Karl, I dont understand why a ferrari costs more than a hyundai, I mean they both have 4 wheels and an engine...
We ain't comparing Hyundai's and Ferrari's. We're comparing Hyundai's to Hyundai's. Its a slight variation, not a whole new frickin' breed of animal. I said it before,
I don't know much about boat building. As far as I know you're laying a pliable material into a mold, whether its got a curve or not, I don't see the difference, but I would like too.
And let me assure you that its not possible to have a flat pack mould that bolts together... next we will have Ikea doing them!
Okay if you say so, plenty of things are bolted together that hold up just dandy under some very extreme loads. But I still would like to know why. I like to learn things, and just saying "no" wrapped up in your ****/kunt like attitude isn't enough info for me. What Jake was getting at is that a giant block of material can get expensive, especially when most of it is going into the recycling bin. Furthermore if it is really big then there are issues of finding people that can deal with it, which if you're in a niche market you get to charge pretty much what you want and tell people to go screw themselves with a smile while they pay you knowing they'll be back because there just isn't any other options. Like I said, if a billet aluminum race car chassis can be machined and assembled and hold up to what a track and a whole mess of hp can throw at it, I don't see why something simple like this can't be done that way as well. Or, perhaps its something that hasn't been explored yet in this application and should be? There's always a better mousetrap to be built, or a better way to build it(whether it improves the product or the production), regardless of what you manufacture.
Sure, its possible to build a curved board in your backyard, but to do a production quality run with repeatability, control and warranty is not such an easy task.
Never said anything different. I'm just curious why you say the boards are soooo inexpensive, yet say production is soooo costly. That business model doesn't hold up for too long.
Look at it this way: If it was so easy then why isn't everyone out there doing it?
Give it time and it probably will be, right now its still in the voodoo magic category. Sailing has been around for how many thousands of years? How long did it take to just be able to go to weather? How far has it come in the past 50-25-10-5 years? I'm in the camp where I'd like to see the A-cats, F18's, and F16's (or whatever) take advantage of everything they can in both material and design.
