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What is the worlds favourite sailing dinghy?
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Rockhopper View Drop Down
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    Posted: 12 Feb 13 at 6:44am
I just done mine too
Good luck with it
Retired now after 35 seasons in a row and time for a rest.
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Chris 249 View Drop Down
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Posts: 2041 		Post Options Post Options   Quote Chris 249 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 14 Feb 13 at 12:27am

Earlier there were a few posts about Sunfish numbers. A few years ago Steve Clark, one of the partners in the manufacturer of the Laser and Sunfish, noted in an email to me that the Sunfish still outsold the Laser in the USA. Steve's integrity and information seem to be beyond doubt.

The Sunfish has been around for a lot longer than the Laser or H16 and was being sold in big numbers well before the Opti took off. Its quoted numbers have been around for a long while and IIRC they are pretty consistent with it being enormously popular earlier on (as is evidenced by a lot of old mass-media stuff about the class).
 
 
 
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Rupert View Drop Down
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Posts: 8956 		Post Options Post Options   Quote Rupert Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 14 Feb 13 at 9:41am
Given that the Sunfish was massively popular even back in 1959, when Ian Proctor was over in the USA as a journo, and it even inspired him to design the Minisail, I can well believe that 250,000 of then existed. I suspect many of them are now in the big boatyard in the sky.

But just because it is the most numerous, doesn't make it a favourite, neccessarily. As someone said, a person's favourite boat can be something they would never even aspire to sailing, like the 18' skiff.
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2547 View Drop Down
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Posts: 1151 		Post Options Post Options   Quote 2547 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 14 Feb 13 at 10:55am
Originally posted by Chris 249

Earlier there were a few posts about Sunfish numbers. A few years ago Steve Clark, one of the partners in the manufacturer of the Laser and Sunfish, noted in an email to me that the Sunfish still outsold the Laser in the USA. Steve's integrity and information seem to be beyond doubt

 

Granted but there are very few of them around in the worlds biggest dinghy market, Europe.
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Chris 249 View Drop Down
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Posts: 2041 		Post Options Post Options   Quote Chris 249 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 19 Feb 13 at 6:21am
Originally posted by 2547

Originally posted by Chris 249

Earlier there were a few posts about Sunfish numbers. A few years ago Steve Clark, one of the partners in the manufacturer of the Laser and Sunfish, noted in an email to me that the Sunfish still outsold the Laser in the USA. Steve's integrity and information seem to be beyond doubt

 

Granted but there are very few of them around in the worlds biggest dinghy market, Europe.

Well that got me interested, so I did some checking.

The thing is that when the Sunfish was booming, Europe was probably NOT the world's biggest market. The USA was a much richer place than Europe in those days, and dinghy sailing was doing very nicely there, and the Sunfish was leading the boom.

Sir Peter Johnson, for example, put Sunfish numbers are 140,000 in 1974, with only 10,000 outside the USA. Most of them came after '58 when the GRP version was introduced. He does note that the number of wood kit versions to hit the water cannot be estimated accurately, but that probably applies to Mirrors, Ents etc. 

Johnson says that in 1974, the most popular classes were (in order) the Sunfish, the earlier Sailfish ancestor, the Opti, Mirror, 420, Snipe, Laser, Ent, Vaurien, OK, Lightning, GP, 470 and Flying Junior.

Johnson lists 8 of the top classes (about 150,000 boats) as mainly UK or European based, 5 of them (240,000 boats) as mainly US, and the Laser and Opti as "everywhere". So those figures show US dinghy sailing to be bigger.

The Dinghy Year Book for 1963 says that the most popular UK classes where the Ent (7,000 registered boats, with 2,503 having certificates), GP 14 (4,640, with 3.108 certified), Heron (3.500/1000), Cadet (3,500), 12 (2000/1,400) and Firefly (1,802 certs).

An article in the same source says that the USA had 8,000 Lightnings, about 12,000 Snipes, and numerous other classes in the 1000-700 bracket.

Sports Illustrated said in '82 that the 200,000th Sunfish had been sold a year or two before, and  that "the average production has been close to 10,000 a year for almost 20 years. The highest figure was 15,000-plus in 1974, the low just over 7,000 during the recession of the mid-1970s. What with this year's economic woes, the total probably won't rise above 7,000 either."  These figures tally well with Johnson's.

So it seems that the Sunfish claims sit conform to each other pretty well over some time, which is certainly not always the case (for example I think the figures that Hobie give in ISAF class report are contradictory). 

Sorry for the rather confused post, but I'm jotting down info as I find it.
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2547 View Drop Down
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Posts: 1151 		Post Options Post Options   Quote 2547 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 19 Feb 13 at 10:59am
That is interesting ... thanks for that.

I wonder why the USA has fallen out of love with sailing dinghies?
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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: 19 Feb 13 at 11:06am
Originally posted by 2547

That is interesting ... thanks for that.

I wonder why the USA has fallen out of love with sailing dinghies?

video games... simple.
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JohnW View Drop Down
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Posts: 552 		Post Options Post Options   Quote JohnW Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 23 Feb 13 at 4:22pm
I see there were two Sunfish sailing at the Steve Nicholson

With sail numbers 550 and 551 I wonder if they were they sporting Speed Sail tape drive sails?
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