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Readers' comments on Steve Clark's state of the dinghy nation

At the end of last week we published two features following our interview with Little America's Cup holder and Vanguard Sailboats boss Steve Clark. See part one and part two of the interview here.

Among the feedback from readers of The Daily Sail were the following...

Should you wish to join the debate - send us an email here - or click here to use a text box.

Jim Champ writes:

I hesitate to cross swords with Steve Clark, because he's clearly a far more talented and experienced sailor than I, and makes a lot of sense.

But you can see things in what he writes that help illuminate what I, as a believer in fast light boats believe are the problems with the US scene.

It's quite clear to me, for instance, that he considers that the mass production boat builders job is to deliver a boat that the end user can't break. This is, of course, how one ends up with the unbelievably heavy collegiate boats, which make a Laser 5 tonner look light.

On the other hand, from things Julian Bethwaite has said in the past, I gain the impression that he believes that ultimate durability is not the highest priority, and if a sailor does something stupid that breaks the boat then the sailor has broken the boat, not that the designer has failed.

The tension between these two points of view is that an 'indestructible' boat is clearly going to be far too heavy for exciting peformance and handling, and may be compromised in other areas - an unbreakable mast as well as being heavy will surely be too stiff to have adequate gust response.

Commercially I'm sure in the US, where they believe that to sail leadmines is the pinnacle of sailing rather than something you do when you're too old to hack it in dinghies, I'm sure this makes a lot of sense. But gee guys you're really missing something. And of course the owner of Cogito knows all about how much fun fast light boats are! I accept that my bike engine will blow up if I regularly take it past the red line, why shouldn't I accept that my mast will break if I sail with the wrong rig tension, or my hull will dent or crack if I play dodgems or bounce it off the beach?


From the US Jesse Falstone of Team CSC Sailing has another bone to pick...

Thanks to the Daily Sail for publishing the insightful interview with Steve Clark.

Steve's views on junior sailing in the US are refreshing, but I also find a distinct conflict of interest in his testimony. Steve healthy attitude toward junior sailing is somewhat compromised by the product line that he promotes at Vanguard.

In Optimists, Steve correctly states that attention span and not gear is what makes the boat go fast, and that parents are buying excessively expensive gear for their children unnecessarily (c'mon parents, your kids don't need $6,000 worth of boat and gear, and you don't all need a Suburban to go to a regatta - but that's a different discussion).

Why then does Vanguard sell such gear in a boat like the Optimist? Why are there so many levels of hulls, rigs, sails, and foils in a boat that goes 3 knots? With the exception of home-built hulls, why isn't everything absolutely one-design, like in the Laser? Why isn't a marketing premium paid to limiting entry barriers like cost and complexity, which were hallmark marketing tools for the Sunfish?

Steve also correctly points out that kids don't learn their handling skills in 'fast' boats, and I would add that they don't learn tuning skills either in the boats that Steve builds with heavy hulls and very stiff masts. I would submit that Steve's product line is, to a degree, contributing to his proclaimed 'low bar' of boathandling and tuning knowledge, and that this product line also contributes to the early exit of our youth from dinghies and maybe sailing altogether.

While my four kids are still a bit too young for the local junior program, I've been anticipating their entry into the sport primarily as a bystander, watching how junior programs operate and how the kids sail. Clearly, junior sailing is quite different now than when I entered into my local program some 25 years ago at age 10. Back then, and in the area I grew up, the focus of junior sailing was on fun, and never on competition. Our club stuck two kids in a waterlogged pram and by and large, left us to our own devices to navigate around the moored boats in the harbor. What we learned was that sailing - the pure act of harnessing the wind and riding atop the water - was fun. This simple lesson has stuck with me.

I'm not attacking Steve because I think the article reveals his brilliance. I just think his product line, which is geared to accomodate sailors throughout their development cycle and indeed, their lifetime, should incorporate his idealogy a bit more. Staying in business with this ideology is another issue, but there are a few European and Australian companies that have done it.


Mike Peberdy also has a few issues with Steve Clark's views on the 49er...

Great site!

I'm not sure that I like Steve Clark's comments regarding a few issues.

Specifically:

1) 49er "nasty boat"

The 49er is a sweet boat to sail... having sailed many skiffs...no doubt it is fantastic. Challenging as well! Not nasty!

2) We sailed the prototype 29er with Dave Ovington. When Ovi and Mike Zani pushed off the beach, the boat filled and flipped. Later having turned turtle - it sank when we tried to stand on it. .... although the Vector kicks a 29er butt up and down the block."

The original 29er hull shape and deck layout was significantly changed to overcome this problem. Ovi is no lightweight either!

The Vector ought to be quicker - it has two on the wire.

I'm not sure that your site is best served offering up his commercially biased views without some sought of impartial editorial comment/debate. I'm disappointed.


Ed: While Steve Clark's views may or may not be commercially biased, we thought they were interesting - hence why we published them... We are soon to publish the rest of the interview (yes, there is more...) about Steve's plans for the C-class and how his team won the last Little America's Cup in the extraordinary solid wing-sail catamaran Cogito . If you think 49ers go fast - you ain't seen nothing yet...