Stoking the fire
Tuesday, August 28th, 2007My blog entries about leaving team Bladerider and then getting a new Prowler have provoked a few entries on the Dinghy Anarchy Bladerider thread lately.
So I’d better try and put a dampener on any negative speculation by explaining the reasoning behind my recent decisions.
Essentially, I’m a bit tired of all the trash talk. Whether it’s the Bladerider guys bashing the Prowlers, or the Prowler guys dissing the Bladeriders, it’s just lame and achieves nothing. What we really need for the long-term success and sustainability of the class is a range of successful alternative manufacturers. Ruining anyones business and livelihoods, either directly or by implication, isn’t going to help that situation. Now I’m not innocent there either. I’ve dissed plenty in my time, but I knew I was on the way out when I was pulled up for doing it - on more than a couple of occasions.
So that’s one of the reasons I decided to support John in Perth. It might be old-fashioned in this day and age, but I’d like to see the specialist boat building skills and innovation that guys like Thorpey and John have developed - stay in Australia. Once those skills and ideas are lost, I can’t see how we could rebuild them. I’d like to see the Aussies be able to compete against the improving mass-produced products from Asia. I’d like to see viable alternatives in the market. Having a monopoly on supply is rarely good for us sailors. That’s also one of the reasons I used Baz’s Truflo on the last day (other than being unable to say no to Baz) - I’d like to see him make a go of developing Moth sails and spur a healthy competitive rivalry.
Another reason was quality. I tend to put so much into my boats that I don’t want to see them as consumables. I don’t want to see them fail, or spend precious sailing time putting them back together. My Bladerider was an early boat and they are improving no doubt, but quality, consistency and durability come at a price. In leaving no-stone-unturned in an effort to win at World Championship level, I can’t entertain the prospect of anything failing, no matter how minor. Both builders did however had issues in the Garda conditions. I’m not so interested in getting discounts and am willing to pay more for something that I can have confidence in. That said my new retail boat won’t cost me any more than my discounted last one.
That dovetails nicely into my concerns on price. There’s no doubt sailing is expensive. But as I’ve always said, I would’ve liked to have seen the mass-market boats come out significantly cheaper. They didn’t, but as I’ve also said before, the sums have probably been done and the marketing and personnel need to be retained somehow. Again it’s old-fashioned, but I’d like to see my money go to John, Thorpey, Baz, Amac and those that have the specialist skills. I don’t like it that spare (and relatively simple) parts like hydrofoils cost significantly more than their Australian-made, and arguable higher-quality equivalents.
Development is another reason. Like I said in my previous post, as with any builder, development and production are not complimentary. Although I’m not a naval architect, sailmaker or aeronatical geek, I’d like to have visibility and input into the process, knowing what changes were planned, why certain choices were taken, and what the specifics are, then have some certainty on when all those changes would be available. Given the pendulum swinging away from the Prowler in Garda, I think John may be hungrier for improvement and more receptive.
That sort of ties in with Amac’s departure from Bladerider. As I’ve said before, he is one clever bloke, and our success in Garda would not have happended without his effort. His loss from the project may not be so critical now given the stability in the production design, but it does not inspire confidence in me when a designer and founder is marginalised. Anarchy’s Mr Clean - who wrote a brilliant review for sailingworld - seems to know more than is being let on about that. I do hope Amac continues to be involved in building sails, foils and boats, and continues to help make the Bladerider project a success.
I know that my departure is probably seen as having a go at Bladerider itself, but that’s not the goal. I really do want to see them succeed, regardless of whether I’m part of team-BR or not. I’d love to see more people buy into the boats, I’d love to see a couple of hundred hitting the water every year. I’d love to see more people passionate about sailing generally - but that’s a post for another day. As I said to Rohan, I’m happy to help anyone interested in Mothing, regardless of my team status.
But continuing on in the team doesn’t sit well with me on a range of levels, so it’s better for me to step aside and let someone more passionate and committed take my place. I can devote my energy back into the 18 and back into developing a new boat, and leave PR spruiking to those who do it best.
And that all ties in nicely to the competition between Rohan and myself. Rohan was in another league at Garda. His sailing is brilliant without doubt. But I hate losing. Unfortunately I’m not going to catch and overtake his full-time sailing with my various sailing commitments and my city-office work-life-style (however skewed towards sailing I make it). Given that I can’t expect to catch him through sheer hard work alone, I need to compete on other levels. Taking a different tack on equipment is one of them. It might be seen as rash or crazy given how fast I was in Italy, but I need to improve my equipment, and leapfrog the Bladerider if I can ever expect to beat Rohan in a regatta. I don’t think the gap between the designs is so large that bridging it is unachievable.
So, after all that, let’s get on with the job of building new boats and coming up with new, different and possibly better ideas. Take a few risks, have some awesome rides, and leave all the double-speak and politics behind.
