Racing Classes Review

Originally posted by MerlinMags I haven't updated the site yet as Thursday is the official release day. I know subscribers often get their copies a day or two early, but I don't like to advertise the new cover/contents until people can go to WH SMiths and buy it.

Nice picture of an 18ft Skiff on the cover ... subscription is the way to go

Hopefully mine's at home too then. Certainly didn't get it yesterday.

I think that racing classes thing is a ridiculous assessment of the market
if indeed that's what it is intended as.

It perpetuates ancient dross like fireballs, merlins, cadets ffs

What relevance are they to modern thinking sailors like me for instance?

It's no wonder this market is the shambles that it is. Having to wait eons
for new boats, no continuity or standardization of key fittings.

I'm also whilst in full rant very disappointed with the mag this month the
Blaze nationals review didn't have any pictures and no mention of the
'incident' and controversy that rocked the event with one of the class
builders fielding a special foil or whatever it was that wound them all up.

Then there's still no mention of the Alto (for example) in that listing, how
the hell are you going to get new stuff accepted?

O.K. so it's not yet a racing class, but surely there must be some form of
'other stuff that's race capable" as a secondary list, and there are still too
many stories about lead mines..

I did get it yesterday though, the digital thing is working well, no
improvement on the classifieds yet though..

The reports and pictures are sent in by people in the class. If Y&Y doesn't get them, they can't print them. Same goes for classes in the review.

As for not including old classes, this isn't windsurfing, where kit is thrown away if it is last year's colours, it is a proper competitive sport where the equipment is used to create a level playing field, not to pull babes on the beach.

Grumpf, the notable thing about progress is that it makes most of our kit obsolete and we have to throw it away.
This is not conducive to building big fleets.

The non-progressive classes (or 'dross') like the Fireball are only as big as they are because the boats remain
viable in racing terms for 20 years or more.

Personally I would rather race every weekend in a Fireball with about 12 other boats at my club than buy a new
cutting edge boat every year and race it against one or two others (if I'm lucky) or have to trail it round the
countryside to get some competition. It's too expensive and too much like hard work.

Don't get me wrong, I'm all in favour of progress. But it's just a fact of life that you won't get mainstream
acceptance and big numbers of anything where the pace of change is significant.