Tangible Boat Value

The new Aero and Zero both currently can be had for less than £5.5k including cover, trolley and carbon spars. A new Solo would set you back about £2000 more than that despite having very crude aluminium spars, a hull designed to be cheap and easy to build and an unergonomic cockpit. So it looks very poor value indeed.

The real value in a Solo is in the intangibles - a strong class association, local fleets, resale etc. Without this to support the class, the boat itself would not be viable at a price of more than about £3000, no matter how well built IMHO. Quite who you put a value on the class association I don't know, but it seems a strange and unsustainable business model for the retailers to be effectively over charging by about £4.5k and making a living based on the voluntary work of amateur sailors. If Solo sailors actually value the class more than the boat itself, shouldn't it be class membership that costs the money, not the boat?

Go slow sails are quite pricey - twice as much as OEM sails.
The extra minimum weight means that there is nearly twice as much material in a goslow.
A goslow probably has a proper mainsheet track, car, and controls lead to each side. Lots of cleats and blocks and string.
Daggerboards are more expensive to execute.
I think that the shape, being build able in ply lends itself well to sandwich, but there are more parts, mouldings and therefore secondary joining and finishing processes.
So whilst the cost price of the spars on the new singlehanders are greater, by the time they are done in big batches they aren't so bad compared to lower value ally spars (with a fair bit of riveting/fitout/stays) and literally everything else about the go slow is more expensive.

I think there comes an equilibrium re support of builder and volunteers. It behoves the volunteer and the builder to invest in the game that they are involved in, whilst still making money and actually going sailing rather than merely facilitating, respectively.

But yes, the whole class infrastructure thing is the reason why od racing dingies are the least progressive recreational product market that there is, and how the laser situation is a great racket, but probs needs a lot of investment/luck/intelligence to execute.

Originally posted by JimC Originally posted by Daniel Holman Daggerboards are more expensive to execute. Is that what you meant to say Dan?

No, exact opposite - well proof read!

I think that most goslow builders will support the product/game in one way or another

They do extensively Dan, I would imagine most new solo owners are upgrading and electing to stay in class because a) their mates sail them b) they love the boat c) it provides exceptional racing or d) all of the above