What is the worlds favourite sailing dinghy?

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davidh
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Re: What is the worlds favourite sailing dinghy?

Post by davidh »

Max,

Okay - all is not lost!

When I started out on the commision for Dinghy Mag (this is different to the Top 10 iconic dinghies that feaatured in Y&Y) I changed the overall title about 3 times before finally settling on 'Top 10 Uk dinghy DESIGNS'

As I said, this was hard enough but I avoided all the pitfalls that you're heading for by

a) - making it UK focused
b) - picking up on the fact that it was the design that I was interested in
c) - having plenty of collateral I could refer out to

You see - you refer in your title to firstly - worldwide, then to 'sailing dinghy' - not racing dinghy (this point is vital as the numbers show that the number of people who just sail dwarfs the numbers who race).

Tighten up what it is you want to do, make the title reflect and then - and only then, the social and 'soft' factors that determine the success of a dinghy will start to become apparent!

D
David H
Garry R
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Re: What is the worlds favourite sailing dinghy?

Post by Garry R »

This may be a little controversial I suppose BUT what is the definition of "favourite" dinghy. Can you really fall in love with a Laser? To me they seem soulless but I can see the attraction. Single hander. Loads of them. Easy spares. Relatively cheap second hand. Maintenance-free. How many of the Laser sailors would sail one if they could get a crew? The Enterprise? Loads of them. Still popular but they obviously don't grab the attention witnessed by the very few which attend CVRDA events but many of us learned to sail in them. GP14 seems to still have followings. I do enjoy double handed sailing with the teamwork it involves.

With Valentine's Day coming up as an analogy - do you go for the beautiful love of your life which stirs the emotions (Merlin for me) requiring loads of attention but can still thrill week in and week out, or do you go for something dependable and familiar. Perhaps the CVRDA criteria is different due (not just because of the age of the boats) but because of the age of the members!! How much, for us, does nostalgia play a part in the answer?
Rupert
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Re: What is the worlds favourite sailing dinghy?

Post by Rupert »

My favorite boat is certainly not the boat I would percieve as being the World's favorite. In fact, most of the world have no clue what a Firefly is.

A longer survey with a chance to answer both what the personal favorite is, as well as what people percieve to be the "crowd" favorite might work. This might need to be backed up with info about what the best selling boats are, in fact, both worldwide and in the country in which you are asking the question.
Rupert
chris
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Re: What is the worlds favourite sailing dinghy?

Post by chris »

'the world's favourite' would suggest the class that has reached the highest sail number and therefore has had the most dinghies produced and owned over the time the class has endured. I don't know if that's what I would call my favourite though.
So which has reached the highest sail number? Laser, Mirror, Ent, Topper maybe?
I am also aware that the question referred to the World and not all of the above are worldwide, and I have no idea what other sailors from the other corners of the world sail.
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Ed
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Re: What is the worlds favourite sailing dinghy?

Post by Ed »

Something made me think the boat with the 'largest number built'....or was the Optimist.

Agreed, it is a very hard question to answer without some limitations though.

My favorites? Firefly, Jollyboat and IC.

World Favorites? I kinda hope it is the Optimist.

eib
Ed Bremner
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davidh
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Re: What is the worlds favourite sailing dinghy?

Post by davidh »

From a global perspective, numerically - it's the Sunfish, followed by laser then Oppie and then...the Mirror!

The reason I was trying to advice against trying to 'do' anything based on the title as it stands is that (as I understand things) this is an important bit of work that Max is involved with, that could have significant ramifications for how his further education progresses - so it is not just an academic exercise. The real 'sting' in the tail is that he could face interview questions based on what ever he's written.......hence my concern that anything that has a worldwide perspective in it becomes suspect from the outset.

let's face it, how many people are there out there who have anything in the way of detailed knowledge of what classes are sailed in Europe, let alone the US and Australia.

In the end there is something very wrong here; asking UK sailors what they think the worlds favourite sailing dinghy is to assume that they even know the baseline figures..... and my expereince suggests that they don't. Being objective, there is no cohesion between the title, the methodology and the result - which could easily be exposed in the opening questions.

If I had screwed up the 'Top Ten UK Dinghy designs' then I'd have had egg on face but in the end, so what - as the good Mr. Briggs pointed out, hailing from the 'Street of Shame' is bad enough - but I'd not want to be trying to write such an article myself if it was 'important'!

d
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Michael Brigg
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Re: What is the worlds favourite sailing dinghy?

Post by Michael Brigg »

Garry R wrote: With Valentine's Day coming up as an analogy - do you go for the beautiful love of your life which stirs the emotions (Merlin for me) requiring loads of attention but can still thrill week in and week out, or do you go for something dependable and familiar. Perhaps the CVRDA criteria is different due (not just because of the age of the boats) but because of the age of the members!! How much, for us, does nostalgia play a part in the answer?
I've used it before but it seems apt; To quote Kipling...

"A woman is only a woman but a good cigar is a smoke."
Michael Brigg
MartinH
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Re: What is the worlds favourite sailing dinghy?

Post by MartinH »

I wanted to post to this earlier but the security locks on our IT system at work precluded that. :(

In terms of Max’s original question as phrased my answer initial thought was “don’t know, no-one has build a dinghy large enough to hold a globe nearly 8000 miles in diameter”. Then common sense kicked in (why is common sense so uncommon? – discuss). My thought was the Laser, not realising that the Sunfish has been built in even larger numbers.

As a latecomer to this discussion can I suggest Max that if your teacher allows you change the title to something along the lines of “Which class of dinghy gives sailors in the UK most pleasure to sail?” or “Which class of dinghy would sailors want to sail most often?”. I know neither of these are particularly well worded but might give a more meaningful answer.

My own answer would vary depending on the weather, time of day and even who's available to share with. Nothing can compare with a screaming three sail reach across Weymouth Bay, :D unless it is slipping quietly along beside reedbeds watching waterfowl in the early dusk. :) Each very memorable and requiring very different boats.
Martin
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