Ramblings on Dinghy Development

Originally posted by SoggyBadger But the "point" is merely an opinion. The reason kids probably leave the sport is because once they get away from it for a while the scales drop from their eyes and they see it for what it is - a cash cow for a few pretentious Olympic wannabe layabouts. It must be galling for these kids to work hard and study to get a good qualification then graduate with a mountain of debt and no certainty of getting a job to then see these layabouts who've never done a day's work in their life swanning around the globe all expenses paid.

Originally posted by JimC A lot of this comes down to the science of fast boats and apparent wind effects. It doesn't matter what boat you have, or how much rag you sling up: once the sails are stalled you won't go much faster than about 75% windspeed, because if you do you'll run out of wind energy. If the sails aren't stalled then apparent wind is king. That has a tendency to mean you go fastest at the point where you run out of righting moment. If you have a small kite that means that there's enormous potential for sailing high and gong no-where, and the losses if you get on the wrong side of a shift are catastrophic. And there seems to be a funny psychological thing going on too. Consider: people claim that what they love doing is going fast. So they ought to welcome a boat in which they sail very high very fast with a poor vmg, because that's how you get to maximise the time sent sailing fast. However in practice people find that frustrating, and want boats to go deeper, and that's what drives bigger kites. Then the bigger the kite the greater the contrast between kite up and kite down, and the lower the kite can be held, and thus the tendency for windward leeward only boats. If you add to that that handling can be rather tricky shy reaching on really fast boats then it can be seen how these tendencies happen.

Originally posted by fab100 On Top Gear last night, JC  eulogised about the new Toyota GT86 - saying it was great fun because it was rear-wheel drive and had skinny tyres so you could hang the back out at minimal provocation - which equals fun-driving. Combine this with the act that speed is really not interesting (after all the earth is flying thru the solar system, orbiting the sun at around a million miles per day. Anyone feel the thrill from that?) and where does that lead... Perhaps that the fun comes from lots of spray and tricky, unstable handling. Like you get from say a firefly, lark or N12 in wind and waves? Personally, I get my kicks from tight, even racing - the wahoo-factor is just chocolate sprinkles on top of the icing. But is all this grmpf-led dissatisfaction and out-of-the-box thinking barking up completely the wrong tree? (sorry about the mixed metaphors) Seems so to me, and that car review shows why

Edited by rb_stretch - 11 Feb 13 at 4:20pm

My it's been a busy day here today, my three happorth your wasting your time on 18-30's, they should be kitesurfing, it's the 35+ demographic you have no hope of attracting because it's too complicated. It's all well and good you lot eulogising about old classes, and remember the straw poll we took at the FOM, I was the only one there that hadn't sailed before he was thirty and then I took up windsurfing because it seemed more exciting.
        The plain fact is as I constantly point out, my new crew Trev is your target market, reasonable disposable income doesn't want to become a golfer waiting to die (nor a Solo sailor for that matter) I'd guess lots like him give it a try and then end up in a lead mine where there are lots of others to share the responsibility when they go nowhere.
        When you've done it since youth, you forget all the knowledge you've accrued, just about the sailing bit and the shifts, starts, tactics, never mind all the rest, use of the kicker, cunningham, shrouds, mast bends, in a way that's an ad for smods if ever there was. The fixation with rule minutia is also another turn off, in this day and age of Eu rule directives, health and safety, building regs, who needs more rules in their leisure time, they're too complex.
        Lets not even start with the club political b**locks and inevitable class driven agenda as to what the newcomer should and shouldn't sail, it's a wonder anyone new does show up and take it up, but they do, there just isn't much around that is easy to access. I note my new chum on the advertising site is actually sailing a sensible boat, one of the very few I'd recommend a newcomer of that age group wanting to start, interesting he's now sailing it on the backswing of his career.
        Anyway I must get back to work, this isn't helping my brand building tradeshow fest, got lots on at the moment..

Originally posted by Daniel Holman Originally posted by pondmonkey hanging out the back of a singlehander with one up. It's been a slow news year Jimbo, but nobody wants to know your thoughts on "roughing up the suspect!"