RS500 ...

This must be the cheapest focus group LDC ever got to show them there was no point in actually launching a new build.

They sniffed a gap in the market, but there is no market in the gap!

We have a pile of reasonable performance 'semi displacement' boats in this category- the laser offerings, the buzz ,the Chrub,  the ISO and all the symmetrical classes.

If you want true modern, higher performance which takes you to the future of sailing and the current olympic 'pinacle' 49er then there is a nice little package for teenagers at around 2 grand less than what LDC want to sell anything for.- 29er.

It isn't a tough boat to sail. It does need finesse and a new approach to sailing which fits in with a certain thing called PROGRESS!!

LDC will come up against a wall of 'lightly used' second hand single trap boats suitable for average teenagers who have been put off by the elitist 29er image - which is a by product of having such a narrow 'squad' pyramid mentality in the RYA

The real big gap in the market is for heavier sailors. We are left out of most all of the production skiff and semi displacement racers and left with the Finn, FD or 505. The 59er fits the bill in terms of moving to a high performance category of sailing in our usual winds, but it has been appaullingly marketed as an old, fat duffers boat and priced too high to make in roads

No, that's not all that needs to be said.

If you are buying say, a car, that is an individual decision. It doesn't really matter to you if 1000 or 100,000 people buy the same model. You might well like something exclusive.

If you are buying a racing boat, you are buying into a class and you want others to do the same. It's more like buying a fax machine; pretty useless if you own the only one. The economists have a term for this kind of product whose value increases as more people buy it: they talk about network effects and Metcalf's law. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network_effect

The proliferation of classes changes sailing for everyone. Those clubs still running "adopted class only" policies come under increasing pressure to allow in new classes. Class racing is under pressure at some clubs and pretty much gone at others. Equally, nobody would dispute that good new classes emerge amongst the quickly-forgotten ones.

Whether you let market forces prevail, as most but not all clubs in the UK do, or whether you strongly steer sailors to established classes, as seems to happen in much of mainland Europe and some clubs here, is a decision that has big effects on the way the sport develops. It's a subject that needs to be discussed.

I'm not saying I know the answers one way or another. My point is just that there is more to it than "consumer choice".

Edited by Stefan Lloyd

Originally posted by Stefan Lloyd If you are buying a racing boat, you are buying into a class and you want others to do the same. It's more like buying a fax machine; pretty useless if you own the only one. The economists have a term for this kind of product whose value increases as more people buy it: they talk about network effects and Metcalf's law. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network_effect

Stefan,

I worked with Bob Metcalf during my 6 years at 3Com and I don't think his "law" was really applicable in this situation but I think you are making a valid point.

People want a boat they enjoy AND in most cases a boat they can race - which means you need others. We need fleets to enjoy our sailing.

The thing I would be worried about if I worked at LDC is all the general negative vibe towards LDC shown on this forum - they will no doubt sell 40 boats off the stand at Excel but the market perception of the company is not healthy if this forum is any indication.

Rick

That's right - you can theorise about any market dynamic or structure if you like but the dinghy racing world is only really a specialist niche at best.  A 'free'' market does have its flaws but what alternative could be suggested - "you all should  sail what we think is good for us all - and we know best"  Sounds a little bit like good old command economy thinking to my mind - thought the wheels fell off that one in 1989.  

Don't blame the suppliers - but they should also realise that the customer can be as equally unreliable in the end - and suppliers who produce too many orphans can in time suffer the consequencesmore generally.  Besides the 'golden' days of strict one designs being the only thing you were permitted to sail at some locations were not really that golden really.  You could get lumbered with some dated, hopeless old barge class "because it is good for the quality of the racing .... and its 'fair".  Are you really sure ? Club one-design racing may be in partial decline but people are much more mobile as well today.  They can get practice and handicap racing at their home club and 'class' racing whenever they want on the racing circus.  It's a different model but its just as valid and you get to sail what you want not what someone else imposes on you.  'Approved classes only' can work locally but the best racing is generally found on the open circuit in the majority of clases and posssibly always has been there.  You like your class - get out and race it at your club and on the circuit. 

I have not got a clue whether the RS500 will prosper or even if its a good boat.  It does have a lot of competition of course the V3000, Vago, 29er, even the Buzz and 420 have a lot going for them so it will be tough and someone could end up in tears.  However competition is the only model that works long term - edict (or even a big marketing spend) only in the short term.  May the best boat or boats win !  Internationally that might already be the 29er/420 but in the UK there just might be enough room for Vago/V3000 (which really does look the part) and RS500. All depends on how small a segment you can claim as your own. 

Mike L.

    

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Originally posted by blaze720  Club one-design racing may be in partial decline but people are much more mobile as well today.

Yes they are. You can question where the people who are running all these opens are going to come from if people are flitting from club to club though. It's clubs and club members who run racing.

You can also question whether people are still going to be so mobile in 10-20 years time. Increased congestion, oil prices, who knows? When you start becoming stuck in traffic jams at 07:30 on a Sunday morning on the way to sailing (as has happened to me more than once), you begin to think....this is too much like the daily grind.

 

Edited by Stefan Lloyd