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Do SMOD builders make special/ bent boats? |
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nathan
Posting king Joined: 26 Apr 04 Online Status: Offline Posts: 143 |
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Topic: Do SMOD builders make special/ bent boats? Posted: 20 Oct 10 at 9:20am |
Adverts like this really grate me;
Whoever wrote the advert is implying that the boatbuilder (Jamie Stewart in this instance) built a special/ bent boat. This goes against the point of SMODs, that all boats are the same. In doing so he is, IMO giving the builder a bad name. Building a special/ bent boat for one customer and not everyone else is not something builders should not be doing, especially if against class rules.
Do SMOD builders build special boats? Does the builder even know who it is for when ordered? Surely LDC just order a batch of say 12 200s, not specifying customers names...
Or is the seller just talking up the boat in trying to get the best price for it (but in doing so tarnishing the name of the boat builder)?
Edit- grammar! Edited by nathan - 20 Oct 10 at 9:37am |
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CJ..
Newbie Joined: 21 Jun 04 Location: United Kingdom Online Status: Offline Posts: 17 |
Post Options Quote Reply Posted: 20 Oct 10 at 9:35am |
Probably a case of over selling! I can't imagine why LDC would want to build a special for anyone.....
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RS400atC
Really should get out more Joined: 04 Dec 08 Online Status: Offline Posts: 3011 |
Post Options Quote Reply Posted: 20 Oct 10 at 9:48am |
The advert is quite carefully written.
It does not actually say the boat is built any different.
It claims the boat is 'special'. That could just mean it has a good record with Geoff Carveth.
Alternatively it could be that the boat was selected from a batch, I've heard of certain other SMODs where one of the top players buys his boats with cash after weighing all those in stock!
This is a danger in classes where there is no minimum weight/certificate/corrector regime. Allegedly it pays to check the alignment of things like centreboard cases in some smods.
A year or so ago, thee was an article in the RS comic about building 200's. I was not impressed. Too many words like 'brush' and 'bucket' where I would like to see 'temperature controlled environment' and 'vacuum bag'. OK it's a low tech boat, but still not exactly cheap..
IF you don't trust the sameness, SMOD's become a very bad idea, although this can also be an issue in all classes. A potential champion may get better service from any boatbuilder.
Personally I am in two minds about buying ex-champ winning boats, they tend to have been vibrated around the country on trailers rather a lot. Perhaps the sister ship owned by a club sailing couple will have had less stress?
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MerlinMags
Admin Group Joined: 19 Mar 04 Location: UK, Guildford Online Status: Offline Posts: 585 |
Post Options Quote Reply Posted: 20 Oct 10 at 10:16am |
Does he mean "fitted out by" rather than "built by" ?
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timnoyce
Really should get out more Joined: 05 Aug 04 Location: Hampshire Online Status: Offline Posts: 1991 |
Post Options Quote Reply Posted: 20 Oct 10 at 10:39am |
You are having a laugh right?! I think it's better that they are using words like brush and bucket as at least they are being truthful! If you were reading the latter you would smell bullsh*t a mile off. |
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BEARFOOT DESIGN
Cherub 2648 - Comfortably Numb |
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JimC
Really should get out more Joined: 17 May 04 Location: United Kingdom Online Status: Offline Posts: 6648 |
Post Options Quote Reply Posted: 20 Oct 10 at 10:44am |
I find these adverts highly amusing: it demonstrates what confidence SMOD owners have in the one designedness of their boats, like the ones for "Laser with good racing record".
Its also a reflection of sailors egos, because they have to believe that what might be a 2% difference in boat speed between two boats, which would be regarded as pretty good boat speed in most development classes, is more important than the 20% difference that might exist between two sailors... The truth is that if Jane beats you its ten times more likely to be because she's a better sailor than because she has a faster boat, no matter what class you are in. |
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womble12345
Groupie Joined: 14 Apr 09 Online Status: Offline Posts: 99 |
Post Options Quote Reply Posted: 20 Oct 10 at 10:52am |
I think Geoff Carveth is quite a stickler when it comes to boats, in 2008 (or 2009) I saw him weighing boats at a couple of 200 events, one time he was assisted by a senior member of LDC staff. At the time it made me question the quality of the new hulls, it doesn’t really show much for the 'sameness' of the hulls when a sailor from the front of the fleet is openly questioning the quality of the boats. I suspect that they are all pretty similar and only a sailor as great as Geoff would be able to notice the very minor differences between hulls, but in a fleet as close as the 200s every minor difference counts! I doubt the boat is a special made for Geoff but suspect he did cherry pick the hull from a batch. |
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RS400atC
Really should get out more Joined: 04 Dec 08 Online Status: Offline Posts: 3011 |
Post Options Quote Reply Posted: 20 Oct 10 at 10:54am |
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Rupert
Really should get out more Joined: 11 Aug 04 Location: Whitefriars sc Online Status: Offline Posts: 8956 |
Post Options Quote Reply Posted: 20 Oct 10 at 10:57am |
Surely the ad is just saying that the boat has been kitted out well, looked after well, and therefore is a bit "special". A boat where all the kit works well is going to be far nicer to sail than one which has the cheapest options on it, and maybe abused or ignored at that. The fact that Geoff Carveth has a great racing record will mainly be due to talent and hard work, but I would think he has an eye for detail and would expect everything on a boat to work perfectly.
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Firefly 2324, Puffin 229, Minisail 3446 Mirror 70686
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Martin Wadhams
Newbie Joined: 25 Nov 05 Location: United Kingdom Online Status: Offline Posts: 19 |
Post Options Quote Reply Posted: 20 Oct 10 at 11:20am |
Just for the record - we build boats in batches and the eventual owner for a specific hull is not known at the time of build. "Specials" don't exist - not even for Nick - much to his chagrin
Geoff Carveth is always pretty focussed on weight. He once compared the weight of a new 400 he was collecting with the weight of the (2 year old?) nationals winning boat he part exchanged, and I seem to remember it was a kilo different. After we changed 200 builder Geoff planned to order a new boat and wanted to satisfy himself that weights were consistent - he checked a bunch of boats at a couple of events across the age range and was happy with the results, so went ahead with his order.
We have sometimes found it harder to sell boats that belonged to champs for the reasons mentioned in an earlier post. Hope that tells it's own story from those closely involved within RS classes.
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Martin Wadhams
Managing Director RS Sailing |
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