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Solo fleet still growing
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pondmonkey View Drop Down
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Posts: 2202 		Post Options Post Options   Quote pondmonkey Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Topic: Solo fleet still growing
    Posted: 02 Nov 12 at 4:00pm
But kite kit costs a grand and a half, including atan booties, 5mm wetsuit, harness, board shorts for over the top and a free wooly italian jumper if you'd care to email a seasprite employee for 'advice' beforehand.

You could probably get on the water for £800 if you don't mind last year's graphics and a kite someone has flamed to death on the internet so there's a stock pile going cheap.

A new laser is 5 grand... I want that to last, I want it to resale and I probably want to work up to it by buying second hand to start with.  Only once you've gone through such an ownership cycle can you then decided what is, and isn't worth trading up to.  Even then, there's no guarantees you won't f*ck up the choices along the way, I know I have.

No one is pretending it's a very 21st century easy come, easy go process.  In fact 'hooking people in' is always going to be a challenge while singlehanders are so popular.  Years ago, a newbie could spend a few seasons crewing before really outlaying much capital, but we're so time poor that two handers are a luxury many of us just can't afford... so the cycle continues.


Edited by pondmonkey - 02 Nov 12 at 4:08pm
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maxibuddah View Drop Down
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Posts: 1760 		Post Options Post Options   Quote maxibuddah Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 02 Nov 12 at 7:03pm
I wonder how many people buy the kite gear thinking its a cool sport to get into, try 2 or 3 times, don't succeed immediately and then throw it in the shed for ever more. There are bound to be plenty of those within your figures grf. It happens plenty in sailing too, you only have to look around the boat parks of any clubs,  but that tends to be those older boats.
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sargesail View Drop Down
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Posts: 1459 		Post Options Post Options   Quote sargesail Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 02 Nov 12 at 8:34pm
Originally posted by iGRF

Pop Quiz.

Which would you rather race in a regatta with, 50 Solo's or 50 Punks?

To which the answer should be 50 Punks

The next question then becomes how can there ever be 50 Punks all the time luddites wax poetic about coffin boats?

Once again you miss the point GRF.  If there were 50 of each you'd choose the one that most suited your body weight, fitness, sailing style....

(So if you were in God's waiting room you'd have the Solo) Wink
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iGRF View Drop Down
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Posts: 6499 		Post Options Post Options   Quote iGRF Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 03 Nov 12 at 6:41pm
From what I now understand even those in the waiting room would be better off in a Punk, at least they could get back into it if they fell out.
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Posts: 997 		Post Options Post Options   Quote Daniel Holman Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 04 Nov 12 at 3:13pm
Originally posted by sargesail


Originally posted by iGRF

Pop Quiz.

Which would you rather race in a regatta with, 50 Solo's or 50 Punks?

To which the answer should be 50 Punks

The next question then becomes how can there ever be 50 Punks all the time luddites wax poetic about coffin boats?

Once again you miss the point GRF.  If there were 50 of each you'd choose the one that most suited your body weight, fitness, sailing style....
(So if you were in God's waiting room you'd have the Solo) Wink


There is no difference in the fitness demands between punk boat and solo. I suspect that the guys who win nationally in solos are fit, and do a lot of sailing. Sailing style almost identical - slow hiking singlehander. More scope for by the lee in unstayed punk boat .
Tbh there isn't anything in it re sailor weight either. Punk boat has 5% less sail and 9% less beam on deck. Suspect that well engineered modern rig and carbon mast enhances tuning range a little to get closer to the solo's multi mast/ sail options.

So, fleets apart, it would be simply a matter of which would be nicer to sail and own.
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pondmonkey View Drop Down
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Posts: 2202 		Post Options Post Options   Quote pondmonkey Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 04 Nov 12 at 4:04pm
Graeme you're a product marketeer- one with enough tooth to have had successes and failures, and you need both to comment with any degree of authority. But the point you're missing here is that few will buy a solo for the product per say, you buy for a class and class racing and in turn this is a self-fulfilling market. The product is, dare I say, a secondary consideration.

there's no question in my mind which is the nicer boat- the Punk wins hands down and if they were being sailed at my club, say instead of the Laser, I'd buy one like a shot. as Dan points out, the unstated mast is something that I now know would be on a 'dream unarig' for me (thanks Rodney!)

So what if I'm a bit heavy.... it's the class racing that appeals, and for the clubs in my area, for s/h, it's either Laser or Solo. Out of those two, which would you choose?

Edited by pondmonkey - 04 Nov 12 at 4:13pm
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Guests View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Quote Guests Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 04 Nov 12 at 5:03pm
The Punk is, by a country mile, a nicer boat to sail than a Solo in my limited experience. Not simply because it uses modern materials, or because it is lighter, but because it has way more 'feel' but is just as easy to sail. This is a credit to Dan's attention to detail and understanding of the subtleties of a nice design.

I can't help but feel that if the value of a design is in its established class association rather than the boat itself, a fairer pricing policy would be to sell the boat cheaply and charge a large annual fee for CA membership. An antiquated design has little intrinsic value.
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pondmonkey View Drop Down
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Posts: 2202 		Post Options Post Options   Quote pondmonkey Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 04 Nov 12 at 5:21pm
Wrong on that one Toby- it has loads of retained value, very real value; hence the good, low levels of depreciation compared to the risk of a 'new entrant' or something completely quirky.

But I do agree, of all the custom boats and very small sales volume designs I've seen over the years, the Punk is probably the nicest one to deserve bucket loads of commercial success... Sadly should that be its goal, it's up against the biggest, clunkiest, behemoth of antiquated, systematically-entrenched dinghy design there is.... And no, I'm not referring to the Solo here.
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getafix View Drop Down
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Posts: 2143 		Post Options Post Options   Quote getafix Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 04 Nov 12 at 5:37pm
why

won't

this

thread

die???????????

..... it just seems to be lingering on, and on, and on, despite the best efforts of modern design and contemporary mickey taking..... like it's namesake Wink
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Post Options Post Options   Quote Guests Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 04 Nov 12 at 5:45pm
I agree the package is worthwhile, but the value is not in the boat - it's in the bit the builder doesn't supply.
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