Modern symmetric two-hander?

Thing is though, if everyone else smells the same and you know of nothing else...................

Would have been a damn short thread if we had stuck to topic.

I'm beginning to think that "modern" is also word for "will fail because it doesn't actually provide anything people want to buy". The most successful boat of the last few years, the Aero, is, apart from the weight, pretty traditional.

Exactly   Good design is as much about finding the sweetest compromise that will work for the most people over a range of conditions as it is about making something do one thing really well. 

Originally posted by iGRF Originally posted by craiggo The reason more traditional boats are still popular is because they are better allrounders designed by people with a 'feel' for boat design. Not at all, the reason the old crap is still about is because of the lack of structure to the market and the lack of the ability of companies to market new products via professional outlets. Plus the 'protectionist' nature of what can I call them, the dinghy version of the industrial military complex, the forces of darkness that manipulate the yardstick, the RYA and other just plane corrupt with a small 'c' elements that like to keep their share of the pie from other would be entrants. Then finally it is just the innate conservative impecunious nature of the pipe, slipper and beer mat bottomed old guard that will dictate if you want to sail here you have to sail a <insert whatever old piece of crap the club uses> That's why other than RS who are masters of their own destiny everyone else struggles to break something new into this dead shark infested sea of a market.

Ah, there we go, the Y&Y version of Hitler being mentioned in a thread... corrupt yardstick setters.

I disagree iGRF. If you were right there would be loads of great boats built in small numbers which would be perfect, but I don't see them. Plenty of designs have been built in the last 30yrs in an era where most clubs have ditched specific classes in favour of menagerie fleets, and how many have caught on? Technology is a wonderful thing but it has limitations and is often based on data from old empirical studies which don't extend to the latest theories and concepts. Just look at how the Virgin formula 1 team did when they designed their car purely using computational methods. It was widely regarded as the worst car on the grid.
The other issue that has led to no real great game changers is the fact that nearly all new classes released in the last 20yrs have been one-design, so you get a fair compromise in terms of weight, longevity, performance. I suspect we'd have seen something more radical if a new restricted development class had been created but we already have a few and the market probably isn't ballsy enough to pay big bucks for something that might die off quickly, or that will rapidly get superseded in the initial design war.


Edited by craiggo - 01 Nov 15 at 10:36pm