Why RS300 aren't really selling....

hahahahahahahahaha

thats the funiest thing i have read in ages the guy should be a journalist

I got bored after a while when you could win every club race going without trying to hard i thought it was time to go back and win another vareo nationals as for now i bought a 600 in the end because i fancyed a new challenge in life

I think the biggest problem that the 300 has is that so many of them are second boats. All 4 of the ones at my club are, and i know of several others.

Should express a double conflict of interest here. Iain's a mate, and i thought it may have been my 300 he borrowed when it bit him in the arse..... but then it probably wasnt as mine has a sealed mast (as they all should) that means unless you death roll on a run with the sail right out its very likely to invert quickly. In fact a technique I use if needed is to walk up the boom to in front of the wide bit to go over the top. I can do this without it inverting and thats saying something as I'm not small. There's also a bit of elastic that should go around the board to hold it in place, but this is built into the daggerboard case and can be a bitch to change if it breaks so often gets overlooked. In the rare few times I've inverted mine I've never ever lost my centreboard.

The rest of the stuff mentioned sounds like technique. I'll be the first to admit that it is a quirky boat, it certainly takes time to get used to. The sail controls as mentioned are weird in the way they work, but they do work. I actually love gybing mine in strong winds, often, I fall in, but thats down to me not the boat. It's the most like a board to gybe of any dinghy i've sailed, heel it over on top of you slightly and with very little rudder movement needed, time the sheet movement right, and run under the boom while kind of kicking the back of the boat round without moving the rudder more than a couple of degrees. Hard to describe but when you get it right it feels good (and you stay dry).

There arent many boats that I think if you master, you could say you could pretty much sail anything (foiling excepted as I'm sure this requires a whole new set of techniques), but the RS300 is one. Its all been said on here before but there are few dinghies that will teach more about balance and trim so quickly. If you havent tried one, rather than reading about them, get out there and give one a try. But dont be put off if you fall in! It's good to hear that Steve does still occasionally too - there is hope for the rest of us yet!

I can fully understand why the boat doesnt sell new, its a real shame, as it is a fantastic boat to sail. The cost of a new one is now frankly ridiculous compared to its peers, and the fact that 10 year old boats are still just as quick as new ones doesnt help. However, just try and get a second hand one. They have been like rocking horse poo over the last couple of years. I know of one that was for sale for a matter of hours before being sold.

Disagree with the ugly status as well, IMO they are one of the nicest looking boats about. But I am probably slightly biased.

Ah why not:

Why doesn't the 300 sell? IMO- poorly positioned and misunderstood from the outset, arguably the betamax of the dinghy sailing world that's led to it being a niche class.

I spent the first ten years of its life thinking it was 'girls boat'. That's what happens when you use Shirley Robertson as your poster girl. I also know someone (female), good sailor in our handicap fleet, who upgraded from her Europe, hated it... I mean really hated it and ended up getting an OK. It was back before WTF was a common acronym, but it pretty much summed up her reaction to it if I recall correctly.

I then hadn't really seen them around much, there were certainly none at the student nationals back int he late 90's... plenty of other weird and wonderful things.   They're still fairly low visibility if you're not a follower of forums like this. I guess my perception began to change when there was a big guy at the new club I joined when I moved to the midlands. He had one, I thought it was the oddest thing... seeing this fellow of solid proportions sail a 'girl's boat', he seemed to love it though, so fair enough. There was another bloke at the club sailing one too back then... he was sh*t hot, I just put that down to talent rather than the boat, apparently his brother is better though?    

It was only when I started to speaking to this other friendly chap, who at the time had a Blaze when I had my 600, he said he was going to get one. 'What a girl's boat?' I said. 'No seriously' he replied, ' they're fantastic weight carriers'.... He bought one and hasn't looked back since... well only to see the people who used to beat him now behind him, considerably so, as he's put a LOT of time in and taken him from (with respect) an average club dude to a very talented sailor. I understand this wasn't without hard work and on occasion a bit of sweat and a lot of blood, but if there was ever an example of how a boat can help a person progress, then that was probably it.

So what about the future... well RS probably aren't going to chuck a load of marketing guff behind it now, it's carved a niche and niche is probably where it will stay. Behind the scenes, the folks at RS who have built and sailed them, absolutely love them. They are very pure, if misunderstood dinghies. If all those people like me who bought 100s only to find their clubs couldn't really accomodate them had bought 300s instead, then it would be a bigger, but not necessarily 'better' class. It's no coincidence that the 300 was the first RS class to push through major sail changes (cost reductions!!!) with relative little fuss (from the actual sailors anyway). This is also on a backdrop which ditched weight bands from the class rules years ago. They don't seem too worried about rules and regulations... the best sailor wins, everyone enjoys themselves- job done, happy weekend. More people would no doubt ruin that easy going attitude, honestly it's fairly non-SMODy for a SMOD class.

FWIW- I kind of wish I had hung on to mine for a bit longer, it was good fun and whilst the learning curve was tough, it wasn't insurmountable.   (I sold it knowing the 100 was about to launched and couldn't afford the 'hit' in instant depreciation with a new boat on order) I certainly regret buying a Phantom instead of one when I sold my MPS.   The 300 is one of the few boats I would buy again in the future, the only other is the MPS, but again it's not really accommodated for at Draycote and the reason I sold it in the first place, was lack of TOW.    


Edited by rogue - 16 Dec 11 at 10:17am