Dinghies in 2020

Well our local MPS guy has about as much experience has anyone, he did
a fair attempt at an Olympic campaign as far as I can tell in lasers I
remember him as a kid always out come what may.
I'd guess he must be mid fleet in Musto's, the fact he can sail it at all off
here is credit to him, he's only done two masts that I know of recently,
none of the North Shore ladyboys would even risk launching down here I
know that much.

So no I'd rate him better than average on a par with the guy on the board,
neither one nor the other better or worse at their particular craft.

Anyway this board v boat thing is dragging us back off topic we'll just
have to accept that Boats are Faster down there and Boards are faster up
here.

I think I'll switch threads for the next bit as it's a design idea I want to
throw out there to see if it's been tried already.

Let me guess......Sony Betamax? Sinclair C5? Ford Edsel?

Top 5? Hmm difficult top five by what, product cash value or self satisfaction?

If I go back too far it's probably before your time.

So things that you might be aware of..


The Olympic RSX would probably not have come to being without a product idea I'd spun out
there when I worked with Mistral. The 'Hybrid' which came to pass as a Mistral Prodigy which
Pryde improved on cosmetically but not performancewise.
The short widestyle thing and lots of boards as a result, long and complicated but dating
back to a marketing proposal I wrote back in 91-92 called the Genesis project and initially
was for a board with removable 'wings' to make it wide on which to learn, they just went
ahead with the wide board. Then at a brainstorming meeting that got held in Switzerland in
94, loads of new product ideas got spawned in conference with lots of folk in the "Industry"
at that period. Shortly after the entire management and product team got sacked and left to
work for other company's and all the ideas went with them.
At that meeting the Idea of packaged Foam ∨ Inflatable wind and surfboards , Off road
skateboards for rigs and kites, (ATB's or Mountain Boards)reworking kids toys and luggage
with modern rollerblade and all terrain wheels.

E stays in proper ATB's came about from a similar session, with another Swiss based
operation I had dealings with, as did grip shift system, upside down suspension forks with
compressed air, & micro disc brakes. We launched a full suspension switchable on off system
in 91, long before the market was ready for it and the country in deep recession at the time
failed to accept it in anything other than small numbers.

Prior to all that, and mor relevant to dinghies, I'd built the first commercial series production
hollow board funnily enough at another 505 builder called Parker. That was quite successful,
it also was the first to be trialled with a mast track system that didn't go into production and
the gybing centreboard that also fully retracted although the first version of that ever to
appear was in '79 two years earlier and won me the national series of that year, I also
pioneered sails made in a 'new' material called laminated scrim mylar that was '83. I think
dingies eventually picked up on the idea by 93.

More recently I had a hand in the contour shaped footstraps we use, the toe grip deck pads,
the shorts with the inbuilt harness you didn't like, the impact vest and impact harness
although the exact detailing was carried out by others, me I'm just a 'conceptual what if we
tried this' sort of person these days, handy to have at brainstormers where the rooms full of
clever product guys but no idea what to do next, but would know how to do it the moment
you suggest something.

It's difficult to remember exact details of everything I've had a hand in or influenced, and
seriously in real life I'm not actually one to take 'credit' as long as it gets done and I either get
what I'm after and maybe make some cash along the way, (Kitesurfing safety systems
certainly got improved after my shunt with the promenade wall), but nothing yet you could
point at boats and go yeah that was me. But I've pioneered lots of other stuff commercially
but obviously not in isolation. I kicked off Oneil over here, Marin & Mountain Bikes, Burton &
Snowboards then gave it away and of course Dakine owes it's existence in the UK initially to
me.

But putting this back in context, which is about 2020 boats, a few years ago in another life
time, I might have looked at this market and wandered into it in some commercial manner or
other, but now is not the moment, it needs to continue the current shake out and see what's
left, if the enthusiasm lasts that long.

In the meanwhile I'll keep a weather eye open on developments and anything comes
along that catches my attention, you never know, maybe dinghies will catch on
to Cuben Fibre by 2013.

Edited by G.R.F.

Originally posted by G.R.F. Top 5? Hmm difficult top five by what, product cash value or self satisfaction? If I go back too far it's probably before your time. So things that you might be aware of.. The Olympic RSX would probably not have come to being without a product idea I'd spun out there when I worked with Mistral. The 'Hybrid' which came to pass as a Mistral Prodigy which Pryde improved on cosmetically but not performancewise. The short widestyle thing and lots of boards as a result, long and complicated but dating back to a marketing proposal I wrote back in 91-92 called the Genesis project and initially was for a board with removable 'wings' to make it wide on which to learn, they just went ahead with the wide board. Then at a brainstorming meeting that got held in Switzerland in 94, loads of new product ideas got spawned in conference with lots of folk in the "Industry" at that period. Shortly after the entire management and product team got sacked and left to work for other company's and all the ideas went with them. At that meeting the Idea of packaged Foam �É Inflatable wind and surfboards , Off road skateboards for rigs and kites, (ATB's or Mountain Boards)reworking kids toys and luggage with modern rollerblade and all terrain wheels. E stays in proper ATB's came about from a similar session, with another Swiss based operation I had dealings with, as did grip shift system, upside down suspension forks with compressed air, & micro disc brakes. We launched a full suspension switchable on off system in 91, long before the market was ready for it and the country in deep recession at the time failed to accept it in anything other than small numbers. Prior to all that, and mor relevant to dinghies, I'd built the first commercial series production hollow board funnily enough at another 505 builder called Parker. That was quite successful, it also was the first to be trialled with a mast track system that didn't go into production and the gybing centreboard that also fully retracted although the first version of that ever to appear was in '79 two years earlier and won me the national series of that year, I also pioneered sails made in a 'new' material called laminated scrim mylar that was '83. I think dingies eventually picked up on the idea by 93. More recently I had a hand in the contour shaped footstraps we use, the toe grip deck pads, the shorts with the inbuilt harness you didn't like, the impact vest and impact harness although the exact detailing was carried out by others, me I'm just a 'conceptual what if we tried this' sort of person these days, handy to have at brainstormers where the rooms full of clever product guys but no idea what to do next, but would know how to do it the moment you suggest something. It's difficult to remember exact details of everything I've had a hand in or influenced, and seriously in real life I'm not actually one to take 'credit' as long as it gets done and I either get what I'm after and maybe make some cash along the way, (Kitesurfing safety systems certainly got improved after my shunt with the promenade wall), but nothing yet you could point at boats and go yeah that was me. But I've pioneered lots of other stuff commercially but obviously not in isolation. I kicked off Oneil over here, Marin & Mountain Bikes, Burton & Snowboards then gave it away and of course Dakine owes it's existence in the UK initially to me. But putting this back in context, which is about 2020 boats, a few years ago in another life time, I might have looked at this market and wandered into it in some commercial manner or other, but now is not the moment, it needs to continue the current shake out and see what's left, if the enthusiasm lasts that long. In the meanwhile I'll keep a weather eye open on developments and anything comes along that catches my attention, you never know, maybe dinghies will catch on to Cuben Fibre by 2013.

Well there we have it Grumpfs you are a true legend, you clearly have the knowledge to rubbish the works of many dinghy designers. I never knew you were the man behind the RSX and all those other things ... did you know that  Jean Bouldoires has taken the credit for your concept?

BTW did you know the internet would have never have existed if it were not for me? Whilst working in a small UK networking start-up in the late 80's early 90's we often discussed the opportunities for driving the cost down and performance up of LAN & WAN connections to massively increase the prevalence of internetworked PCs.

Edited by Guest#260

You were a bit slow on the uptake with mylar Grumpf - I had my first mylar 505 sails in 1981 and I certainly wasn't the earliest adopter.  So lets cross that breakthrough off shall we ;-)