A new class of dinghy?

Originally posted by davidyacht My thinking is that there are a lot of 50+ sailors who have shifted to singlehanders who might consider a second boat to sail with others, including children and grandchildren, who may be looking for something light to move around, and stylish, maintenance free, but does not require a regular crew in order to be competitive, and is not so sophisticated that you need to sail it every weekend to remember the settings.  Non-assymetric because I sail somewhere that assymetrics will never be competitive, like quite a lot of places. It probably would be commercially non viable but this is a forum.

Do the Graduates with the modern larger sailplan carry weight well?

Graduate carries weight rather well, a benefit of carrying a lot of rocker. When I first started sailing mine we were about 15-16st and competitive against 21-22st at the other end.
The variation in the top 5 at this year's nationals was across a similar range.
They are fantastic boats. I now have a Grad and an RS200 and the Grad is a much nicer boat to sail thanks mainly to its longer centre board, but lacks the ability to pick up and plane when its breezier (the downside of rocker).

For me Icon was a good modern progression for those outgrowing a Grad who wanted something a bit more modern than an Ent, but as mentioned previously marginal performance gain with a narrower groove and less numbers to race against is what limits new designs.

You would think with over 10,000 boats sold their would be some semblance of a class association, nothing official happened on website since 2015, everything still works, someone posted a request for a rudder this year, no answers though.