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Re Last Tango - Dreams A few Sundays ago at the club the question was put “Both you and now the association questionnaire are asking our opinions: “what exactly would an updated Tasar look like?” Good question. I have drafted a design. Its price and expected performance are so surprising that I have discussed it for a week or two with some whose opinions I respect. The key points from these discussions are: Every class has a production and sales life which is dependent on what my marketing respondent calls “turnover”. At first demand is greater than attrition and the class grows. Then there is usually a long period when demand is about the same as attrition, and the established class thrives. Finally demand becomes smaller than attrition and new-boat construction declines to the point where production becomes uneconomic. From this point on the class is on borrowed time. It may continue in apparent good health for awhile, but unless it changes it must inevitably start to decline into irrelevance. The Tasar class has entered the third stage. It has two choices: The first is to do what is easiest to do, and what most classes do - do nothing, and accept dignified decline. If this is what the class wants to do so be it. But if there are those in the class who enjoy what the Tasar class gives them - sailing a lively boat in pleasant company - and would like to keep on doing this for some years longer, there is a way. Like the Star and the Sharpie classes, the Tasar class could agree to a once-in-thirty-years upgrade. With appropriate management, a small but increasing population of upgraded boats could sail with but be scored separately from the existing fleet, until at a point the upgraded boats would become mainstream. This course of action would preserve the core objects of the class and provide renewed vitality and relevance to the class for another twenty or thirty years. The concept of a possible Tasar II follows. I invite the class to consider it. My position is that I will do nothing which would harm the class. If there is almost unanimous objection, forget it. But if the class reserves judgment, and a core group with vision are prepared to form a support syndicate, we can discuss ways and means of putting a trial prototype on the water. Frank Bethwaite Posted 2002-11-07 |
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