Replica Sails

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At INSAILS we aim to supply the most competitively priced, quality sails in Europe. We stock over 500 One Design sails.

Dynamic Sails: Dinghy

The RS300 main is a  complex sail to make and the cloths are unfortunately not used by Hydes for anything else any more. Thus it ends up more expensive than it might be.

If the class would entertain a change to the sail - using different cloths - the price could be 25% less easily. Preserving the one-design nature of the classes is important, it is fundamental to every SMOD - safeguards s/h values, ensures the best racing etc. Several other (non RS) classes have had significant sail construction and appearance changes - any feedback from them? I am sure there comes a time when all one-designs have to subtly develop.

Nick.

Nick,

Many thanks for taking the time to reply to this topic. Your views on this are very interesting.

I was strongly in favour of the Rooster sail being considered as an alternative to the Hyde, I have used a Rooster and believe there to be NO discernable speed difference between the two. I believe there was a discussion at the AGM about this issue (I did not attend the nationals or any open meeting events this year because I strongly disagreed with the way the RS Class Association chairman dealt with this matter) and I think, from what I have been told (I will check out the validity of this with others who were there) that the class was told that as the license holder for the boat LDC would not entertain the sails being made by some other manufacturer.

This is fair enough, as obviously you guys paid for the design and development etc etc, however, the class was told that the pricing strategy of the sails would be looked at. That was good news as I fail to understand how Hyde who appear to outsource everything to the Far East could be undercut by Rooster (who i believe make their sails on the South Coast), unless there is a massive mark up being levied by LDC. I have heard this argument about the cloth before and am not sure how much of a pinch of salt to take it with...... The Rooster sail cloth looks very similar indeed to the Hyde, and it is fully stitched whereas the hyde is only glued on most of the panel joints.

I appreciate that the class is one design and that I bought in to this ethos when I chose the boat to sail, however I find it difficult to justify the extra money for a Hyde when a superior product (albeit without class approval) sells for significantly less.

Is the class aware of your/LDC's standpoint on this? I for one would definitely support a change in cloth if it significantly reduces the cost of the sail but does not affect performance or longevity. Oh and could it be fully stitched please?

Chris

300 (425)

How long does it take to look at the price of two different materials? If it was a priority I would had thought the two months since the Nationals would have been long enough to sort this out and if viable to get the wheels in motion for voting a change of sail cloth. Has anyone heard anything? It will be interesing to see if anything comes of the AGM discussion of if it is just forgotten about.

Chrisg you are totally right. It was the attitude of the RS Class Association chairman that was the emphasis of me wanting to sell the 300. However, after seeing there was nothing else out there that compared I took the attitude why should I get rid of the 300 simply becuase of him.

It is good to see that Nick Peters is taking a positive interest in the feed back of the 300 sailors issues.