As one of those people you're looking to bring into the fold, the answer isn't so easy. You may not like it, but realize I've never sailed before 2013, and never thought I would or could. I thought it was a rich, snobby elitist thing.
Today, we looked down from a sand dune over a lake we just whipped across on the new to us '84 H16. I looked down at the boat and realized that I NEVER would have believed we could do this or be there a year ago.
I grew up with canoes/kayaks. This weekend, I saw lots of kayaks, a few canoes, 1 monohull, 1 AI, and at least a dozen fishing boats, 3 ski boats, and 5 jet skis. Once I saw an AI, I was hooked and I still want AI/TI, but it'll take a while to find the money to fund one. I don't even have to get on it to know I WANT a small fleet of them. It's does everything I like to do, and seems easy to setup and operate.
We NEVER would have considered a full sailboat/cat, until we tried one on vacation this spring. We know lots of people with boats. My father-in-law has at least 3 from a jon boat up to a monster cruiser. We don't know anyone who sails. It's pour fuel, drop it off the ramp, turn the key, and go.
Here's what we don't like about the Getaway from looking into buying one: it's heavy (requires more vehicle than we have to tow) and expensive to acquire (which is why I didn't just scoop up an AI/TI already). The Wave seemed too small, but the same list applies.
Here's what we don't like about the H16: (what I hear regularly) -it takes way too long to setup (20-30 min), yes the family says no, because it takes too long -it's too hard to setup, it takes some muscule to get the mast up/down -it's too hard to learn to control and operate (and the points we agree on) -It's too hard to launch and recover --nearly everyplace we go is designed for motor boats. Having fished from a canoe, I know that some lakes are downright hostile to canoes/kayaks with the locals trying to flip you with their wakes --many places are very hard to navigate into the lake from the protected launching area. It took us an hour to get in yesterday night as we had to navigate a couple of tight channels with shifting wind. -It doesn't have quite enough bouyancy
Yesterday, we should have been trapped out as we were burying the leeward hull, but we're still too nervous to try it. Today, I reefed the main (our 84 has reefing points), and my daughter was screaming, "we're going to die!" as we just reached that point the rudder was humming. It was great. The way home I heard "why haven't we done this every weekend this summer?"
I still want an AI or a TI though. I want to be able to load up gear, launch easily, and go camp a couple miles away by water.
So, maybe it's not just about what boat or marketing, but how do you get people interested in sailing? Especially, when it's not easy or cheap to pick up and just do.
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