RS500 ...

Near enough £5000 is a lot for a young person to spend on a boat. I think people who are interested in racing in their late teens would be considering a lot more boat for that money. Most 18-19 year olds will have grown to about adult size, so why race a boat which is also targeted at a younger audience. I've got a funny feeling that most 19 year olds that want to race high performance boats will be looking towards Cherubs, 4Ks and 5Ks, B14s, fireballs, 505s etc and for the price of a 500, you are starting to enter RS 800 and 49er teritory........

hmmmmm

true we were talking about brand new boats but thats what thiss class is. Surely its going to take a few years before there is a reasonable 2nd hand market?

I dont exacly know how this works but I would imagine that if the boat is great and takes off as a class loads of people will want one so prices will stay high. If its not so great there is likely to be more boats for sail but your maybe less likely to want one.

For someone that is student age and sailing on a budget there are lots of older classes that have been around for ages were there is a big range of 2nd hand options. 5 grand is going to get you a decent boat in pretty much any of the classes this is going up against and with all the bonuses of more class racing and more liklihood of local compation 

True if you are aiming an average priced boat only at the poorest demographic then you will certainly fail but that's not what LDC are saying is it? I thought what they mean is that people will start sailing the boat before they are 19 and stay with it afterwards.

Most popular student boats must be Larks, Ent's, Fireflys and Laser II (looking at the people that make up the class) but that isn't because thay are the cheapest boats on the market and most students don't pack a brand new Laser II in their rucksack alongside the teddy and Pot Noodles when the 'go up'.

I'm sure someone must have said this before but...

Do we really need another class of this type and size? I've just had a look at the LDC website and I fail to see how this boat is bringing anything new to dinghy sailing.

I hope I don't sound like I'm being anti LDC or SMOD because I'm not trying to be. I'm sure it will be a decent enough product but I just don't see the point of it, except that LDC don't already have a boat of this type in their range.