two-sail dinghies

Originally posted by Stefan Lloyd Originally posted by Jack Sparrow cough.... it's got three sails. RS400 is for MR sailors that didn't sail an MR becasue a Merlin Rocket is  Restricted Dev Boat and got all wobblerly over spending £15k on something that they felt would get out dated. Three sails.....oddly enough, I'd noticed. Get with the plot here. It's an analogy. We are talking about SMOD clones of development classes now. RS400 wasn't for MR sailors. They weren't the ones who bought them. Similarly, a SMOD clone of a N12 wouldn't be bought by N12 sailors. The market, if there is one, comes from another group.

Mate... take it with a pinch of salt will you. You're the one that's telling me it's an anology. If you read my post properly you have realised I didn't say it was MR sailors that bought them, but people that would like a boat like a MR but didn't want to buy one becasue they are expensive and a Restric Dev class.

I've spent nearly 25 years selling stuff for big brands - and although I have no involvement with RS i think I know what I'm talking about. What do you do for a living?

Originally posted by tickel What is a USB ?

USP.... Unique Selling Point.

Originally posted by Stefan Lloyd Originally posted by 49erGBR735HSC . Building and developing a like SMOD to the N12, for example, would be very difficult and then you'd have to invest some heavy marketing to shift sailors from the class into the SMOD. I don't think it works like that. Consider the RS400 and Merlin Rocket; the first more or less a copy of the latter, and from a prolific MR designer. The RS400 attracted plenty of sailors but not, with a few exceptions, out of the MR fleet.

cough.... it's got three sails.

RS400 is for MR sailors that didn't sail an MR becasue a Merlin Rocket is  Restricted Dev Boat and got all wobblerly over spending £15k on something that they felt would get out dated.

Weak minded cheap skates!!! ( don't flame me for that its a joke )

2 sail boats need a very srong USP.

N12 - you love developing and fidderling.
FireFly - you love team racing
Tasar - you want a rotating rig and don't want a Cat :-)
and let's face it a Tasar is almost a SMOD

So like I said you'ed need a techical innovation, like hydrofoils to sell it in large enough amounts for a manufacture to put the budget behind it. Especially when alot of ther production is geared towards holidays and schools.

Originally posted by 49erGBR735HSC . Building and developing a like SMOD to the N12, for example, would be very difficult and then you'd have to invest some heavy marketing to shift sailors from the class into the SMOD.

I don't think it works like that. Consider the RS400 and Merlin Rocket; the first more or less a copy of the latter, and from a prolific MR designer. The RS400 attracted plenty of sailors but not, with a few exceptions, out of the MR fleet.

 

Reckon another possibility for the big manufacturers not investing in the 2 sail market is because there are already good boats out there auch as the Albacore, N12, Enterprise, Tasar and Firefly. Building and developing a like SMOD to the N12, for example, would be very difficult and then you'd have to invest some heavy marketing to shift sailors from the class into the SMOD. It's probably the same reason that the focus has shifted from the High Performance market to the training market with the big manufacturers, because its an easier market to target and less investment in development and build cost have to be made.