Steeplechase 2013

[Bill Roberts]

Hey Rich or amybody else,
I'm still waiting on an answer.

[Kevin Keller]

I don't know but from where I sit (Hawaii), most people don't even know Supercat turned into ARC or that they are still in business. Maybe if there was a little more advertising in Catamaran Sailor or something it might sell a few more. Is Tom interested in making the business bigger?

Rich,
What are you getting at? Do you think if we win more races, that will sell more boats and increase our numbers?


Rich, you tell me what it takes to make beach cat sailors buy ARC and RC products.

[J Drew]

It's hard to sell a Ferrari to people that think Japanese cars are awesome.
Hopefully my analogy isn't too abstract

[Mac M]

My 2 cents from my limited perspective...

In my small area (South Carolina, North Carolina, Georgia), most of the new boats that come to our races are Formula boats (F16,F18, A Cats), and there aren't many new boats showing up. Looking around on the other forums those also seem to be the boats that are selling new. My wife and I race an F16. I bought it because I had a Hobie 18 when I started out and had to follow those 'F' boats around the course for a couple seasons. It didn't feel like I was really racing with them since they were so much faster than we were. It's nice to be able to go to a regatta and race others head to head.

If ARC/RC had a boat that fit in one of those classes, it would be a great opportunity to show off its designs. I was planning on buying a new F16 before I decided to redo the SC20 I'm doing. If ARC had an offering I would definitely take a look, obviously I'm a fan of the products!

As far as the bigger boats go, I'm not sure a lot of people are interested in the work of setting up a boat you have to totally disassemble to transport. Our society has gotten lazy. If you don't have mast up storage they are pretty much out.

[Bruiser]

Rich,
What are you getting at? Do you think if we win more races, that will sell more boats and increase our numbers?
History: The SC20 won the Mug Race several times. How many 20s are at the Rudder Club and how many were there ever?
The SC20 won the Miami to Key largo Race many many times. How many SC20s are there in Miami and how many were there ever?
There were hundreds of P19s and NACRA6.0s sold in Florida in that same time period. Why so few SCs? Maybe 10 at max including SC17s.
Conclusion: Faster boats don't matter. Better design doesn't matter. Better engineering and rigging doesn't matter. Higher quality materials doesn't matter.
SC and ARC were the first beach cats with a streamlined foredeck. Less aerodynamic drag and greatly improved pitchpole resistance. SC boats were the first boats that came from the factory with nonskid on the decks for trapezing.
RC and ARC boats were the first boats with self tacking jibs and square top mainsails.
SC boats were the first with captive mast steps for safer mast raising and lowering.
SC boats were the first and only beach cats to come from the factory with a righting system for SAFETY.
NACRAs and Hobies have been involved in sailing fatilities due to their design and construction. SC has had
none. Evidently that doesn't make any difference.
All RC and ARC boats are built with West/Proset Epoxy Resin...stronger and stiffer hulls.
All of these things and more don't make any diffwerence to the beach cat sailing/buying public.

Rich, you tell me what it takes to make beach cat sailors buy ARC and RC products.

Sorry Bill, I somehow missed this post and your question. I do not know the answer. However I can tell you from my perspective how I arrived at the decision to get an RC27. Also my thoughts going forward. I have no idea if it will make any difference or not. You are correct, back in the day folks were buying P19s and N20's etc. to race in Class. At that time we knew the RC's and ARC's were way faster. Quality was never even thought of by most of us. (again my perspective).

How Mike and I decided to get an RC 27 had to do with both of us getting our butts kicked by you in the Mug Race. He would win the N20 class and I would win the P19 class and neither of us could get close to correcting over you. So we decided if you can't beat them join them. I will also add that a big factor was if we are going to race a long distance race we want the fastest boats we can get. The thought of struggling on a Hobie 16 for 12 hours still gives me the chills. Having 2 of us share the boat seemed to make the most sense as we knew there were not a lot of races we could easily do with this boat. As it turns out, our schedules with life make this an ideal boat. Now I will also tell you we thought that the boat is what made you win not the sailors. We have since learned that you and Eric both know how to really push the boats to their max as well.

My thoughts going forward, Class racing is all but dead except for a few small Classes. A- boats and F-18's is about it. Those boats cost a whole lot AND they are not as fast as the ARC's, RC's. I think there are a few people still willing to race the distance races. The time and money it will take to get up to speed in the few classes that remain is way too expensive for most to justify. However if we have a "group" of the Super cats, ARC's and RC's that show up and win these distances races than we will be the other option for them. I could see folks finding existing supercats etc. and fixing them up and joining in with us on the fun. If that does start to build some momentum I could even see folks wanting to buy a new one. Sometimes it is the last one standing that wins.

Just my thoughts....