R Speculation

I've seen it, lifted it (and can confirm the incredible lightness of being!) and watched one  of you well known forumites sailing it! It looked quick to accelerate which is just as you'd expect from the all up weight but equally looked like it could be a tad tricky downwind in a bit of a chop - but I'm sure that there have been a number of modifications since then.

I'm reminded of that old adage - you can have a light, stiff boat, a stiff cheap boat or a light cheap boat - you can't have all 3.  Have RS found a way round this? I'm guessing that the project will only see the light of day if they can get the price down far enough without compromise on the other 2.

Isn't it strange, that with all those boats already out there, the idea of a new one catches the imagination of so many of us?

Originally posted by transient If  the Laser/Torch goes belly up it would be rather stupid not to have something ready (ish) to fill the hole. .

What hole? They were practically giving them away at the S'oton Boat show with very few takers, the only demand is for would be Olympians and that is hardly a market place, when 'there can be only one'.

And as to taking on the Laser, only the Laser can be a Laser, it exists simply because it always has and it's only USP is it's legacy numerics, that's all and no boat in this time period even if you gave them away, could generate that volume, there simply are not enough single folk interested in class racing, so I'd be very careful on my calculations, 1, maybe 2 hundred, 5 in maybe that many years...

And rig it for Bandit running or it'll end up not being the final Solution, just like the other Solution.

Originally posted by iGRF Originally posted by transient If  the Laser/Torch goes belly up it would be rather stupid not to have something ready (ish) to fill the hole. . What hole? They were practically giving them away at the S'oton Boat show with very few takers, the only demand is for would be Olympians and that is hardly a market place, when 'there can be only one'. And as to taking on the Laser, only the Laser can be a Laser, it exists simply because it always has and it's only USP is it's legacy numerics, that's all and no boat in this time period even if you gave them away, could generate that volume, there simply are not enough single folk interested in class racing, so I'd be very careful on my calculations, 1, maybe 2 hundred, 5 in maybe that many years... And rig it for Bandit running or it'll end up not being the final Solution, just like the other Solution.

You're getting perceptive in your old age, Graeme!
Having (by laser standards) cottage sales volume doesn't preclude financial viability.

Is this a re-working of what was called 'Mirage'  that we saw around Camel week in August 2012 - there were two hulls being assessed ?   They have been seen elsewhere as well since our spies tell us.  If it is 'mirage' I've got some photos somewhere (We were the guys who took a rather closer than passing interest in it both on and off the water at the time ;-)   It was reasonably fast for the sail areas seen in this extended test but at the time still occasionally 'challenging' for the capable helms involved. 

That was very light as well, about Laser size, 3 part unstayed carbon stick (stepping down in size to give a taper) and 'they' were trying out a couple of rigs, one of them a sleeved sail, presumably because this would keep things simple.  For prototypes they were well finished and sorted and we heard it had even then been through a couple of itterations.  Also that full tooling had been produced already just for the ones in test - so being donew on a generous budget. 

Some very neat ideas on it .. that we thought might just be useful ourselves one day .... soon. 

Mike L.





Edited by blaze720 - 23 Oct 13 at 5:25pm