst for everyone there are far more potential customers than existing ones it is a brave person who decides it is worth losing one in the hand in the hope that there are two in the bush.
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pondmonkey View Drop Down
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Posts: 2202 		Post Options Post Options   Quote pondmonkey Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 10 Oct 12 at 5:07pm
Originally posted by Peaky

... it is a brave person who decides it is worth losing one in the hand in the hope that there are two in the bush.

or absolutely asinine if you look at windsurfing as a case study.  In the desire to look cooler, design tricker and pretend to be more Maui than Maidenhead, they've lost nearly all the racing windsurfers and recreational windsurfing is at an all time low.  

The kit got monumentally more difficult to use as the wave-only ethos built, in turn where is the industry now?  Pricing itself out of the market with cheap imports that break apart easily, simply because it doesn't have sustainable models for a quality product with the volume that's left.  

Graeme knows this, and would probably be the first to accept the dichotomy on his entire argument offline in the pub... after all, it's the EPS and the Blaze that have actually ticked his boxes on the water, not the RS100, MPS or the V-Twin.


Edited by pondmonkey - 10 Oct 12 at 5:10pm
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