The RS900 - 'our' fantasy dinghy!

The point about symetric  vs assym kites, Grumpf, is not that the assym is easier to trim (hand crank vs electric start), but that the symetric requires a whole new skill set to learn. I would say this, 'cos I'm a 'ball sailor, but where's the skill in handling a big jib downwind? Gybing is a doddle, the driver decides on the angle (or steers the angle the grunt in the front tells him to), bear away if over-powered, head up for more pace. (I'll now duck)

There are so many elements to gybing a symetric kite that when it all goes right we start the next leg with a huge grin and an advantage over those that didn't get it right.

We (mostly) don't drive cars for pleasure. We do it to get where we're going. Sailing we do 'cos we want to. Equating elec windows to Assym's and hand-cranks to Symetrics is a flawed arguement.

I also strongly agree with the comment re sailing a type of boat because of the people, the club, the class etc.

We don't need more classes (however much I admire the effort which has been put into the Alto) - there's summat out there for everyone already.

Charlie's point about the decades of development is very valid - in the "modern" world that grumpf loves so much, boats like the Asbo will never acheive the level of sophistication in the rig, sails, foils and sailing technique that 5oh's, 470s, FDs and Fireballs have, simply because in 2 or 3 years time the manufacturer will have given up on them because todays breed of boat tart is utterly unwilling to sail a boat that can't be mastered inside a season and will have moved on. I don't regard myself as a complete muppet, I can drive a Laser well enough to win at every club I've belonged to, but for the last 15 years the FD has taught me something new about sailing every time I've sailed it. That's what keeps me going, not the desperate search for the latest thing.

I can't see a need for another new class, there are too many classes in UK dinghy racing already and there's a boat out there for everyone if they're prepared to have an open mind and learn some stuff, like how to use a proper spinnaker!

GRF, I agree about seaworthiness.

Years ago I owned a tired old 505, used to take it out in stupid weather. I would get around the course in solent chop despite me not really knowing what I ws doing. Compare with Laser 5000's when they were first popular, some of them needed to move the advertising to the centreboard imho. Seaworthy can describe a boat with its crew as well as just the bareboat though!

But are the 90 boats that went to the fireplace nationals not 'modern day folk'? Maybe I'm not modern day folk?

I also think bodging assym kites onto old hull designs is generally flawed. You're not going to convert the bulk of the club fleet, so why not get something that's been designed for its kite?

I think the RS500 is a nice enough boat, but if I decided to go for a single trap assym boat, I'd have a lot of other choices. I do have slight feeling that the RS400 suffered a lack of attention at beastleigh while they were pushing the 500.

Personally, I don't want to just buy a racing boat, I want to join a fleet of people I want to race against, and learn from, and socialise with, particularly at local club level. That's the strength of the established classes. I don't think diluting things with new classes helps, unless there is an exceptional gap in the market, or technology step. High performance is important, but so is one design racing.

Cheers.

I think the standard Winder 'ball or Merlin is pretty close to what you describe already...