V Twin

Well the answer is easy. A solo. Because people sail it because it provides great fleet racing, can be sailed both by pros and my hero Charlie (in his latter eighties with 2 artificial hips). It's easy to maintain, simple to rig and wheel about and has a manageable and adaptable rig, which combined with the hull means it can be enjoyed over a very wide range of crew-weights. It has stood the test of time, if anything gaining in popularity over the years. No I don't sail one, no vested interest here.

Why does it need to be replaced FFS? Because it offends GRF? that sounds like another tick in its box to me.

Grmph is very good at cranking us all up, but we do need to remember that he is a kit retailer (so pursuading us to buy stuff we don't need is in his DNA) who in his 8 years has, as haroosh points out, never mastered any dinghy, but is perpetually full of pathetic excuses. As many of us have mastered the same craft, that says far more about him than the rest of us.

I don't think you risk sounding like that, but there are other wider factors at play here, so you can't push it all back on market intransigence.

- critical mass: other than specific pockets of activity in more affluent (maybe committed) areas, new products don't generate class racing at local level, so the new offer is never as good as the established one once the 5 minute wonder of something different has worn off.

- product development: I heard on Radio 4 this morning an interview with Sir Jonathan Ive, a chief designer at Apple.  He said, 'we don't design products for ourselves, we design them for our customers'.  I wonder how many of the initial churn of the RS100 fleet felt they got a bit more kite than they anticipated?  Or that the two rigs thing would have been better as one rig, a halfway house with a consistent PY and club racing structure?  From a personal POV, I even changed clubs to help build a small fleet of 100s, but the truth was the new pond was just too damn small for it, and it's not a 'small pond' by typical inland standards, about 150 acres iirc.  Combined with the situation where every time I won (well was first 100 on extracted results) it was put down to having a bigger rig... I was 30 fecking kilos heavier than some of them!!!    The party line has changed and we now hear about it being a 'windward leeward weapon' or a 'one trick pony' depending on your point of view.  And what's the alternative... the D1, even more kite albeit with a bit more leverage to hold it down.  But given half a chance their fledgling fleet disappear off into the back and beyond in the Welsh valleys for the windward/leeward racing.  Fair enough, but travelling for class racing isn't on everyone's agenda, especially if there's a viable option somewhere where you can leave the mast up and drive home within half an hour.

- general demographic: the kids can't afford new, so by the time folks who can afford new they've gone through the it has to be new and cool phase, or are returning to the sport, therefore don't mind a bit of nostalgia.  I think we get to an age where just want something that works, offers good racing and doesn't depreciate like a used condom if we need to release the capital invested.  Established classes, old and new depending on where you sail, offer this and I don't necessarily think it's a bad thing. 

Piccies? Or it's not happening..

Maybe he's just sailing it to get decent fleet racing?