Is LaserPerformance planning a new dinghy???
- Thread starter POR151
- Start date
Flyingfish
New member
Certainly an impressive launch video. In the dark, under a tree, looks like it was filmed on an iPhone, and no subtitles. Well done LP!
tillerman
Super Anarchist
Der_Dude
Anarchist
PR work is totally overrated.
Mambo Kings
Super Anarchist
PortStar? The probability of the sailing community not calling the boat "PornStar" is calculated at 2.04%
This is after all, the the same demographic who quickly renamed "Blue Magic" as "Blow My Dick"
The reaction of the D Zero Devotees to the introduction of a new OD single-hander seems somewhat paranoiac. Is everything okay in Zero land?
Mambo Kings
Super Anarchist
They would be well advised to lose those graphics on the mini-wings. It is hard enough to keep the lines tidy in a race boat as it is, without having the distraction of virtual lines all over the place.
But I will wait to see how the boat performs before complimenting it or knocking it. Its a extremely tough competitive niche but I for one certainly hope that the nascent Portuguese boat building industry eventually finds a niche somewhere. It claims to be designed in Portugal as well as built in Portugal. Does anyone know who the designer is? Snr. Guilherme Tripp?
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Mambo Kings
Super Anarchist
It claims to be "the most advanced, better performant dinghy in the market"
Translated from Portuguese without the aid of spell check?
Translated from Portuguese without the aid of spell check?
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Roller Skates
Super Anarchist
Who rigged that mainsheet block as a floating ratchet? JFK.
That looks like its going to be a complete mess.
That looks like its going to be a complete mess.
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Don’t judge my reaction as the average D zero owner . Just because I am a grumpy old git with a interest in Lasers so i know a little about how Rasty works doesn’t have anything to do with what boat I own at this moment ( I’ve owned loads of of different singlehanders) . :lol: Most sailors on this site of the pond will probably never ever see or even hear about the Portstar .
If it a good boat I hope it sells well . The world needs more good boats but to be really successful a boat has to have more than that.
Look at the Dzero v Aero situation, they both launched at the same 6 years . Both good boats , one has found its niche in the uk sailing market , have sold about 300/ 350 boats and has a good racing ( ie loads of open meeting and a good turn out at the nationals )but the boats are mostly clustered around a limited number of clubs. The other boat , also has good racing but has sold in the 1000s and most clubs in the uk will have one or more in the dinghy park .
The reason for the difference. Marketing, RS totally blitzed it . They were on the road doing demo days at clubs for the first two years all the time , they employed Pete Barton to represent the class on the water and on social media and they did club deals on boat where if five club members bought the boat at the same time they got a big discounts
So let’s get back to the Pornstar , let’s take it as read that it’s a well designed, good quality boat ( fingers crossed ).
To get any traction on this side of the pond , LP are going to have to market the boat as well as RS.
What’s the odds of that happening ?
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JimC
Not actually an anarchist.
I imagine its a development boat. That looked like a convenient way to rig it so that you could easily move the take off point to see what works best. Apart from anything else a fixed point would be cheaper on production boats.
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Totally agree .
I had to sell my Supernova because I just spent to much time on my knee’s, I could hardly walk for two days after racing lol.
That’s why I changed to sailing British moths , nice deep cockpit my only other choice would have been a Solo but I don’t like the coffee table in the middle of the boat .
It was one of my concerns when a bought the D zero but so far it’s been fine , I think it’s because the cockpit is narrow you don’t kneel much . I do still bang my head on the boom regularly when I forget to let the kicker off though lol
Mambo Kings
Super Anarchist
You are all very nice people.......but despite my well wishes to the Portuguese boat building industry.....I have mixed feelings about the conflicting goals of racing sailboat builders versus sailors.
Builders want to launch new products that take a slice of the market. Sailors want to race in large fleets and have local racing in their boat readily available .
So much so that unless a design addresses a major need , under-served segment with an existing outdated design, new market of the sailing community........then I wish them unmitigated doom and failure.
Why?
Participation in adult sail boat racing has declined. In itself, that is not terrible news , despite all the gnashing of teeth and wailing. Sailing came off a peak of being the #1 participation sport in the UK a couple of decades ago but t is still a top 5. However we have many more active one design classes of boat. With a smaller pie, we should be aiming for larger slices not even smaller slices. If you are a keen racer of single handed boats, with at least 4 major options in front of you , why would you want another "successful design"? to have ever smaller fleets and end up racing handicap.
In addition to the design by Bruce Kirby, which was wonderful for its time, the thing I loved most about the Laser when it exploded on the sailing scene in the last century was Ian Bruce's fulfilled vision that they would be everywhere. The Laser frankly crushed the competition (in a good way because the offering was so good) and as a young sailor on every Friday evening I faced the choice of a weekend of sailing in a large fleet at my local club or traveling to a well attended Open Meeting.
I occasionally gently rib @tillerman aka Iron Man, but the Aero has done a good thing. The Laser had reached a sell-by date. Modern build technology had allowed for much lighter weight construction for a long time. The sailors were ready for something faster and easier. RS stumbled at first. I cannot even remember the name of the boat they brought out first. It missed the mark. But they hit the mark with the Aero, accompanied as Xeon pointed out , by RS marketing.
Its equally important that new designs periodically appear and replace tired designs and keep sailing relevant........but only if they replace rather than offer yet another option.
Racing one-design is not about sailing your "ideal" boat that you and a handful of others love, its about accepting a measure of compromise and sailing a boat that hundreds or even thousands of people like.
Ian Bruce understood this. RS understands this ( although not as well as they ought to). Melges understand this. J Boats will make you anything that makes them money and through consistently competent design and manufacture they hit the ball out of the park every 15 years or so(J24, J105, J70) . Surprisingly, for a boutique builder, Rondar RaceBoats understands this. Almost every other builder and boat designer has their own version of the single handed boat that is going to change the world, without really asking themselves ....what class is it going to replace?.... what sailors currently on dry land are going to start sailing again because of this design?....and unsurprisingly, and fortunately they fail.
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JimC
Not actually an anarchist.
Actually we have fewer active one design classes than in the golden age. The RYA list ~75 dinghy classes in the current PY list and listed 89 back in 1985. There has been a big switch to singlehanded boats though and there are more of those, about 40 now from 21 in the 1985 PY list. Interesting that there are a good number of alternate rigs: it goes down to 31 and 20 if you count multiple rigs on the same hull as one class.
Mambo King . I totally understand your point of view but its a view that has traction on your side of the pond.
We all agree class racing is the purest form of racing but on any weekend in uk most club sailors are handicap racing ( I guess 80 to 90% , Jim c will correct me if I am wrong ). And because we are a tiny country if we do want to class race there will be a open meeting relatively close by to go to .
Because of this I think we are more open to the fact that classes come and go and a lot of us just buy the boat we like/ suits us best . Rather than be forced to sail something we don’t like JUST to class race.
There is very different sailing culture on either side of the pond in so many ways .
We all agree class racing is the purest form of racing but on any weekend in uk most club sailors are handicap racing ( I guess 80 to 90% , Jim c will correct me if I am wrong ). And because we are a tiny country if we do want to class race there will be a open meeting relatively close by to go to .
Because of this I think we are more open to the fact that classes come and go and a lot of us just buy the boat we like/ suits us best . Rather than be forced to sail something we don’t like JUST to class race.
There is very different sailing culture on either side of the pond in so many ways .
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shebeen
Super Anarchist
well that comment aged quite nicely.......If that’s a carbon boat , I will shave my head
