A new class of dinghy?

Originally posted by KazRob In the same vein as using newspaper, there's a very well known Danish OK with postage stamps below a clear finish. Stunning but how much work must that have been!

Sending it????

It's good to see young Mr Holman back on here, especially as I've worked out exactly what new boat I'd like to see.....

In this day and age, with more and more Clubs wanting to provide a 'gym membership' style product for their members, what I think is needed is a Fusion Plus....

A bit longer than the Fusion, and a little bit deeper, the Plus would be a proper grown-ups version of this fabulous little rotomould. This would allow Clubs to go and buy a ready-made fleet for their members to use.... all the benefits of low maintenance etc, with performance around Laser levels.

Here's my thinking....
Lasers are easily the biggest fleet at our Club, but with the exception of 1 or 2, they never leave our water to do opens etc, so the only reasons they're bought are;
a) To get fleet racing
b) To benefit from strong residuals

If the Club were able to buy 6-10 Fusion Pluses, both of these issues are addressed, with those who still wish to have their own boat still buying if they so wanted, but the majority could pay their all-inclusive memb fee and race the Club fleet.
The boats (just like the Fusion) could be leisure sailed during the week, with or without jib (and kite), then unarig raced at the weekend.

So Dan.... a Fusion for 2 adults (and raced laser-style by one..... could it be done?

Instead of pratting around with seventies roto'guess'moulding technology we should be tasking young Mr Holman into producing CAD files capable of 3D printing a boat. I would think by now there are machines about big enough and materials light and sturdy enough for the task and as a 'just in time' business production model that would suit the volumes that this 'market' is capable of providing, ideal for the task.

Like plans for wood builds, he could sell the files to independent builders or classes if you will.

Either way, it strikes me as the only sensible route for the future.

Edit.. Not quite as ridiculous as it sounds.. Titanium Laser anyone?)

Edited by iGRF - 27 Sep 18 at 8:34am

Mass Market is never really an option for watersports for two reasons, 1)Half the population can't swim and 2)Of those that do their greatest fear is deep water. Source for this was a survey we engaged years ago when windsurfing first showed signs of declining it was carried out for a manufacturer, ironically rotomoulding cheap boards, they went broke. This sort of leisure item really needs fair pricing for perceived good quality,performance and added value features, can't think of a single dinghy product that ticks any of those boxes.

The same time I bought my bits of plywood and epoxy fashioned into a racing dinghy shape I also purchased a retro classic triumph scrambler, guess which one I'm really happy with and which one is a joke has constantly fallen apart and will have to go back to the builder for a thorough overhaul.

Edited by iGRF - 27 Sep 18 at 10:25am

Originally posted by iGRF Mass Market is never really an option for watersports

Would have thought the SOT and SUP boom of the last few years is fairly close to mass market as many sports get.

Probably difficult to recreate in sailing due to the expense of the foils/rig/sails even if the hull is cheap as, and once you get to dinghy size and weight you lose the portability/storage advantages and the actual sailing learning curve is not something most can do without significant training.

However as a pay/play club fleet it does sound like an interesting idea.

Recent big growth seems to be in inflatable SUPs - Tinker Tramp anyone...