SMODwatch from Racing Classes Review

Originally posted by Stefan Lloyd Originally posted by damp_freddie For UK manufacturing with this labour intensity a GM of 25% is positively indecent. Compared to what?

Compared to a run of Yand Y'ing would be a good start, or those sinclair pedlos that did so well..... British industry, best in the world..... maybe its because everyone who can read is getting paid to watch this forum.

Originally posted by damp_freddie Originally posted by Stefan Lloyd Originally posted by damp_freddie Whatever happened to the MRX?? Pop along to the Merlin Rocket forum and there was a surprisingly even-handed  thread on the subject recently.  got a link for these?

http://www.merlinrocket.co.uk/forum/main/topic.asp?topic=175 0&forum=main&comments=31&page=1&sort=5&o rder=1&search=mrx

I could point you at manufacturers making GP at 70-80%. Net profit much, much less. There is a huge difference, particularly if you are doing R&D. But 25%,  even supermarkets make that on a lot of lines. 

Nothing is wrong with making money - I really don't think anyone working in sailing is making very much out of it.

In making something like a boat or a rudder, an awful lot of man hours go into it - and the cost of the product is really quite low. Most factories producing small specialist items will be looking at around £60 per man hour for workshop time and only a few pounds of that will be profit. The majority will go on rent / tax / bills etc.
Given that I can buy a complete rudder for about £400, that seems pretty good value to me once materials are taken into account - it would take me a lot more than 6 hours to build one myself!

SMODWatch 2006

Not nearly so much info this year...

Again I only have some of the two handers

What have you got to hide??
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RS, not quoting new boats built *or* latest sail numbers for any of their racing classes! Has it been a *very* bad year boys?

First green shoots?
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B14 - 4 new boats from 2 last year
Tasar - 5 from 1 last year

Dying out?
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L4000 - 0 new boats for second year running

Sail Number inflation of the year
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Buzz, last year latest no 1100, this year they claim 1 sold and latest number 1200!!

Still Nailed to the Perch
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5000 - 1 since 1999
Boss - none since 1999
Iso - none since 2002
Laser 2 - none since 2002
Spice - none for a few years

Us, Keep Track?
===============
49er - sent last years numbers
29er - no sales figure recorded. Sail number figure is 150ish, but the sail number increase has always been higher than the quoted UK new boats. (120 and 35 last year.
ISO - Latest sailnumber was quoted as 1208 in 2002, 1251 in 2003, 1220 in 2004 & 5 and 1207 this year!

What's quite clear is that non-racing rotomoulds are where the money is. For all the strength to the youth classes none of the adult smod racing two handers seem to be doing that well, if you assume the lack of info from RS is embarassment rather than the inability to fill out a form. Could be either I'm sure. RS do quote a RS200 sailno number in the text which implies about 70 shipped, well down from the last few years 100ish, but that might not be at the same point in the calendar.

Edited by JimC

Jim,

You overlooked the winner of the "Where is my Bonus boss" category this year with 60 boats sold ... Musto Skiff

Also there were loads of Fireflies built ...

Rick

Edited by Guest#260