[ Post a Response | North American Fireball Message Board ]
Posted by JJ
on 4/8/2010, 10:29 am, in reply to "Re: Future of Fireball"
67.71.233.162
There are a number of points that invite comment. Availability of good used boats is not really a problem, providing you look at what is available north of the border. There are excellent boats available in Montreal (2), Ottawa (1), Alberta (1), and rumor has it that Pat Crump would be willing to part with 1 in Florida. These are all wide bowed boats with excellent racing pedigrees. You can contact Rob Levy, Pierre Carpentier, Mike McEvoy, or Rupert Holmes-Smith for details. A highly discounted deal was just made available this past year on brand new boats, which were being brought in for the Worlds in Barbados. There was not a huge demand.
The pricing of a new Fireball is pretty attractive at the moment, thanks to the drop in the UK currency. Prices are lower now than they were 10 years ago. If we compare a new Fireball to a new Lightning, the Fireball is significantly cheaper. A new Lightning will cost about $25,000 fully ready to go.
The real issue is one of creating demand, and launching fleets where another class is already established. That is a real challenge. There may be opportunities to capitalize on the decline of other high performance fleets in North America, and bring some new blood into ours. We need some creative thinking on attracting new Fireball sailors.
--Previous Message--
: Sorry about the previous posting. My
: feeling is that the lack of quality
: used or readily available new boats
: over here in the US is the biggest
: drawback to purchasing a Fireball.
: MOst of the used boats that people
: are seeing are older designed
: standard bow boats that really
: should have been disgarded years
: years ago but people want to clean
: out their garage and sell these
: things to to people who think they
: can rebuild these old hulls and make
: them competetive again. We spend a
: lot of time giving advise to people
: on how to rebuild something we end
: up never seeing on the water. There
: have been some good buys with some
: but the majority are questionable
: hulls at best. Back in the 70's
: Rondar would sell 5-10 new fully
: equiped Fireballs at a fleet
: discount to several US vendors who
: would in turn pass the Fireball
: along at a huge savings to buyers
: and the result was a lot of Rondars
: were sold over here and our fleet
: grew like crazy. I wonder why
: something like that would not work
: again. A real problem is the fact
: that a new Fireball will cost at the
: present moment around $14,000 US.
: After purchasing that boat the buyer
: will be lucky to race in three
: regattas this summer with 6-7 boats
: in the racing fleet. On average
: there are one a couple of boats at
: any club and many clubs will never
: see a Fireball all summer long and
: have not. Now for $7,000-$10,000
: one can find a quality used
: Lightning and sail it anywhere in
: the US and can count on a fleet of
: 15-20 boats on average on any given
: weekend. Also we need to address
: the issue of the fact that there are
: two different design of the
: Fireball. The wide bow makes the
: standard bow boats out dated yet
: there are a lot of standar bows
: around. The plans yo pruchase are
: for standard bows and after spending
: several thousands of dolars to build
: the boat you have an out dated
: design with few sailors attending
: the regatta. Up date the plans and
: work on getting some sort of buying
: incentive going with the
: manufactures. The Fireball is a
: great class but at present a bit
: expensive to buy new and no quality
: used boats around.
:
: --Previous Message--
:
:
: --Previous Message--
: Visit the homepage and read Steve
: Goacher's Open Letter to the
: Executive of Fireball International.
: Share your thoughts here and we'll
: convey them to FI at the Sailor's
: Forum in Barbados.
:
: Open Letter to FI Executive
:
:
:
:
:
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Phil Locker - CAN14678 - marshall of the message board