Matthew,
Let’s see …
The forum is still here. The concepts of foils, CBTF, moving ballast, spinnakers, etc. still all exist. Only the “cheerleader” has gone. What is your point?
Those same technologies are available today as they were before. Yet, we are pretty much the same today as we were last spring, except the retoric is gone. Those wanting information and actually building to these technologies can still do so today. They also have the same ability today, as they had in the spring - to discuss these technologies amongst themselves, and of course, with the self-proclaimed guru. Nothing prevents you from spinning off an e-mail to anyone (in particular) to keep discussing ideas and information. The same person is still available and still at his email address and you are welcome to spend your time dicussing things … at whatever the level of interest.
We’ve been several months now and the forum still attracts readers. It still has new information and ideas posted. One thing missing is the constant need to read the same information over and over - without a lot of results to show for all the talk. There are a few canting keel boats out there, but those who were hot to build certainly haven’t produced any breakthru boats, and water shots of them performing seem to be lacking as well. There doesn’t seem to be a big line-up of people building to any of the oft-discussed technology. Certainly one person no longer posting cannot be the reason for this? “Discussion” as it is intended for forums such as these is generally used to “discuss” ideas - a two-way street of information SHARING - rather than a one-way street of one person’s personal ideas, with any other thoughts being incorrect, 100% wrong, and without any merit.
Back in the spring - I would suggest we never really had a “discussion” - more like “preaching” and this forum today is actually an improvement, becuse people are sharing ideas and information. Suggestions are made and perhaps tried. Perhaps Matthew, you are finally viewing the forum as others saw it earlier in the year? Could it possibly be that your lack of interest in schooners marks a similar lack of interest by others of all of the “high-tech” hype that “THEY” had to put up with?
Seems like for every schooner discussion - there are some detailed photos of the boats, close-up of internals, pics of boats actually sailing - as compared to “vaporware” of earlier posts only about theory.
So while I think we are definitely going in the right direction, this forum was never meant to be a “Jerry Springer Side-Show” type of entertainment. And, as always, I still would love to see examples of canting keels, twin foils, asymmetric spinnakers, moveable ballast, multihulls that can raise their foils, Moth replicas that can “jump out of the water” just because they can, and even a full size foiler monohull doing it’s thing on foils. Here we are - well over a year later and with the exception of a few who have fooled with canting keels, there isn’t much else to show for all the talk that transpired earlier.
How many canting keel monohulls have been built since January?
How many spinnaker equipped boats have been built since January?
How many foil equipped multihulls have been built since January?
Heck - how many multihulls without foils have been built?
How many Formula 100 monohulls?
The list goes on, but the fact is that there isn’t much building activity going on in the areas you like - but there seems to be interest in the schooner area. As someone else noted - nothing prevent you from starting your own topic about high tech ideas - but I would venture there are more plastic boat, schooner, IOM, US1M, ODOM owners reading the form than owners (or builders) of the new ideas.
Just a personal view, of course.
