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yellowwelly View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Quote yellowwelly Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Topic: Icon
    Posted: 04 Nov 13 at 10:50am
it's a catch 22 though isn't it... any new class/new design needs some early adopters to fill the pipeline, but the type of personality who would welcome something new or try something different, would also tinker and fart about with it.  Adding traps to the 59er sure as hell gave the 400 a surer footing in the UK in the face of a potential competitor.

I've no stats, but gut instinct would suggest that most classes that get off the ground seem to find their natural demographic in second and third generation owners, rather than the early adopters who took the initial punt.   

If we look at the RS100 as another more recent example, it's taken what, 3 years for the class to settle down a bit, the end outcome with the split / focus on 8.4 not being what a lot of the first owners would have chosen imho. 
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Post Options Post Options   Quote JimC Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 04 Nov 13 at 10:50am
In some ways oneoffs almost easier to give a PY for. If you have an established sailor at your club, and know where they tend to place in the pecking order, then all you have to do, a few races in, is calculate a number where they end up with the same sorts of placing. Theget problems problems if the sailor is new to the club or thinks they somehow deserve to do better with the new yacht.

Clubs should NOT deny entry to boats without published PY numbers - how else would boats get on the list...
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yellowwelly View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Quote yellowwelly Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 04 Nov 13 at 11:00am
Originally posted by JimC



Clubs should NOT deny entry to boats without published PY numbers - how else would boats get on the list...

agreed for club racing, but some events still prevent them though, BM for example?
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2547 View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Quote 2547 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 04 Nov 13 at 11:05am
Originally posted by yellowwelly

Originally posted by JimC



Clubs should NOT deny entry to boats without published PY numbers - how else would boats get on the list...

agreed for club racing, but some events still prevent them though, BM for example?

No the BM accepts all comers now but you have to give them prior notice if you have an one-off ...

I would expect that any random would be given an arbitrarily tough PY otherwise if they clean up then it will just invite complaints that the PY was soft ...
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yellowwelly View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Quote yellowwelly Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 04 Nov 13 at 11:13am
Ah okay... well I shall be happy to see the defCON 1 in the results in January... 

Edited by yellowwelly - 04 Nov 13 at 11:13am
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Post Options Post Options   Quote iGRF Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 04 Nov 13 at 11:42am
Originally posted by 2547

Any new class that develops a split personality in its early years is making life hard for itself; I suspect people messing with trapezes on the 59er was party responsible for the class never really getting going ... there was always a doubt about what it really was; a hiker or a trap dinghy? 


The 59er was already a dead class when I came along, a couple of friends of mine had one and were bemoaning their lot and that was back in 2002-3 during my MPS period. I don't think anyone putting trap wires on it did anything other than improve a bad lot as far as I could judge. The reason boats like that failed was the same that all those over canvassed 90's craft went the way they did, totally unsuitable for the actual genuine none artificially Olympic squad induced market which is obvious to me in that it is by and large inland water and often very restricted at that. Hence if I were to be designing a commercial product it would be very much with that target demographic in mind as it seems RS have eventually spotted with their new billy no mate offering.

The Icon in its standard form is actually that sort of product and all that is preventing that from taking off is marketing support. There needs to be an Icon in every reasonably sized piece of water in the UK for demo use, and one available for immediate delivery there and then, we live in a sunny day impulse purchase world. Someone should have done the legwork, got one into P&B, Jonti at Grafham and every other spot where a chandlery adjoins the water. Interest free finance deals, trade your old boat in deals, hell there are companies that would even lease them, like they do our mountain bikes, it just needs a modern day marketing approach like that which the rest of us have to employ to continue to survive in what is a very tough leisure market. The days of folk coming to you, sadly are over long since. As I've said before, what's needed for these local builder operators is a professional marketing arm financed by a working margin, but then for that to happen they'd have to stop chiselling direct sales and let someone do the job properly.
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Post Options Post Options   Quote boatshed Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 04 Nov 13 at 12:04pm
The 59er was already a dead class when I came along. The reason boats like that failed was the same that all those over canvassed 90's craft went the way they did


It wasn't over canvassed.  Same white sail area as a Merlin or RS400.    Bigger kite to get the apparent wind working properly down hill.   Sure it needed a bigger bit of water than a puddle but then so do many boats.   If you want to sail on a puddle choose your  boat accordingly.


Steve
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boatshed View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Quote boatshed Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 04 Nov 13 at 12:19pm
The Icon in its standard form is actually that sort of product and all that is preventing that from taking off is marketing support.


I dunno.   It's pretty much the same spec and PY of a Tasar.   If the Tasar, which is a great boat,  can't crack the UK market in any sensible, class forming numbers, then I think the Icon will really struggle.  

Still, lets see, maybe Devoti has a plan.
Steve
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yellowwelly View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Quote yellowwelly Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 04 Nov 13 at 12:32pm
Originally posted by iGRF

Originally posted by 2547

Any new class that develops a split personality in its early years is making life hard for itself; I suspect people messing with trapezes on the 59er was party responsible for the class never really getting going ... there was always a doubt about what it really was; a hiker or a trap dinghy? 


The 59er was already a dead class when I came along, a couple of friends of mine had one and were bemoaning their lot and that was back in 2002-3 during my MPS period. I don't think anyone putting trap wires on it did anything other than improve a bad lot as far as I could judge. The reason boats like that failed was the same that all those over canvassed 90's craft went the way they did, totally unsuitable for the actual genuine none artificially Olympic squad induced market which is obvious to me in that it is by and large inland water and often very restricted at that. Hence if I were to be designing a commercial product it would be very much with that target demographic in mind as it seems RS have eventually spotted with their new billy no mate offering.

The Icon in its standard form is actually that sort of product and all that is preventing that from taking off is marketing support. There needs to be an Icon in every reasonably sized piece of water in the UK for demo use, and one available for immediate delivery there and then, we live in a sunny day impulse purchase world. Someone should have done the legwork, got one into P&B, Jonti at Grafham and every other spot where a chandlery adjoins the water. Interest free finance deals, trade your old boat in deals, hell there are companies that would even lease them, like they do our mountain bikes, it just needs a modern day marketing approach like that which the rest of us have to employ to continue to survive in what is a very tough leisure market. The days of folk coming to you, sadly are over long since. As I've said before, what's needed for these local builder operators is a professional marketing arm financed by a working margin, but then for that to happen they'd have to stop chiselling direct sales and let someone do the job properly.

Clap that's your one sensible post quote reached, please can Mrs Grumpf hand the keyboard back to the old boy in the corner now?
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2547 View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Quote 2547 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 04 Nov 13 at 12:40pm
Originally posted by iGRF

Originally posted by 2547

Any new class that develops a split personality in its early years is making life hard for itself; I suspect people messing with trapezes on the 59er was party responsible for the class never really getting going ... there was always a doubt about what it really was; a hiker or a trap dinghy? 


The 59er was already a dead class when I came along, a couple of friends of mine had one and were bemoaning their lot and that was back in 2002-3 during my MPS period. I don't think anyone putting trap wires on it did anything other than improve a bad lot as far as I could judge. The reason boats like that failed was the same that all those over canvassed 90's craft went the way they did, totally unsuitable for the actual genuine none artificially Olympic squad induced market which is obvious to me in that it is by and large inland water and often very restricted at that. Hence if I were to be designing a commercial product it would be very much with that target demographic in mind as it seems RS have eventually spotted with their new billy no mate offering.

The Icon in its standard form is actually that sort of product and all that is preventing that from taking off is marketing support. There needs to be an Icon in every reasonably sized piece of water in the UK for demo use, and one available for immediate delivery there and then, we live in a sunny day impulse purchase world. Someone should have done the legwork, got one into P&B, Jonti at Grafham and every other spot where a chandlery adjoins the water. Interest free finance deals, trade your old boat in deals, hell there are companies that would even lease them, like they do our mountain bikes, it just needs a modern day marketing approach like that which the rest of us have to employ to continue to survive in what is a very tough leisure market. The days of folk coming to you, sadly are over long since. As I've said before, what's needed for these local builder operators is a professional marketing arm financed by a working margin, but then for that to happen they'd have to stop chiselling direct sales and let someone do the job properly.

People were messing with trapezes on the 59er long before you ever tampered with it.

Anyway ... why don't you take on the UK dealership for the iCon seems you'd make a fortune ...
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