Hi All
First 23 responses are in and I think enough to draw some notes conclusions - not sure if the statisticians think it is representative for 400 memebers but let's take a look.
(PDF of the questions is in - need to do some work on copy-pasting the notes and comments into a ppt - wil do that shortly)
First - quick summary of the data:
1) why HP:
I believe Rob has convinced people of the 'dream' - people are interested and seem to believe in the low cost; easy to sail and speed aspects!
2) Time of building: 8 people are in the 50% serious in the next 2-3 years which is quite a group and may be interesting to discuss later.
3)Purpose: It is worth taking a look here - there seem to be 2 groups - the predominaatly long term cruiser group - and tehn the people who look into the mix of daysailing racing and or daysailing/cruising
4)Nr of sailors - interesting most people seem to be in the relative small group on the boat camp - solo/1-3 is the dominant group with some notes on family cruising/racing with a buddy etc. Also wouldn't surprise me if there is a significant group taht dreams about soloraces and the family justification.
5)Size - 2 distinct camps 40+ feet and smaller than 36. See later but supports 2 groups - Long term curisers and people who are looking for a budget racer/cruiser like Farrier
6) Alternative boats: It seems the group here splits into 2: catamarans in varying sizes and trailer-sailors. (more later)
7) building - about half would like to build themselves; half would like to get t built - and some looking for kits.
8)Onstacles/hold back:
the #1 thing mentioned is still the rudders/leeway protection - some notes on seaworthy, looks, and comments on lack of trailerability and plywood construction options.
9) comments on 'what to do - intention here was to get some more freeflow thinking rather then telling Rob 'what to do' - but some nice insights: some nice reassuring notes on 'keep going' & 'enjoy the success'. Rest is around more clarity and rudder thoughts; work on trailerability; can somebody create kits?; general sailing proof (races, cruising experiences etc)
10)Location - evenly split over AUs/NZ; Europe and USA/Canada
So what do I take from the data
There seem to be 2 groups:
The longer term cruisers: looking for a larger boat to get away on a reasonable price - probably the key question is: will this be the boat to safely do it in? Interestingly this is the group that seems to have taken the lead in the creation of the first boats.
The next gen trailer sailor group. They like the concept and see it as a reasonable alternative to 'Farrier' but some struggle with how to get in on a trailer; length of LW hull etc. If some of these issue's would be solved this may be a group that could step in fast as the investments are probably more manageable. I think for this group we could also look at really bringing down the build time with the learnings from the KSS methods.
I think everybody would benefit from a longer explanation/history/proof etc of teh rudder system working on the web site. I think a history of development; challenges and how they have been overcome; latest proof and pictures; and maybe even some analysis and engineering data would go a long way to drive reassurance. For example showing the calculations that the loads are not bigger than a 'normal rudder on an boat xyz' or other ways to show why it works would help.
The rounding up question may also something that could be addressed.
Regarding building - Given that there are 8 people quite serious; and on average half wants to have it built and half wants to build themselves I wonder if there are ways to team up (and given the regional distribution could imagine that this can happen on multiple continents)
a) would people be interested to find a builder together - are there shared benefits - also for the builder?
b) would people in this group be interested to pay others to try something. For the trailer sailors for example I wonder if there would be a way to pool money to pay the first person to try 'folding the ends' and or 'sliding beams'.
(Both I could personally see)
Hope it helps to stimulate the debate - think it is interesting.
Fedor