Do we need to raise standards?

Originally posted by Presuming Ed

The front page article about sailing's future, and the "new RS" thread, raised the old issue of the death of old-time amateur boatbuilding and maintenance as a popular hobby. But on cycling forums I see lots of people who are into "building" and modifying bikes. 
There is of course a huge difference between "building" a bike (which normally means assembling bits) and building a boat, but it's interesting to see how people get into playing with bikes. One thing that strikes me is that the cycling manufacturers build kit to unofficial standards that makes everything much easier and more fun in many ways - if you replace a derailleur it just goes into a threaded hole the same size as the old one - if you replace a cleat you often have to fill in the old hole, drill a new one, get different size fastenings, etc.  There's more faffing and less tinkering, in a way.

As far as I know, there aren't any standards for fittings in sailing. Is the sport missing out by making messing with boats too hard these days, and could some (obviously not all) fittings be produced to more more modular and consistent in their mountings and fastenings, just as they are in bicycles? I may add that I saw the same sort of standards and consistency in plastic fishing kayaks when I looked into the depth sounders they use, and people seemed to love it.

Along the same line of thought - many people play with bikes by upgrading their equipment; they may go from Sora gears and brakes to 105, for example. In the cycling world, the hierarchy of equipment is explicit, so manufacturers make money from upgrades and people get to bimble without filling the house with epoxy dust. Would that work in sailing?

In some way this could tie together with the upcoming 3d printing of boats and gear - if kit is going to change dramatically in production and open up new avenues in design surely there should be an effort to create some standards before the developments bring chaos. I've got no idea about IT but it would seem to make it much easier to programme 3d printers if, for example, there were standards in bolt holes and base plates for pulleys. And having such standards could also make it easier to upgrade fittings to those of a superior quality.  So a 3d printed RS9er could be bought with Brandex ClubRacer fittings, and you could in the course of an enjoyable afternoon unbolt everything to uprade to CoolProDude level kit, without pulling out the grinder, bog and 'glass (NTTAWTT). 

Would this sort of approach fit the modern world better than the current one, where fittings appear to be pretty much designed with little thought to common standards and consistency and upgrading is often a PITA?  It certainly works for bikes.

Edited by Chris 249 - 12 Jan 17 at 12:47am