So Whatever happened to..

Originally posted by RS400atC Originally posted by davidyacht Not sure that I can spot the gap in the market for a new class ... whoever is to build or market it ... any ideas? An ultra-light, high quality two hander, modern rig, optimised to be easy to sail by people who are no longer willing to crouch in the bottom of the boat in light air?

Saw an H2 in Chichester Harbour just around Itchenor a few weeks ago. We were coming round from Northney and it was blowing a 6.  The bloke in the H2 was going upwind at a rate of knots and looked very comfortable. Not busting a gut hiking or anything desperately strenuous. Bloody good advert for it I thought.

Originally posted by H2 ]In my mind the H2 never set out to compete with a Laser

The reason the H2 hadn't come up is because hopefully it's a bit early to say 'whatever happened to' ..
The H2 still has traction it's problem comes from lack of marketing in a global sense, there's a potential customer down here, he's been waiting ages to even see one, talks of some event might about to be going on at Herne Bay which is an hours drive and a day out of his life and unlikely even a chance to try it.

Getafix nails exactly the issues, boat numbers and people to spread the word which would be done better with an open rig and more folk profiting from the sales spread in the lack of the ability to finance large numbers of demo boats. Three years ago I made exactly the same case to Ovingtons regarding the Solution but it fell on deaf ears, folk in the marine business are far too involved in their businesses often to see the bigger picture.

I agree with this approach and the comments from iGRF and Getafix actually. The guy that builds the H2 did have two demo boats and was rushing around lots last year but he got to the point where he could not build them fast enough so the demo boats kept getting sold as quickly as he could build them. Where the boat has gotten traction is at places where someone has one - at my club me and one other guy bought in after a demo and that lead to four others buying boats within the next few months once they saw it out there. Whilst I do not have a deal with the maker, he has treated me well when I needed replacement parts or enquired about a trade in which I am sure he sweetened to make it about the cost of a new sail in order to help generate second hand sales which are few when a boat is new.

How to end up with a small fortune in the marine industry: Start with a large one!