RS aero Y&Y test

Gosh...how short are the memories of some of you (amongst the more frequent posters on here). I still have the scars from when that 'other' mag ran the sort of comparison tests you refer too and apparently wish for. Yes, you know who you are.... cast your minds back to the early days of the D-One and RS 100 and... the HALO. At the time I must have been one of the very first, if not THE first, person to have a reasonable time afloat in all three. Back then I thought that the D-One was simply superb, an amazing boat that all but re-defined single handed sailing. Nor was there anything wrong in the RS100, far from it, but in terms of sheer 'grunt' - the devoti boat was in a league of its own. But for the UK Club sailor, racing around the cans,the boat that to me offered stunning performance and (back then) the bests 'bangs for your buck' was the Halo.

Now I was lucky in that I had the freedom to write exactly what I though and did so, only to get howls of protest from a number of you on here along with suggestions that I should be strung up. It is an interesting perspective that 'TurnTurtle', nee 'Yellowwelly' nee..... would today recognise that writing about the boats on the back of having sailed them all is a very different kettle of fish to just writing about the boats - on here.

From a personal viewpoint, my observation is that it has never been easier than now to get a test sail in any of the new boats. Do that and form your own opinions, you may well find that these then are at odds with what you read elsewhere

Dougal
Hooked On, The story of the International Contender
Pure Magic, 70 years of the Merlin Rocket
Simply the best; 60 years of the 505

Dougal,

Originally posted by iGRF Did you sail any of them on the sea? I don't recall lambasting you then, but just query it now since the Halo hardly got a grip, was this Dinghy Magazine? I thought it had gone by the by before those boats came out. In my experience of these things, relative tests, there are certain 'facts' that cannot be escaped. I've never sailed a Halo, but briefly owned the Blaze, if you are who I think you are, we met briefly up at that lake near Reading that caused all the Icon problems with its coastal handicap, I forget its name. Irrelevant to the discussion, my point, I do have one, to thoroughly tests boats they need to be sailed in at least three different venues, Inland puddle like that Reading one, a big open water like QM or coastal estuary like Minster and a South Coast club like Hastings, Bexhill, Us or Lancing for example, only then can you really get to grips with the pro's and cons of those things, they can be such different animals on different water and that's the problem you (and I jest)'lazy' journalists have. You're also dealing with peoples passions, which in itself is a nightmare. So product testing, weigh them, measure them, sail them on three different waters, use a common tester but complemented by guest testers with independently written reviews (don't let them compare notes) then write it up. That's how to test stuff properly for mags and protect your back.

Originally posted by Rupert I like the idea of 3 boats, 3 testers, 3 venues, but it starts to sound pretty expensive, so who pays?

I seem to remember paying to drive down to Hayling to 'test' the RS100, you don't need to pay folk to do what they love, you just need one person to oversee it and a strict guideline to what you do on a test to give your readers confidence, and you call out the bad points.

That's only because new stuff isn't marketed to them in a manner that accommodates impulse purchase.