New Olympic events.

Other countries don't dislike hiking. In the USA an average year will see 257 trapeze crewed dinghies at nationals, compared to 1085-ish crewed hiking dinghies and small scows. The most recent crewed classes to be launched with any success at all would probably be the Zim 15, the Melges 17 and the Feva - all hikers. There's a big college sailing scene, using hikers, which is not reflected in those numbers.

Trapeze boats are popular in Australia, but even there half of the adult's crewed boats are hikers. The assy boats slightly outnumber the sym classes.

It's hard to find information on Germany, but the conventional sym boats remain popular there. EDIT - it appears that in 2017 there were about 530 symmetrical dinghies that did nationals compared to about 80 assy boats. Ixylons, Korsars, FDs, 470s, 420s, 505s and other single-trap sym boats are all more popular than any assy boat.

 If I'm reading the FFV site correctly, the 420 is over three times as popular as the 29er in France, which is largely a "skiff free" zone.

In general, there seems to be no big shift towards skiff types in the sailing world. In crewed boats they remain about 1/4 as popular as symmetricals. That's not bad at all, but it does raise issues about how representative of our sport it would be if all the crewed boats in the Games had assys. I may add that I've been using assys since the '80s, I own seven of them, my dad was a Skiff champ and I first got on a Skiff when I was three. I'm not biased against them!

By the way, I've actually corresponded with Phil Morrison about the 2000 design and he was clear about it being derived from the N12/MR heritage, and he (briefly) referred to skiff design as being something separate from the UK mainstream of dinghy design. I've also spoken to Julian about the 49er and its antecedents. The 9er's ancestors little if anything in common with the 2000's ancestors. The two streams are quite separate historically and technically, as can be shown for instance by plotting SA/L and righting moments of the classes that created the "S" word as we use it.

To elaborate on my point about the 200 and 400, the feedback I've been told RS got from the continent was that they wanted trapeze boats, not hiking boats. They subsequently had more success with the 500 and 800 in places likes Sweden, Netherlands and France, Germany, Italy, Czech. 

Originally posted by Chris 249 Trapeze boats are popular in Australia, but even there half of the adult's crewed boats are hikers. The assy boats slightly outnumber the sym classes.

 

So, like the UK a fairly even mix? 

Originally posted by Chris 249 In general, there seems to be no big shift towards skiff types in the sailing world. In crewed boats they remain about 1/4 as popular as symmetricals. That's not bad at all, but it does raise issues about how representative of our sport it would be if all the crewed boats in the Games had assys.

Now you're conflating skiffs with asymmetric! But i do agree, pure skiffs aren't taking over the world, in the broader sense asymmetrics are making more headway (just not always attached to skiff hulls).  

My point was always that using the "only two skiff in top twenty UK classes"  argument against the 49er, whilst also saying "470... common equipment between the typical club racer and the Games" is a little misleading, because looking at nationals attendance there aren't lots of massively popular single trap symmetric spinnaker boats either. 

Originally posted by Chris 249 I've actually corresponded with Phil Morrison about the 2000... The two streams are quite separate historically and technically...

Do you mean 2000 or 200 here? Either way, I'm not arguing the 200 (or 2000 for that matter) is a skiff, or the feva, or the 400. What I am saying is that they're asymmetric.  It's a far more often used delineation in the UK and is much clearer than the constant bickering over which classes are true 'skiffs'. Lots of clubs in the UK host asymmetric opens, and have asymmetric fleets. 

So, my point is, that the UK is a actually a really bad example if you're trying to make the point that the 49er doesn't have grass roots support. Because it does, just through the asymmetric scene rather than the narrow 'skiff' definition. 

Once upon a time, not so long ago, we ALL sailed boats that were capable of sailing well above the current 20 / 25 (health and safety) cut off point. It was those days we remembered as special and everyone was queuing up to go out and sail. 

I might add that the 600 didn't hit a sweet spot. Apart from its launch timing within the dinghy market and wider economy. It was lucky enough to have a big builder, with market confidence and marketing money to push it to a sailing public that has consistently purchased it products despite some awful examples... (some OK ones too - if you don't mind their approach to business - i.e repackaging existing One Design classes with the potential by-product of killing them off)... Most probably because of the financial packages that could be offered, and trailer park image than product worthiness. The 600 still exists because of the amount of ultra-cheap boats that have been on the second-hand market. 

iGRF's desire to beat everyone on the race track may well be achievable for the 3.7 in around 20knts but by no means does it mean that the boat doesn't perform very well in our normal 12knts sailing (sea breeze) conditions. As well as enabling him to learn what he needs to, to eventually sail boats with more vices when they are allowed out when it's not too windy for them. ;-)

Don't think so. Both Leporidae. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leporidae