Dinghy Show

Making space for the new composite hulls!...

OK so it was Sunday lunchtime, but I brushed aside the tumble weed, had my choice of three folk eager to take my cash, refusing my request for concessionary tickets, i laughed and said I can understand that, with this show if you gave them pretty much everyone would be in on them, she laughed and said that was exactly what the persona few minutes ago had just said.

I breezed past the Devoti stand didn't see anyone I knew, the Lightnings had dozed off, so i made for the Solution stand where I spent an interesting afternoon finding out everything there is to know about them.

It was quiet though, saw Mark he'd reported it being busier yesterday, 3% up apparently, but there was no fizz. Someone had foiled up an unremarkable Cat and it won boat of the show clearly Mark had voted as such as a bizarre jest to wind me up, so I went and had a look, the foils looked pretty agricultural compared to the stuff we see on kite boards these days, but there was a video that indicated that it did climb up onto them eventually, probably a bit like Laser on foils which i note didn't seem to be around this time. I looked for the Farr couldn't find it, missed the OK again, noticed they'd centreboarded the Buzz, swung by the Alto stand, had a mooch around the fireballs, they so need an Assym and swinging pole out of the front, maybe one day.

Checked out the Vortex, they've done a fair job, looked at the Icon and noted it's pole arrangement which is different to the one we have on loan, then back to the Solution stand, which was right next door to the cake and pie free phantom zone. No offer of being the filling in their sandwich this year, they appear to be as oppressed as the Muslims would have you believe they are and everywhere, the word RYA was uttered prefixed by some profanity or other.

They really have lost the plot and I felt it pervaded the entire show, but maybe it was the Rugby.

Maybe I was a little sweeping ... However I did have a good look at the D0 since I have never seen one in the flesh, and never had my ear bent, which may or may not have been a good thing!

I fully accept that I am full of prejudices, but my problem with the Aero and to a lesser extent the D0 is hat I think that the technical aspects of the rigs have been stripped out in the pursuit of simplification and rationalisation in order to achieve price points, don't get me wrong, I can see why you might prefer either of these boats to a Laser, but I enjoy fiddling with all the variables on my Solo...

So you've identified what I did last time I went, probably 10 years ago.  Okay so some new boats have come and others gone, and I;m sure there's some electronic point of sale gizmos to play with on some stalls now, but essentially the show hasn't moved on since I was a kid.  And there's no harm in that really, at least it's not trying to sell something that differs grossly from the reality of the sport in question.  

Would complete newcomers or non-sailors really go?  I would have thought the spectacle and novelty value would suit someone in their first couple of years of sailing- by which time they are probably hooked, and hopefully listening to fellow club members about what boat to buy etc.  I'm sure neither professional salesmen nor overly-ethusiastic class weirdos are great for local class development.  

I noted from my windsurfing buddies they were out enjoying F5 and sunny (dare I say, 'spring') conditions this weekend.  For my sins I was not sailing at all and instead spent the time teaching my eldest daughter how to fly a kite in glorious sunshine and steady breeze that had lost its 'winter bite'.   Our club Facebook page shows some hardy souls braved the breeze to be greeted with some unexpected, excellent sailing.

I'm not sure any of these activities could be beaten by trudging around an exhibition hall - no matter what the subject matter.  So other than me changing my outlook and treating it like a social only activity, which is what it seems to be for friends who do go, I don't really see what the RYA or anyone could do to make me want to attend.