Predictions for 2007!

My (mostly very dodgy) predictions for 2007. Give us feedback with yours

  1. Racing will take off internationally and over the Internet

  2. The Internet course will become an accepted fact of life in many places.

  3. The fleet will grow dramatically.

  4. There will be at least one Transatlantic Match in 2007 (sure winner this one: I’ve paid for the tickets!).

  5. More manufacturers of ‘just add water’ boats, kits, and fittings will appear.

  6. The quality of sails will improve dramatically. Specialist sailmakers will begin to appear.

  7. There will be a move away from ‘Bobabout copy’ rigs.

  8. Una rigs will be tried but will be disappointing except in light weather because of control problems down wind.

  9. ‘Balloon jibs’ (see Dick Lemke) will be tried. If successful they will change hull design radically.

  10. Hull design will polarise in line with local engineering tradition and local conditions. American will go for wide heavy boats with loads of sail area (the Muscle Boat!). Europeans will tend to go for lighter, narrower boats with less sail and advanced structures to keep the weight down. If balloon jibs work, Australasia/Oceanea will go for skiffs with light weight and relatively little sail.

  11. Bendy masts will become normal. Footys will be the first boats to completely divorce mast bend from forestay sag. There will be a lot of experiments on getting away from the traditional model yacht foresail.

  12. Engineering of rig control systems will become much better so as to use smaller, lighter servos.

  13. Free sailing will experience a renaissance. There will be pressure to allow rudders/vane gears on free-sailing models.

  14. Scows and cats will be tried, but will tend to be one-trick-bears.

  15. A new Footy aesthetic will emerge.

  16. An appreciation will emerge that foils need to be extremely precisely made. The initial reaction will be parallel planforms that can be made by the metre with accurately moulded sections.

  17. Wide-sterned ‘dinghy-style’ hulls will go out of fashion for heavy boats. Some designers will try the ‘pregnant cow’ look.

  18. Well-designed, well set up, well-sailed simple boats will embarrass high-tech plastic fantastics

  19. Hard chines (probably 5 or 6 panel) will remain competitive except possibly at the very top level.

  20. Brett McCormack will be canonised. Angus Richardson will be fired from a cannon.

  21. Most of us will have a lot of fun!

[b]Happy New Year, People

Angus[/b]

I would expect to see some trends -

There will be fewer custom parts ‘manufacturers’ since interest will be toward ‘plastic boats’. With fewer builders taking the time to build a boat, the continued decline of people and companies offering their services will decrease.

The continuing trend toward “instant” sailing will see fewer homemade boats. The hobby of model yacht “building” will continue to trend toward model yacht “buying” wiith it’s instant gratification.

True home builders will be a minority and fewer will bring their ideas and creations to pondside. This may prompt a secondary class of yachts that as part of their rules will require home building to some degree. If put into place, this class will fail due to lack of home builders.

Multihulls - trimarans, cats and proas - will continue to be looked upon as the ugly, redhaired, stepchild

AMYA will still not have an “OPEN CLASS” National Championship Regatta during 2007 where competitors will be handicapped by on-going performance database information.

Interest in MAXI-scale custom r/c yachts will begin to increase fostered by new design/hulls available for the AC Class. A “Syndicate” idea bantered about may be founded during 2007.

Canting keel monohulls will emerge and become part of pilot/demo racing in the 1 meter or larger classes. Performance will be both exciting and disappointing as mechnical failure (like big boats) will plague builders leading to nay-sayers pointing fingers. Perhaps a new class (or the F-100 class) will eventually take off.

AMYA will have a bigger and better web presence as management begins to assess the “technical information age” - and those who continue to demand “paper” magazines with the terrible timelines will become a minority. Access to on-line publications will be available by continued AMYA membership and assigned PIN number access.

A spinnaker class may arrive - or seeds for such a class will be planted.

The NIRVANA will become a recognized AMYA Class - joining other of the plastic boats.

The Spectrum DX7 radio and receiver will make the DX6 even more affordable, and many regattas with lots of participating boats will result from this cost reduction.

On-board video will continue to be developed, allowing better views for skippers, and fewer on-water incidents due to poor eyesight/depth perception.

:scared: A certain builder will reappear and announce an all-new, high performance r/c boat that will obsolete all other classes with it’s astounding performance. None will be built or available. Unfortunately the moderators will be seeking to find out how he got back in and he will be banned once again. (errrr - sorry - heh heh heh) ;):cool:

Schooners and multi-masted sailing ships will make a greater appearance and JAYDEE will become overjoyed with this progress and interest.

Iceboats and landyachts will become officially recognized by AMYA as an emerging new OPEN CLASS yacht.

We will probably lose some very close sailing friends, and make new ones as the hobby continues.

There will never be a lack of opinions on this site.

:zbeer: Happy New Year

An addition to your item 20, Angus: And Bill Hagerup will be shot by a cannon!

BTW…I favor allowing vanes for free sailing.

And while I agree with you, Dick, re the lamentable lack of home builders, I think the Footy class is one place to keep home building alive. The fact that a Footy can be built quickly and cheaply at the kitchen table is a plus.

Happy New Year to all…Bill H

Bill - does this imply that St. Brett will be using me as ammunition against you?:zbeer:

There’s a scary thought…us Yanks being literally bombed by the Brits!!!

Probably some perverse plot to cause us all to blow up each other in addition to the rest of the world, leaving New Zealand as the remaining English-speaking (more or less) superpower! :devil3:

NEW ZEALAND, a superpower, :rasta:… that would be the scariest idea of the lot. Best wishes for the NEW YEAR. :mouse::help:

the kiwis a superpower! ah, well, remind me to help brett fire angus at bill, so that they avoid hitting me!:devil3:

Dick, while I can appreciate your wanting to reward skillful and innovative builders, the fact remains that for many like me, even before a stroke lost me 50% of the dexterity in my right hand, such standards are unachievable and that kit boats provide many with a low cost introduction to the pleasures of sailing. I think the AMYA is a little more forward looking that the British MYA in trying to get kit boat owners under their umbrella.
Seeing second-hand IOM’s offered at prices of over $2,000 must be one of the biggest turn-offs to sailing there is.

Ahhh - only exceeded by the $3,000 + Marbleheads that are currently (in my view) desimating the “M” Class worldwide.

And of course, having a model trimaran “foiler” going for that much sure turns down the interest level on anyone thinking of multihulls.

Thus the effort to provide more information on “alternative” building methods … not necessarily the lightest weight boat in the fleet, but the easiest to product for many first time (or apartment dwelling) builders.

You will see that I have been trying - balsa strip being the usual choice, but often forgetting using plastic tape covered foam for a plug, or simply covering shaped foam with glass. A “sectional” trimaran of 1 Meter made from foam, and now my latest copy of a 'big boat" building method of slab sides of balsa with shaped foam for deck and under waterline shape. Something that could be easily accomplished by someone living in an apartment or without dedicated work space. While my ideas and revised building techniques are related to multihulls - making only one instead of three hulls can work for a monohull as well.

I believe, that those unfamiliar with epoxy may have the hardest time, since everything requires a glass fiber covering. Some may have used autobody resin (polyester) only to put in too much MEK for hardener and they wind up with a cup that has “kiced off” before being use. A suggestion to try epoxy results in one of two scenarios …1) - a 5:1 ratio is mistakenly mixed at 1:1 and results in chewing gum consistency surface (doesn’t cure) … or 2) epoxy costs are significantly more than polyester resin and folks are afraid to invest into $50 (US) worth of the product.

I have begun efforts to convince Gougeon Brothers to provide smaller amounts than the quart of resin and the pint of hardener, but they are looking at the added cost topackage and distribute such small quantities and I doubt my suggestion will be accepted. Most who use WEST (or the competition) will puchase in larger quantities due to the many uses of the product. Those who have no experience will look at the product as expensive and requiring a chemical engineering background to use.

A simple curved aluminum sheet can be used to form 1/2 of a keel (or mast) - which can be cut in half, end-for-ended and glued together fabricating a full width product. Lead shot, mixed with epoxy can be used to create keel bulbs inside of one-off plaster molds. Screw eyes, and fishing leader, stainless wire, and inexpensive ripstop nylon can be fashined into fitting or sails. Carbon tubes are available on the market at extremely low cost. BUT - (big “BUT”) - is if no one wants to experiment, and everyone thinks the answer to model building and sailing are the $2-3,000 boats, I guess homebuilding will eventually be doomed.