D-One - open sailmakers?

We have also been asked by a couple of Icon owners recently to consider 'opening up' the supply of sails for Icon as well.  We can see both sides of the argument and in truth there are both advantages and disadvantages for both SMOD builders and owners.

It all depends on what drives class interest forward in the end and this will vary from class to class.  UK sailmakers and their staff are often amongst the most active racers out there - and they have been  squeezed in the last couple of decades by the rise of the SMOD with 'closed door' sail supply.  So as a result they may well focus all their own enthusiasm on the 'traditonal' classes who allow more than one supplier.  Perfectly understandable that.

Boat 'suppliers' could arguably lose out if the market is liberated they would then make little margin on replacement sails so have little incentive to open their classes up... after all the sailmakers did not have to 'dig deep' at all when it came to boat development.   So their attitude is very easy to comprehend as well.  But then you might be able to argue perhaps they could sell more boat IF the active sailmakers got involved with their SMOD classes.

Owners - could be both winners and losers.  Prices are likely to rise as you would only have to get your cheque boook out to 'buy'  that marginal 'edge' ... and many would ... and that can cost a lot of money for all sometimes.  Plus they might find that they could further benefit from having more than one set in play - a 'full' set and maybe a 'flatter' set as well and so on.   Yes - a bit of an arms race might then prevail ... as ever fought with owners cheque books.  Some owners might 'gain' if all they want is lower cost sails and only one set - the budget end of the market - fine if they have less competitive instincts and are less bothered about being able to take on the very best in their chosen class.

For our part (Cirrus) we are very happy indeed with North ..  great quality and a reasonable price. It is often a fallacy to think that competition can push down prices AND raise quality .. and economy for owners.   But Icon as a class could and would be opened up on a controlled basis if there was clear demand for it here.  Any 'independent' sailmakers want to talk to us then ?  Absolutely no promises at all but we always try to at least listen ...  so why should or would we consider it further ?  I quite like the idea of active sailmakers sailing Icon with their own sails on it  but as I've intimated already there are more than a couple of commercial factors and practical issues to consider.   

Mike Lyons (Cirrus)    

The D1 appears to have positioned itself in the "quality" end of the market - high quality, high price - so I would imagine that the average buyer is looking for top of the range, rather than a compromise for price. Sounds ideal for opening the market up, like the Finn, or even comparing the boat to the Dragon - it would be another way of getting top end sailors involved. Eventually, you could even forget about the boat being a SMOD, and just charge hefty building fees, and allow builders to tweak things and make the fleet bigger and more competitive that way, each selling their wares on the race course.

Originally posted by alstorer with regards open sailmakes making sails much cheaper, I rather doubt it- as far as I know the sails for an RS800 (single supplier) and a B14 (open, a fair bit of leeway in design) are roughly similar in price? "white" sails for each are similar sizes. ish. Or as close as doesn't make a huge difference (other than the kite)

Sorry let me just repost this.  The cost difference between mainsails will be significant enough for some, however i agree in the grand scheme of things the white sail cost difference is not huge but enough to warrant the class to look at it.  The kite price difference is somewhat significant.  So i guess matches your experiences

Edited by Ruscoe - 04 Sep 13 at 4:22pm

Maybe the class should commission a sailmaker to design a sail (or buy norths one). That way you could give the panels of the sail (not the design itself) to the sailmaker as a plt/ntv etc type of file. This makes all the sails the same shape. Any sailmaker would need to sign an agreement to use only this file and a restricted list of sail cloth.

This should make the sails almost identical from different lofts.

Graeme, you'd be right assuming that most dinghy sailors were open minded enough to try their local sailmaker or have a crack at something for the hell of it, but the UK sailing scene is very much a herd activity. If one or two of the bulls in the herd go for one particular sail loft, with the odd exception most will follow. The reputations of Jim & Taxi are so powerful that people will tend to gravitate to their sails, even if, dare I say it? a smaller local loft may be able to have a bash at a design with an obscure cloth that could be a winner.
Id tend to think there is no point opening it up other than to support the odd sail made be a relative independant.