Market Forces

It's not often I'd recommend that the dinghy world needs another class to dilute an already fragmented market. In many ways it's a great shame that RS, Laser, Topper and others have spent much of the 90s chasing the market with so many similarly targeted boats. The Musto Skiff and the RS700 are a case in point - two singlehanders with trapeze and spinnaker. Now, there are few enough sailors who are going to sign up for such a hefty challenge, let alone divide that elite group up into two fleets. It's hard to point the finger of blame at anyone in this instance, I believe that here were two groups developing broadly the same concept of boat with the same honest intention of producing the ultimate in singlehanded challenges. It wasn't about spoiling each other's party.

Whether intentions were quite so honourable earlier in the dinghy revolution, I'm not so sure. Some boats, not naming any names, would have done better to have been launched when they had been properly tried and tested rather than being rushed out to sit on an Earl's Court Boat Show stand, with the epoxy and gelcoat still only half cured. You got the impression they were launched more as a counter-attack to a rival company's product than as an original idea looking to fill a niche.

Women Only?

Anyway, enough of that rant, but my question is, is there room for a singlehander class designed specifically for women? The subject arose on windy day outside Hayling Island clubhouse, where I met Lana Driscoll. Just a few years back, Lana was part of the youth squad in Laser Radials. She came close to qualifying for the Youth Worlds, but didn't quite make the grade. When she showed no desire to move into the Europe for a crack at the Olympics, she didn't really know where to go. The Laser Radial, she says, is treated very much as a feeder class for the Laser Standard Rig. To that extent, the Radial seems to lack a clear identity of its own. In more recent times, Lana has been racing an RS Feva singlehanded, although the vast majority of Fevas tend to be sailed two up.

It seems very difficult for a multipurpose boat to establish more than one identity - the Laser is defined by its standard rig and the Feva as a doublehander - so it is hard to think of a boat that really suits the aspirations of a sailor like Lana. She says it is hard to think of where most of her contemporaries from female youth sailing have gone. Most of them seem to have left the sport, perhaps never to return. There is plenty of mixed fleet racing to be done in the popular doublehanded classes such as the Lark, Laser 4000 and RS200 for example, but there does appear to be a gap for a women's specific singlehander.

The question for the manufacturers is, is that gap big enough to justify all the development and tooling up costs for a new boat? Are there really enough other women out there like Lana to justify such a commercial risk? It's one of those chicken and egg situations to which we'll never know the answer until someone takes a punt at this idea. You would have to imagine that the market potential for such a boat is bigger than for the glamour singlehanders which I mentioned at the top of the page. And that's not to put down the RS700 and Musto Skiff, because anyone who reads this column regularly will know that I'm a big fan of such craft. But a singlehander for women only - there might be something in that.

Sym City

It's good to see that the good work achieved by the organisers of the Symmetric Grand Prix is being taken to the next level. Encouraged by the great response to the inaugural event at Datchet Water last autumn, Mike Pickles and his cohorts have now clubbed together to form the Fastsail Organisation, which brings together a number of conventional spinnaker/single trapeze classes under one umbrella. Fastsail's press release explains: "Whilst each class association will maintain its own identity and continue to organise events just for its members, Fastsail is aiming to provide exciting additional events and to promote all the classes using the range of skills, contacts and ideas throughout the classes for the benefit of all."

The fledgling organisation's first initiative is to pool resources for the upcoming Dinghy Show. "Regular visitors to the Dinghy Show will be only too aware that visits to the symmetric class stands involved considerable legwork and often resulted in missing some stands altogether.

"For Sailboat 2004, the Fastsail Organisation will have its own large stand comprising Javelin, Hornet, Flying Dutchman, 505, Fireball, Osprey and 470 classes. At ‘Sym City' five of the seven boats will be on display and you can meet representatives of all the classes and receive enthusiastic, impartial advice about all the symmetric boats. In addition we will be welcoming a number of influential guest speakers to the stand to give demonstrations, revealing the secrets behind the latest design thinking and one to one advice on how to get the best from your equipment." It's great to see such enlightened thinking, and if you want to know more you can visit their website at: www.fastsail.org

Five-O Fifty

For one member of Fastsail, 2004 represents special significance in that it marks the 50th birthday of the 505 class. In January 1954 the French Caneton Association voted to adopt a modification it had requested that designer John Westell make to the Coronet, a prototype he had designed for the IYRU Olympic Trials the previous year. The new class was to be called the Five-O-Five.

An article in Yachting World described the new class as "a compromise between a one-design and restricted class. To keep down the price and to eliminate the possibility of it becoming out of date the hull has been made a one-design. On the other hand, for helmsmen who like to experiment, the rig is restricted within a maximum area of 150 sq ft to be distributed as the owner likes."

Apparently, rotating masts were allowed under the rules, although it is interesting to see that that particular idea never really took hold. The great thing about the 505, however, is just how up to date it looks even half a century later. Unfortunately its following has dwindled over recent years. At the top end it still attracts some serious talent - sailors like former 470 world champion from Germany, Wolfgang Hunger, 49er supreme Chris Nicholson from Australia and our own Ian Pinnell. But there isn't much depth to the fleet anymore. Let's hope the golden anniversary World Championships at Hayling Island in 2006 breathes a new lease of life into this groundbreaking class.

Fly in the ointment

You would have thought that Rohan Veal's high-flying antics in his International Moth would have earned him some praise from his fellow Mothies. Quite the opposite, apparently. It was Rohan whose boat was featured on a recent cover of Yachts & Yachting, and for me it was one of the most breathtaking pictures I have seen of dinghy sailing. However, some other Moth sailors have not been happy with Rohan and his magnificent flying machine, feeling it doesn't represent the average Moth sailor's experience, and have asked him to take down his pictures from his excellent website, www.rohanveal.com. So did Rohan comply? Did he hell. He went and stuck some more pictures up instead.

I don't get it with this stick-in-the-mud attitude to an all-out development class like the Moth. If you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen. Much of the criticism leveled at Rohan has emanated from these shores. So for those Mothies who don't want to develop, why not go and sail a challenging singlehander like an RS300? There are plenty of other boats in this country to race if you don't like being whipped by sailors that have exploited the rules of a development class to maximum effect. It's not even as though you can argue against Rohan Veal on cost grounds. As I mentioned in the article a few months back, he is quite open with his technology and offers a full conversion package to get your Moth up and flying for only £1,200.

Whitewash

Of course, Laser sailors needn't concern themselves with such complex matters. They only need to worry about what colour boat to buy. Even this topic has caused some consternation, however, and no small amount of debate on the email newsletter Scuttlebutt. An advert from Vanguard Boats in the USA ran as follows:


HOW CAN YOU AVOID OCS CALLS AT YOUR NEXT LASER REGATTA?
Buy an all white Laser. For a limited time all white Lasers are available. All white Lasers may be ordered from your local Laser dealer before February 20th. Delivery will be made in time for late winter regattas. Take this opportunity to get involved with one of the biggest one-design classes in the world, to upgrade from your old hull, and to avoid OCS calls. To find the dealer nearest you, call 1-800-966-SAIL or visit http://www.teamvanguard.com

I thought the ad was quite funny, but it caused all kinds of uproar, with some people saying that the ad was encouraging people to cheat

One reply came from Jim Champ, who referred to The 'Basic Principle' of the Racing Rules of Sailing on page two of the rulebook. It states, "A fundamental principle of sportsmanship is that when competitors break a rule they will promptly take a penalty or retire." Jim suggests: "If you pick a white boat specifically to avoid the need to retire after being over the line at a start, can you strictly be said to be complying with this basic principle? It could be argued that if someone states they have a white boat for that reason they are in breach of Rule 2 (Fair Sailing) every time they sail it."

Jim continues: "I don't sail a white boat: I'd rather not win at all than win by cheating, and not returning when OCS is cheating, pure and simple." So, while you're standing at the clubhouse bar bragging about the new boat you've just bought, if anyone asks you why you went for boring old white again, tell them it's because you like the colour...