Ovington thingy.....

Yes, I suppose so.....but I did avoid saying "sexy young girls". In truth all those 29er kids looked great, enthusiastic and brave. But believe me they were just children to me.....is that even worse? Oh sh*t, how about like my own (4) children used to be. Not sure that's any better!

It's the age old problem though isn't it?  Participation post-uni without parental assistance.  

Originally posted by pondmonkey It's the age old problem though isn't it?  Participation post-uni without parental assistance.   Most will graduate with so much debt now that even if they wanted it they could barely afford the £1000 for a club race spec Laser, so worrying about short changing them prior uni is rather a moot point with regards young adult participation.

We have just spent our Sport England grant on two laser vagos to address exactly this issue.  Not the ideal choice of boat, but the best we could afford and the youngsters are loving it.  Two of our older topper squaddies (we have three national squad and three zone squad) are pretty much set on the 29er as the boat of choice when they come out of the topper - they are 16 btw, not 14.  And skinny, and fit....

The very first dinghy I actually parted with revenue dutie'd cash for came from Grafham, it was a slightly darker shade of lavender like pond monkeys, an L3k, it didn't matter because, back then like Pond Monkey I was buying it with a view to sailing with my daughter, what followed was that catalogue of catastrophes that ended here.
However whilst at Grafham a couple of very very helpful young men, well spoken obviously privately educated, having helped me sort the boat from the parking bay and weeds, then wandered off to prepare their own craft, my first site of a 29er, which to me back then was simply stunning, my I remember thinking, how things have come on and what a blast that must be to sail.
Little at that time did I know of the realities of dinghydom, but at first site to the uneducated eye, they still look the part, so you can't really blame the kids for wanting them and the same can be said for the 49er.

I agree about the Laser and it's continued place in the world, it should have long gone, but it's still there so we have no choice other than to deal with it, such a shame they didn't just port everyone from it into the EPS, what a much better place the world would be now.

Edited by iGRF - 19 Nov 12 at 11:10am

I guess like Jim says, they can, but they have chosen not to.  The byte has never been a popular class here, even before the topper and the laser were youth classes, people still didn't choose a byte.  Unfortunately it's like all things, unless you can achieve critical mass, people just aren't interested.  I like the byte and the c2, but I like the Europe more but again we come up against the same story - there aren't enough around to make a decent fleet.