Demographic Changes

Originally posted by craiggo Why then do we still see new boats right at the slowest end of the spectrum now sporting them?

Well, to be fair, if we're considering a boat that will be primarily used for cruising round off the beach or round Chichester harbour, then the fitting of a sprit kite that is of no value on windward leeward race tracks may be a perfectly rational design decision.
There's more to sailing than racing, and the A sail will do just fine at getting across the harbour a bit quicker or giving the kids at the front a bit more to do. Certainly more sensible than putting a pole kite on a boat like that...

Edited by JimC - 03 Feb 15 at 10:36pm

The big problem is that rather than addressing the main issues with existing classes and then using that data to develop new boats, most new boats seem to have been developed off of the back of trends in other classes.

Just look at assymetric spinnakers, JimC has rightly shown that the RS400 lives right on the edge of being able to make them pay in handicap racing. Anything slower will want to run downwind rather that reach about and therefore the assymetric spinnaker ends up with a very small window of use. Why then do we still see new boats right at the slowest end of the spectrum now sporting them? Yes they make life easy for the crew, but they also tempt owners into using them when they shouldn't, plus many are sold to newbies who just dont understand and expect them to be fast!

If we look at the Alto, in my opinion it was an ok concept with the exception of the stupid swinging pole, but all the fiddling around at the start with two different shapes then the messing around with the pole system and different sail sizes just highlighted to the potential customers that it wasn't a mature proposition, and frankly very few will buy into something that isnt well defined.

The Icon is a lovely boat but does it really offer anything that an Enterprise cant offer? The trouble is other than being a bit lighter and using hitech costly spars, sails and build processes it actually offers nothing that an Ent cant offer so why should people buy it.

So we have several reasons why new boats dont take off.
1. Inappropriate use of equipment optimised for a different type of boat
2. Unfinished development and lack of conistency.
3. Not offering anything that cant be provided by established classes.

"So, if an ultralight wash through double hander that two girls could actually lift, was easy to handle, performed well, and didn't cost an arm and a leg came on the market you think nobody would be interested? "

The reason why more recent offerings are not gaining traction is simple. Not good enough.

If you handed me a blank cheque for development money then I'd commission a boat each from Paul Bieker and Julian Bethwaite, with the specification of a single string boat intermediate in size/crew weight between 470/Fireball and 505. Then I'd build a prototype of each and trial them against each other. The designer of the boat that came out as "nicest" (not fastest) would then be commissioned to design a new boat using everything learned from the first two.

Then that would leave the even bigger problem of marketing and promotion, but I know nothing about that.

Could it be that with the doublehanded market shrinking, there simply isn't any desire for new classes? The Aero and Zero (and D1?) on the other hand are tapping into a market which appears to be moderately healthy and looking for new toys.