What is the worlds favourite sailing dinghy?

Originally posted by 2547 That is interesting ... thanks for that. I wonder why the USA has fallen out of love with sailing dinghies?

Originally posted by 2547 Originally posted by Chris 249 Earlier there were a few posts about Sunfish numbers. A few years ago Steve Clark, one of the partners in the manufacturer of the Laser and Sunfish, noted in an email to me that the Sunfish still outsold the Laser in the USA. Steve's integrity and information seem to be beyond doubt   Granted but there are very few of them around in the worlds biggest dinghy market, Europe.

Given that the Sunfish was massively popular even back in 1959, when Ian Proctor was over in the USA as a journo, and it even inspired him to design the Minisail, I can well believe that 250,000 of then existed. I suspect many of them are now in the big boatyard in the sky.

But just because it is the most numerous, doesn't make it a favourite, neccessarily. As someone said, a person's favourite boat can be something they would never even aspire to sailing, like the 18' skiff.

I just done mine too Good luck with it

Max,

As kindacks has inferred I would tread very carefully and re-consider your project.
Academic assessors are becoming increasingly stringent in their marking. In order to get good grades, your assignment needs to have a clear question. You then need to do suitable research. This can, as you have done take the form of questionnaires but also ensure you use structured or unstructured interviews, focus groups if possible and always ensure that you cite suitable references from credible academic works.
You then need to be able to pull all the inputs together to give a well argued solution or answer and then follow that up with ideas for how you will measure the success or what you will now be able to do with or as a result of the answer.

I might be oversimplifiying and doing you a diservice, but I get the impression that you have written about the classes you have either sailed or know a little about, and then you want the questionnaire results to suggest which was best and then you will explain why in your opinion this is so. Frankly thats not going to win you many academic prizes, sorry!

One piece of advice, I got when studying for a postgrad diploma a few years ago. Try to start you question with the word, "Should...".

So in your case something along the lines of,"Should dinghy development target the historic popular classes?"

A title like this gives you the opportunity to evaluate peoples favourites, explore some history (suitable literature ie. Uffa Fox et al, get the boatbuilder/developers views (perhaps get some marketing insight from Martin Wadhams at LDC)) and add in your own opinions to provide a sensible argument to your answer.

I wish you best of luck.

Edited by craiggo - 11 Feb 13 at 8:51pm