Hi Luc
The survey is doing well - 15 responses so far and interesting.
I think it may prove some good discussion for this forum. I'll give it a few more days before I pull out some ideas to share.
One there seem to be 2-3 distinct 'user profiles' showing up - which may help tailor the boat and/or design efforts. As the needs are probably clear once they have been defined. Maybe we can further grow the 'Gestalt' - as you say.
I hope that some overlapping needs start to appear and maybe people in this forum can pool together to make it happen - quite a few are 'very close'. (some years ago a group of people were not satisfied with the C31 and bundled investments in the north of the Netherlands and had a small series of Farrier F9's built. That may be your 'bootstrap question'
I am not sure if we can create an iPhone of sailing - but based upon the questions I do think I can think of aspects I would definitely improve in the 'marketing mix'. For example the rudder/leeway question still looms large in many people's answers. (Despite the limited engineering challenge.) I think we could debunk a lot of myths and circulating selective memories with a bit of focussed effort.
Cheers!
Fedor
for those who like to contribute to generating further insights: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/2XYGH5F
--- In harryproa@yahoogroups.com.au, "LucD" wrote:
>
> Fedor, The survey will work all right. The results may not answer your question. As you said well the harryproa is a concept. It is not a product. As a matter of fact it is a concept that can make a difference in a range of products from the small to the large, but it has not found a killer app in one segment yet. Shunting rules out beachcat fun; the planform complicates condomarans, just to cover the ends of that range.
>
> Technically, HP's are as ready as any planform; even the rudder/boards issue is not more controversial than with cats and tris and they have other issues. Then there is the bootstrap issue: statistically speaking there are too few of HP's around to prove its engineering advantages to non-engineers. The only proa (recognized as such) of racing fame was Cheers, not a HP.
>
> So, in essence, HP's are stuck in a marketing undertow. A HP product needs a distinguishing advantage that clears an attention space in the gestalt fauna and flora of what is a boat to people with the target expendable budget. The exceptions of RB and BD prove the rule. I do not know what the selling factor was for RB, but for BD it was day sailing fast for the blind of a nation hypnotized by the sea, the Dutch. A niche market if one at all. The Seabattical for chartering looked very promising. It would be interesting to find out what made it a no-go. My suspicion is that it was too difficult a sell to a public used to scuba diving in the bay off Leopard cats and the like.
>
> There are parallels in the small airplane market where the elegant pou-du-ciel controls even in a modern version could not make a dent against the standard controls of the cessna's and pipers and the like.
>
> So, how to come up with the iPhone of the sailboats ;-)
>
> --- In harryproa@yahoogroups.com.au, "fvonballuseck" wrote:
> >
> > Hi All
> >
> > As I see the concept of Harryproa mature and as I get nore and more interested I am also left with a lot of questions to see how and when these great boats may take off.
> > Out of curiosity I have created a short 10 question survey - just to get a better understanding where Harryproas are and what the likelyhood is that people will start building (and why). And what are the biggest questions that are still out there
> > I'll post the outcome here in the file section once it is done.
> >
> > http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/2XYGH5F
> >
> > Hope this works,
> > Fedor
> >
>