Auction of historic dinghies

I wouldn't want to erase history, nor those who enjoy that element of the sports enjoyment thereof, but as I've obviously cracked on often enough about to be a broken record, is it necessary to thrust their opinion on others?

Everything about what I refer to the 'protectionist' small minded nature of condemning any new attempts at market penetration by new boats or 'classes' by the old guard.

The lack of a modern structured marketing approach to new boat sales, from no dealers, no 'demo days' to amateurism being the cheapskate marketing choice of the establishment. So, no finance, no leasing, no trade ins, no profit motivated promoters of the sizzle into which they wish to sell their sausages.

That almost pathetic but none the less so well intentioned example at the Kent show recently of a club trying to stem the flow. If 'they' and I mean by 'they' all stakeholders in this lark want to reverse or even stabilise the sport then a serious shake up is needed.

Personally I would sell the boat with the sailing instructions of how to use it as part of the Retail price, but to do that would require a nice new approach to a boat, a volume supplier with good pricing enough to build a margin for resellers and a couple of options as to how it is sailed. It ought to be possible to have one hull with either single, double or single with trapeze use depending on which 'flavour' you want. It ought to be Aero light and the rigs would need to be such that if you leave it to park your trailer it doesn't fall over, that's the acid test. Such a product could even be designed with foil upgrades down the path away they are not the rocket science they once were.

Edited by iGRF - 13 Jul 17 at 1:19pm

Originally posted by JimC  'laws of physics'

This boat already exists (well, okay it's a bit heavier than an Aero) The Topper Topaz     

The Topaz makes my point, it does all of those things, none of them especially well.

A Phantom as a two hander would drag its early 1970s overwide posterior in the light, and make a boat already not that great in light conditions even worse.

As for adding a trapeze, I can only quite Paul Bieker on International 14s - "everyone said a second trapeze would be a cheap way to go faster, then we all got to chuck our hulls"


Edited by JimC - 13 Jul 17 at 9:08pm

A Phantom won tonights drifter, they are an excellent boat in light conditions