Dinghies in 2020

The joke about the rotomoulds might not be far from reality.  There was a time when we thought we'd all be jetting around the world at supersonic speeds and what did we get - Jumbos?

Chris 249 has some good ideas about the future.  I think he is right about classes grouping together a bit like TASA and Fastsail.  We've been talking about this sort of thing at Bough Beech SC.  For instance does it really matter if somebody is sailing a 29er, a 4000 or a 400, at Bough Beech each will have his day depending on conditions.  Their PYs are all within 4% which is a small difference compared to getting a couple of shifts right.  Similarly a Blaze, RS300 an EPS and a Phantom.  So perhaps we'll see the evolution of formula type racing like the cats with the F18 fleet.

If so I wonder if it would work with boats of similar PY but disimilar in other respects.  Take for instance the RS200, Supernova, Scorpion and the Albacore - all within a knats wisker in PY but all very different.  Perhaps with a formula you could accommodate rotomoulds and epoxy/carbon in the same fleet by allowing a bigger sail with the heavier hulls.  Whoops sorry getting off topic - I should be in the PY thread.

Getting back, I'm beginning to think we are in a golden age of dinghy development.  New materials are primarily responsible for this but this caters for "expert/enthusiast", are we going to see sailing become a more popular "ordinary" activity where low price, low maintenance and ease of use are the main parameters?  If this happens then the emphasis will be less on performance and less on inovation.

 

 

Rotomoulds and more Carbon, will have to wait and see.

Besides boats, what are we going to be wearing on the water??

It may seem an odd thing to say but sailing is cheap, compared to motorsport. Now, if you are an adrenalin junkie and wish to get your fix you can probably compete in a season of highly competative skiff racing for a fraction of the cost of a minor car or bike series. There will always be a hard core of young chaps (and chapesses) wishing to push the sport forward and because of its relative cheapness and given a few saccrafices they can do it. Fast boats will carry on getting faster and more technicaly advanced and these advances will carry along development on more prosaic classes. Even the humble Graduate has Mylar sails in its hottest form and most GP14's are frp., Phantoms have developed within their class rules to become a modern well sorted boat and Tasar(which needed no development being perfect already) has see through sails. When taking an overview of the sport this forum is probably not the best guide to its health and development as most of its participants are young and keen, not me! There are 10 sailing clubs in Derbyshire and on Sunday all of them will be club racing. The boats racing will be of varied class age and cost. Somwhere on the deep blue sea there will be a group of fit bronzed young athletes trapezing into the sunset. There is a niche for us all and gradualy redundant boats will gather in the nettles at the back of the boat park whilst new ones turn up on the water slowly developing until eventualy they too take to the undergrowth.

Originally posted by redback Surely clothing can't get much better than it is, except maybe cheaper.

Well saying that, spray tops over the past 2-3 years seem to have their own small leaps, more efficient, better fitting.  Wetsuits have developed better stitching processes so we dont end up with those terrible after sailing seem scars.  Tops like the aquafleece keeping us warmer whilst maintaining flexibility.  I think sailing clothing will continue to progress as materials are always being made more effecient, lighter and more flexible. 

I would also like to think that the general sailor will become better and better over time.  Certainly over the past few years coaching has seemed to become ever more readily available to the weekend club sailor.  Hopefully the RYA will develop a programme where by they have a team of coaches they send out round the country to all the small clubs for coaching weeknds. 
I think it would be a great step to make readily available coaching the 'norm' in sailing.  That way the standard of the average sailor going up and up and boat designers, manafacturers and class associations wouldnt be afriad of development because they would know that their newer faster designs WOULD be sailable. 

And with fastsail and TASA in mind, dont forget the newly organised, Symmetric Hikers Challenge!  Prizes such as masts and new suits of sails up for grabs as prizes, thats a pretty good sponsership deal if you ask me. 

Doug.H