Controversial Topic of the Week

So it's alright then if the 300's can do it so can anyone ....are there other classes where this is obvious ?..... our experience however with Topper is that they often DUPLICATE numbers with the Blaze and then have to reallocate new ones to the owners !!!!  Can't quite understand how this works or what 'advantage' this might involve but it has happened several times in recent years  ......

Mike '720'

There have always been gaps and anomolies. 

• I believe the Fireball's used to allocate blocks of numbers to the National associations which meant that a brand new boat in the UK could have a very different number to a new boat in any other country.  I used to wonder why the Australians always came over to the Worlds with such old boats.
• There were always numbers issued to home builders which never got built.
• I wasn't aware the 29er 49er and MPS's skipped the first 50 numbers until Rick explained it to me on here.
• It was always obvious to me that the L4000 numbers started at 4000, the RS200's at 200 but if you didn't know that fact....

The sail number is at best an indicator of growth.

Ian

In an ideal world yes I agree, but here on Earth this has never been the case for all the reasons we've mentioned before.  The sail number has only ever been a rough indicator and we shouldn't waste any time or energy trying to make it anything else. 

Should the older classes re-issue those numbers which never got built to give a true representation of actual growth.  What a lot of work which could be better channeled to growing the sport.

Should the classes go back and re-issue those blocks of numbers which issued but not produced when the local associations didn't grow as expected.  They obviously decided not to bother which is fine by me..

Did RS commit a mortal sin if they jumped a few numbers from 490 because orders had stopped while their customers were asking for RS300 number 500?  No, they are just a load of sailors trying to keep their customers happy, run a business and grow a fleet. I'm equally aware that they have on accasion issued duplicate numbers in error which obviously has the opposite effect.

If you accept that the numbers are a rough guide only this is all pretty academic really.

Ian

In some classes, a batch is sent off to Minorca, Neilson, Mark Warner or wherever. They of course never figure in open results. Doubt this applies to the missing 300s though.

Agree with Ian that there's little point worrying about it although a little more transparency might be useful for potential buyers who don't know about the first 50 or 4000 or whatever.

Ian, I am surprised you are so relaxed about this given the below statement from a previous thread ...

http://www.yachtsandyachting.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=1 099&KW=1241&PN=0&TPN=4

Rick