Dinghy show

General chat about boats
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Obscured by clouds
Posts: 715
Joined: Mon Apr 06, 2009 3:23 pm
Location: north Wales

Dinghy show

Post by Obscured by clouds »

well what a let down.

Certainly not worth a 3.30am start from here and a £90 rail fare! Only bargain I got was a £10 pair of gloves - and I wonder how long they will last!

No Finn stand, and only two brand new Devotis on their stand, not a classic in sight.

Overall the place is now totally dominated by the manufacturers and MOD's and the wealth of Carbon and Mylar was overwhelming. The sole I14 looked a little lost and sad - just think of the impact Agamnenon in all it's glory would have had!

Having said that I did have a look at the various new things coming along

The new incarnation of the N18. wow! what a beast. a lot of boat for about the same cost as a new Merlin. 15 in build already [mostly to Cork].


On the plus side I bumped into Sandy and Pat, with Chris, saw Rupert who was in deep conversation at the Firefly stand [at least that was wooden] and at long last got to meet Nessa albeit for about 5 minutes, and I got a look at the MR book that David Henshall has lavished much of his time and energy on. a *weighty tome* to say the least. [it even has a photo of Julia Dream in it :P :D ]. Again- no classics on the MR stand. Had to smile though, for next to the all-singing-and-dancing carbon composites on the MR stand was ... a wooden ply built Miracle!

Can't see me going again, unless the venue comes up the M1/M6 a bit and the ethos moves back towards the class associations - but with rising costs can't see that happening any time soon.
Tony



MR 2404 Julia Dream
N18 276 Sibrwd [ongoing project]
Hirondelle catamaran Kalipse
[down to 3!]
stuw
Posts: 26
Joined: Wed Jul 18, 2012 11:20 pm

Re: Dinghy show

Post by stuw »

National 12 had a 30 year old boat however, pretty classic to me and an absolutely brilliant restoration job.
Obscured by clouds
Posts: 715
Joined: Mon Apr 06, 2009 3:23 pm
Location: north Wales

Re: Dinghy show

Post by Obscured by clouds »

stuw wrote:National 12 had a 30 year old boat however, pretty classic to me and an absolutely brilliant restoration job.
Ooo missed that
Tony



MR 2404 Julia Dream
N18 276 Sibrwd [ongoing project]
Hirondelle catamaran Kalipse
[down to 3!]
Rupert
Posts: 6255
Joined: Thu Sep 16, 2004 8:40 pm
Location: Cotswold Water Park

Re: Dinghy show

Post by Rupert »

Obscured by clouds wrote: saw Rupert who was in deep conversation at the Firefly stand [at least that was wooden]
I thought my conversation was reasonably animated!

I had a great 2 days at the show, but as usual spent all my time talking, either on the Lightning stand or when visiting others, and missed half the boats on show, including the 18. One day I will go round the show scientifically. Except that even after, what, 20 years, I still get lost all the time.
Rupert
chrismartin3583
Posts: 54
Joined: Mon Sep 19, 2011 9:03 pm

Re: Dinghy show

Post by chrismartin3583 »

Feedback from Paul Hollis was that the Merlin stand was three or four deep all day saturday and only marginally quieter on sunday with the traditional class stands all really busy.

I think the worm is turning back towards the older, established (and better) classes but lets face it, unless theres a very good reason for doing so classes are going to exhibit their latest, fastest creations. Would Ford take a 1970s Anglia to the Birmingham Motor show?
alan williams
Posts: 1650
Joined: Thu Sep 16, 2004 10:44 pm
Location: Devon

Re: Dinghy show

Post by alan williams »

Hi
When we took Mark Belshores classic finn to the show it was generating a lot of interest. People were going up to it just to stroke its decks. There were lots of comments on how good it was to see a real boat and not a plastic one.
Cheers Al
Bill-Conner
Posts: 126
Joined: Thu Sep 02, 2010 3:08 pm

Re: Dinghy show

Post by Bill-Conner »

If the Merlin Rocket Stand was super busy it would have been due at least in part to David (Dougal) Henshall's superb new history of the class, well researched in minute detail amazing inllustrations anyone who values the post WW11 history of Dinghy Racing should have this on his bookshelves.
dronskiuk
Posts: 180
Joined: Thu Nov 15, 2012 3:23 pm
Location: Where Broadland meets the sea

Re: Dinghy show

Post by dronskiuk »

chrismartin3583 wrote:Feedback from Paul Hollis was that the Merlin stand was three or four deep all day saturday and only marginally quieter on sunday with the traditional class stands all really busy.

I think the worm is turning back towards the older, established (and better) classes but lets face it, unless theres a very good reason for doing so classes are going to exhibit their latest, fastest creations. Would Ford take a 1970s Anglia to the Birmingham Motor show?
I do agree with this but one small nitpick...Anglia was a sixties car, can't recall any after '68 :?
chrismartin3583
Posts: 54
Joined: Mon Sep 19, 2011 9:03 pm

Re: Dinghy show

Post by chrismartin3583 »

TBF i wasn't born :p
dronskiuk
Posts: 180
Joined: Thu Nov 15, 2012 3:23 pm
Location: Where Broadland meets the sea

Re: Dinghy show

Post by dronskiuk »

chrismartin3583 wrote:TBF i wasn't born :p
By the time I owned two of them the price had dropped to £15... :shock: :lol:
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