The RS100 Owners Thread

congratulations, I hear Akela will personally sew on your trolling badge. 

I am not going into a full debate over marketing strategies again (although its obvious Jim wants another bin fight between the classes)  however James is right.  Rodney and Suntouched who were the instigators of the relationship with Devoti and Dan, who helped develop a commercial product out of one mans dream.  Cannot be accused of over hyping anything.  Rodney and his wife Sue are some of the most lovely people you will meet.  They work tirelessly in delivering excellent customer service and great products.  Rodney is also incredibly honest.  If he thinks he has cocked up or their is a fault with one of his boats he would tell you.  Flashy video's, questionable statements are not his 'bag' delivering a good product to normal people is.

Now as for RS, they work differently, that's their prerogative.  They have budget and resource to be able to offer something different.  Sure i poke at them, but you cant argue they deliver a good campaign.  My issue has always been with some of the claims made, i always felt they did themselves a disservice.  I just don't think they were needed.  As a consumer I am allowed to voice my thoughts on an open forum.  I also EXPECT to be challenged, forums are about debates, weird points of view and banter.  RS play the game and i guess they expect it, certainly from me.

Well said Simon, the 'hype' (if you want to brand it as that) has, on the whole, come from people who actually own the boat(s) and rightly so. I love my D-Zero, it has re-ignited my love of sailing. Had it not come along and had i not got one then it is likely I would have stopped sailing.

If Jim's idea of hype is few enthusiasts sharing their enthusiasm on the internet, then frankly he's not living in the same world as the rest of us; and being just a tad hypocritical.  He's also being a little disingenuous- this is a dinghy development thread, and sometimes development means simplification and efficiency, not yet another marketing gimmick or some development boat elitist 'game changer' that cosigns 90% of their fleet to the history books of uncompetitiveness.     

When it comes to Devoti and Suntouched, there's certainly no commercial hype, or company released videos showing someone lifting it to the water windsurf stylee (like to see it in a good F4 cross/off), and others released, therefore endorsing bold claims about upwind planing.  And Designer Dan, lovely bloke, but not a natural salesman, which probably goes in his favour for any 'early adopters' with the burn scars. 

The D-Zero, is, in my opinion the anthesis of hype - it's nothing more than a Laser with the turds polished out.  It's a nice little boat, other than trying to get enough people together to give it some legs, and a certain amount 'so simple it's refreshing', I can't see where there's any hype whatsoever... if anything it could probably do with a bit more, but then that's not Rodney style, he'd rather drag them around the country and let people make their own minds up from sailing it than commission a professional videographer and some Facebook credit.

Having sailed both new boats, I think they deserve a bit of hype as they have moved the game on in slightly different ways and after 40 years of the laser and its one regatta use tin pole, its about time.

It will be interesting to see in 18 months time how many of these boats have been sold, but I can't remember the last time I heard about so many new 10+ boat plus fleets being started, so clearly there was a wish for a change. Lets hope they both turn out to be fully developed, robust and good to sail in all conditions.