SOL Sailing???

[WCB]

So going off of what I was told yesterday, parts for Sunfish are also hard to get. So having the Sol show up which uses the same setup as the Sunfish will once again make parts available. Go figure, this is eerily similar to the LP/Laser/ILCA process where due to the lack of parts, the "practice" parts market was born.

 

[ILYAScow]

They better pray they do not win the Boat of the Year. It's a death omen.

 

[Alan Crawford]

They better pray they do not win the Boat of the Year. It's a death omen.

The Melges 15 seems to be doing pretty well....

 

[Steve Clark]

Because of the difficulty sourcing Official Sunfish parts, Sunfish Direct started manufacturing their own and the Sunfish class started permitting them to be used in regattas. There really wasn't another choice. So Sunfish Direct has tooling and production for all the Sunfish parts, so you would expect them to design a boat that used them.
The hull shape of the Sol is reported to be so close to that of the Sunfish that they are functionally indistinguishable.
The other variables, like stiffness, weight distribution and other esoterica of one design classes are probably all different, but I'm not sure anyone really cares. Over the years the Sunfish evolved too.
The play here is for the leadership of the Sunfish class to establish a new Sol Class and for the Sol Class to permit Sunfish to race in their events. Allow the old boats to compete in the new class, instead of trying to get the old class to accept the new boats. It is different. The only thing lost is the World Sailing status, but that might be simply a matter of time.
SHC

 

[ILYAScow]

Because of the difficulty sourcing Official Sunfish parts, Sunfish Direct started manufacturing their own and the Sunfish class started permitting them to be used in regattas. There really wasn't another choice. So Sunfish Direct has tooling and production for all the Sunfish parts, so you would expect them to design a boat that used them.
The hull shape of the Sol is reported to be so close to that of the Sunfish that they are functionally indistinguishable.
The other variables, like stiffness, weight distribution and other esoterica of one design classes are probably all different, but I'm not sure anyone really cares. Over the years the Sunfish evolved too.
The play here is for the leadership of the Sunfish class to establish a new Sol Class and for the Sol Class to permit Sunfish to race in their events. Allow the old boats to compete in the new class, instead of trying to get the old class to accept the new boats. It is different. The only thing lost is the World Sailing status, but that might be simply a matter of time.
SHC

The potential litigation should be interesting. Let alone that is a giant leap of faith for the Sunfish class.

 

[cmac233]

Check out the SOL in action with Sailing World as part of the 2023 Boat of the Year review.

 

[ILYAScow]

Some serious color going on.

 

[Bill5]

Check out the SOL in action with Sailing World as part of the 2023 Boat of the Year review.

How does a Sunfish with a new deck qualify?

 

[Xeon]

I really hope they have done their due diligence legally wise, and this turns out to be the way forward for the Sunfish class .
Just about anything is better than having your class controlled by LP.

 

[Xeon]

How does a Sunfish with a new deck qualify?

That could be up to the class to decide. Who knows at this stage .

 

[Bill5]

That could be up to the class to decide. Who knows at this stage .

…qualify as a BOTY

 

[Xeon]

…qualify as a BOTY

Oh I see what you mean now , sorry . No idea whether a slightly modified boat that’s designed to conform closely to an existing boat is a new boat . The show did so I suppose that’s all that matters as far as BOTY is concerned.

 

[tillerman]

Oh I see what you mean now , sorry . No idea whether a slightly boat that’s designed to conform closely to an existing boat is a new boat . The show did so I suppose that’s all that matters .

The show isn't all that matters. The law is pretty important too. See post 51 from Dave Clark in this thread.

 

[Xeon]

The show isn't all that matters. The law is pretty important too. See post 51 from Dave Clark in this thread.

Totally agree , see my earlier post about the people behind the Sol doing their due diligence. Either way , with the people behind the Sol also importing Sunfish and the similarity to the Sunfish ,there is a very big chance that Lawyers will be involved somewhere along the line.

 

[Alan Crawford]

Totally agree , see my earlier post about the people behind the Sol doing their due diligence. Either way , with the people behind the Sol also importing Sunfish and the similarity to the Sunfish ,there is a very big chance that Lawyers will be involved somewhere along the line.

If they didn't involve lawyers before, they may be doing so sooner than later....

 

[WCB]

If they didn't involve lawyers before, they may be doing so sooner than later....

Given their history with LP and the class, I imagine that Sunfish Direct already did all of the due diligence they needed in order to pull this off. Heck, @Steve Clark told us that Sunfish Direct had to make their own castings/molds and source their own parts to keep the class going so I bet they've already crossed a number of these bridges. They also have some good history to review with the Laser/ILCA debacle.

 

[Bill5]

Given their history with LP and the class, I imagine that Sunfish Direct already did all of the due diligence they needed in order to pull this off. Heck, @Steve Clark told us that Sunfish Direct had to make their own castings/molds and source their own parts to keep the class going so I bet they've already crossed a number of these bridges. They also have some good history to review with the Laser/ILCA debacle.

Get ready for LP’s price reduction on the Sunfish.

 

[WCB]

Get ready for LP’s price reduction on the Sunfish.

Well...you can mark it at 50% off but if you can't build it and deliver it, the discount doesn't mean much.

I should temper this with the knowledge that I was an employee of Vanguard Sailboats for a short while and I really enjoyed the company and what they did. I don't want to rain on LPs parade, quite the contrary, I wish they had turned it around a long time ago as none of us needed the Laser/ILCA headache. But...I'm also in full support of what's good for the sport of sailing and at some point you have to cut your losses.

 

[ILYAScow]

Well best of luck to all of the board boats. This should make the 3 different groups all competitive with each other.

 

[Foredeck Shuffle]

Rather see the end of the SF with a boat like the Rocket taking its place. DHC has already proven that that nearly the same form factor can have all of the improvements desired.