Dinghies in 2020

Originally posted by G.R.F. we learned years ago the centreboard should be further back

Boards rarely have jibs.

Bethwaite Bethwaite Bethwaite...

Doesn't anyone think for themselves, the guy's an idiot.

Isn't he the one responsible for 49ers? and the rest of the skiff dross that
even the worlds elite can't sail beyond 20 kts and a four foot chop (As found
in Sydney Harbour).

But then the rudder is closer to the centreboard, which isn't fast, hence some classes resorting to gantrys.

Is it just possible that dinghies and boards work rather differently, so comparing them every time a picture of a boat is put up is rather futile?  After 120 or more years of development, dinghy designers know what they are doing, in the main.

Originally posted by damp_freddie feel old when someone says the L4000 is an "older sailors boat"!!a lot of old designs are going to die out with their sailors- those left just have to erm, live with it. Product Life Cycle.Sailing One Design has to compete with various winter skiing/snowboarding -all year round now -, mountain biking, kite boarding etc  in the place for eaking a bit of adrenalin out of teenagers and young adults.Not to mention the couch potatoe play station-generation.Boats have to be fast, light, simple to rig and tweak.

But is there a "product life cycle" in racing dinghies? Maybe dinghies are
one of the (many???) exceptions to the idea of a life cycle?

The oldest dinghy One Designs ever created in the world are still racing,
almost 120 years after they were created. The oldest International
development dinghy class ever created is still racing, about 125 years
after it had its first international contest . The oldest International one
design dinghy class ever created attracts hundreds of competitors, over
90 years after it was designed. The most popular dinghy classes are 60
and 40 years old.

When just about all of the original classes from the dawn of the sport still
exist, and the most popular classes of all are so old, maybe the truth is
that dinghy sailing doesn't follow the "rules"?

And while mountain biking is strong, is that because it's a fairly new
adrenalin sport or because you can get into it cheaply and do some
singletrack cruising? Are the couch potatoes really going to go from
sitting on the coach, to hitting the piss on a skiff type? Are they actually
physically adventurous? Arguably they may be LESS physically
adventurous than earlier generations and therefore more easily scared off
sports.

Are kite numbers all that strong, and how many kiters got into it from
windsurfing when that sport chased the "new is always better" mindset
and became such a shadow of its former self?

Grumpf;

As Peaky says, the NS is a very slippery hull and it's got little or no
Bethwaite influence. And the Northies/Tasar etc balance very well. As
Rupert mentions, boards and boats can be different; the way boards
balance (especially with raked rigs, which alters the picture) doesn't come
into it. If you took pumping out of the equation the NS would arguably be
quicker than a Raceboard.

And has board racing become much more popular since boards started
moving the centreboard back? Maybe that restricts tacking speed, which
may (arguably) reduce the importance of tactics, and therefore makes
racing less interesting for many people?