Why RS300 aren't really selling....

Originally posted by timnoyce Originally posted by RS400atC What's he up to these days? Last spotted him with some foily thing.... He's just bought a Cherub!

I remember him using the words 'Int 14', 'modify ' and 'chainsaw' in the same sentence, what's in store for the Cherubs?

A lot of damage to the 300's credibility was done in the early days by the number that were sold and then found on the secondhand market within a month or two by sailors that suddenly realised that they were not good enough to sail them. Whether this still has an effect is not clear but certainly most people I talked too at the time thought they were too difficult to sail and steered clear. We trialed on at our club and everyone was very excited but found it not as easy as they expected for some reason or another. I tried it, loved it and bought one. Fell in a couple of times initially but then got the hang of it pretty damn quickly and hardly went swimming thereafter. I guess that coming from a laser meant that I was used to rock'n'roll running and the 300 wasn't like that. I don't expect that I was ever to Steve411's level but I enjoyed and won a lot of local races and even an open. I thought that it was actually quite easy to sail once you had got used to the balance thing. Sailing it in an 8' swell at Lyme was another matter but even so I kept it upright although not that fast. I only got rid of it as there was no local competition at all and I got a bit on the bloaty side and moved to the Phantom. I really wished that people gave the boat a chance in the early days but having it right now culture killed the boat in my opinion and it has never really recovered, and now that you need around 5 people to encourage RS to build them means that it is never really likely to either, unless of course as an independant ca you can tear the boat from RS's hands and find a new builder that is willing to get on and build them for one or two customers here and there.

Cobblers, it was never meant to be a one design Moth, but it was designed by a Moth designer and you can see plenty of similarities.  It will only appeal to a certain market, correct but then same as a foiling moth, 600, Musto and Canoe does.  Not everybody wants to sail at 20 knotts in a handicap fleet.

That's all about perception of what was said and what was done.  As Ruscoe said it was a Moth designer and the intent was to draw on Moth heritage...but there was more to it than that.  I have heard it said, for example, that the expectation was that the boat was not ecpected to be sailed in F4+.  I have also heard it said that it was aimed as a beach/fun boat.  The latter I struggle with..the former could be correct, but the fact is, once mastered, it's very sailable in some very strong breeze. 

Nick,