Today I was talking to an older man that lives down the street. He is very intelligent and has really taken an interest in my catamaran. I regularly sit and talk for hours with him about ways to improve sailing and I must say that he has some pretty cool ideas.
But on the primary subject. Tonight when we were talking he said that he thinks that Hobie and the other catamaran companies are holding back on their designs.
His theory is that all of them have a faster catamaran on the drawing board somewhere but don't want to produce it because once they do they will have peaked and will not be able to make a faster boat, hence it would cause them to no longer be needed because a small company would be able to copy the design. He thinks that if they slowly work up towards the top of the line boat they will be able to sell alot more boats.
So what do you all think, are the companies holding back?? or are they doing everything they can to bring us sailors the fastest boat possible? <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif" alt="" />
This is going to start another long thread...but there is a bit to what he says. There's a thin line between being able to develop a boat and not obsoleting all the other boats you've already built. When your customers are focused on racing your product, there are varying degrees of change that people will accept. Hobie has been very focused on keeping things the same regardless of other developments available (I'm not saying this is a good or a bad thing). Some other manufacturers have been a little less focused on that and come out with models more frequently - but still try to walk a line of moderation between model changes and consistent racing classes.
The introduction and relatively recently popularity of the formula classes (F18, F16, etc) have ensured that the manufacturers are spending a little more time making sure they have a fast design since we have, for the first time, a class that pits manufacturer against manufacturer.
There's some truth in what your friend says but it is for a good reason in some cases. I think some of the appeal of the Formula classes is that we are, in fact, riding some of the quickest speedsters that fit the rules.
