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<br>See attachment<br><br>

The text of my posting may be read in the attachment provided that you go down a little. The first lines look like ooooppppppyyyyy.....................uuuyyyyiiikkkkkkk°°°°°°°°°<br><br>

Very well explained idea. I really liked your post and agree with its reasoning. It shows a detailed knowledge of hull construction - your "tree". In order to understand an industry, we will also need to have a certain understanding of the "forest".
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<br>In order to explain this complement to your post, it helps if we make a comparison between boats and cars.
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<br> When you drive to work or school, you use one car which is produced in series, heavy and lacking many available inovations. Do you conceive racing with this very same car without modifications? I don't think so.
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<br>When you go cruising with the girlfriend (boyfriend) you sail a standard beach cat. Then, in the next weekend, you expect to race with the SAME CAT!
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<br>Car companies completely separate the product they sell for street use from the ones sold for competitions. It is reasonable to expect the same from beach cat companies. Expecting them to deliver highly sophysticated series of multipurpose cats is not reasonable for the same reason car companies do not stop selling street cars and replace them with Ferraris.
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<br>In the car and beach cat industries the standard low end products eventually incorporate SOME of the racing inovations, but not all of them and never imediately.
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<br>We would all like to have Ferrari engines in our Toyotas, but it will take some time. Yet, some of today's Toyotas have engines that are actually better then, say, the Ferraris of the 60's.
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<br>On the other side, high cost/benefit ratio inovations are always incorporated faster. Disk brakes and laminated glass in cars and polyester lines in boats, for example.
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<br>What could justify your anger would be an accumulation of race proven high cost/benefit ratio inovations maliciously not adopted in the standard products to retain higher margins. I do not think this is generally the case. When this in fact happens, the products tend to loose market share.
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<br>You complain specifically about the quality and weight of the hull. In my opinion Bill Roberts is right:
<br>The composites/carbon/autoclaves still did not achieve a cost/benefit level that justifies their adoption in the more popular models and, as a result, we will have to wait a bit more for the next generation of standard beach cats.
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<br>The good news is that this new generation WILL come sooner or later and it will be even cheaper then today's cats. Why?
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<br>1-Because carbon fiber producing machinery is less expensive then glass fiber producing machinery. The number of carbon fiber producers and the total world output is growing fast. This will certainly reduce carbon fiber price.
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<br>2-Because with cheaper carbon fiber, more products will be carbon made, it will be easier to keep an autoclave busy and it will take less time to pay for its cost.
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<br>3-Because as more people learn how to work with composites, the specialized hand labor gets cheaper.
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<br>Just be patient - and sail while we wait!
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<br>By the way, how is your canted daggerboard C class?
<br><br><br>Luiz

Luiz,
<br>it is not a matter of carbon or autoclave.
<br>I hope to have demonstrated that any boatyards may produce (in the 21st century) 100 Kg 16 footer, 130 kg 18 footer and 150 Kg 20 footer making (a better) use of the same low tech materials and low tech building tecniques they already utilize.
<br>To justify the big boatyards' practise you refer to the automotive market. In yr argument you forgot to say that nowadays cars are much better and much cheaper than the one produced only 5 years ago. Each new generation of cars is a step ahead for safety, fuel consuption, etc of its "parent". On the contrary quality on nowadays cats builts by the big boatyards declined sharply in the last few days while prices skyrocketed. I suggest you to read the excellent article of Ian Farrier on the Jul/Aug issue of Multihull Magazine.
<br>I invite all of you to reflect on these facts. It is time to ask more quality to Hobie Cat and Performance.
<br>Maurizio
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<br>P.S.
<br>I owe an all carbon Ventilo 20' (125 kg ready to sail!)
<br>The Italian guy wlling to build a C class you refer to is probably Marco Failla.<br><br>

Sorry Mauricio - I'll ask Marco about the C class.
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<br>In fact I agree with you.
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<br>What I want to say is that IF what you demonstrated is correct and higher cost/benefit boats can be made at lower prices, then the market will authomatically correct itself.
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<br>Please note that it is not OUR opinion that counts for the adjustment, mathematically demonstrated or not. It is the customers opinion, expressed through actual new boat purchase transactions.
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<br>How does the adjustment happen?
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<br>People will stop buying the old & bad products and start buying good & cheap new products - from new companies, if the old ones do not come up with decent products. (again - old & bad / good & cheap are defined BY THE CUSTOMERS)
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<br>The adjustment process may take its time, especially in a small and slow market as this is, but it will happen.
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<br>Your post is an excellent warning for consumers to choose well now, because they might be purchasing boats that willl be obsolete after this (predictable) market adjustment. The exact adjustment TIMING naturally remains uncertain.
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<br>Since part of the mentioned delay is caused by assimetry of information between consumers and producers, your post and simmilar articles help speed it up as they reduce this assimetry. It should receive as much publicity as possible.
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<br>(By the way, a study of the effects of assimetry of information won this year's Nobel Prize in economy)<br><br>Luiz