I thought the Japanese builder had their license revoked by BKI as they were also in dispute?
The daft thing about the situation the class is in is that a builder who cares about the class also serves their own long term interest. It seems that many of the current issues stem from a builder who has only short term interests and wants as much as they can get as soon as they can get it; rather than taking a long term view where the success of the class will also mean their own commercial success.What's needed is a builder that actually cares about the class.
The way the rules work, each builder has freedom to optimize its profits. Assuming the cost to build a boat is fixed (this may not be strictly accurate, but for a first order approximation, it's probably OK). The builder can increase prices, which will increase the profit per boat. However, increased prices will mean less sales. Lower prices will increase the number of boat sales but decrease the profit per boat. Costs are largely fixed by the construction manual.The daft thing about the situation the class is in is that a builder who cares about the class also serves their own long term interest. It seems that many of the current issues stem from a builder who has only short term interests and wants as much as they can get as soon as they can get it; rather than taking a long term view where the success of the class will also mean their own commercial success.
Ian
The way the rules work, each builder has freedom to optimize its profits. Assuming the cost to build a boat is fixed (this may not be strictly accurate, but for a first order approximation, it's probably OK). The builder can increase prices, which will increase the profit per boat. However, increased prices will mean less sales. Lower prices will increase the number of boat sales but decrease the profit per boat. Costs are largely fixed by the construction manual.
So, a lazy builder can probably make almost the same profit by increasing prices and building fewer boats. Perhaps this is the route down which the builders are going.
Unlikely. My spy who works for LP says they have a warehouse with 100+ new hulls in it at present. The issue they have is getting enough foils and spars to keep up with the flow of sales.
Don't LP now make the foils themselves? "LaserPerformance’s dedicated new manufacturing facility using their proprietary infused foils technology" http://www.laserperformance.com/blog/laserperformance-set-to-launch-new-grp-foils. Can anybody confirm or correct my understand that this "dedicated new manufacturing facility" was in China, then got moved to the US? Assuming Jeffers spy is UK, then is one side of the "pond" causing issues for the other side? If a builder can't even supply itself a core component of the laser, no wonder we have the spread of "third party" none class legal parts.
OK, super confused now. Put infused foils into Google, you find the following two posts on the LP website about the GRP foils.
One talks about Simon Cooke of a company called Infused Foils.
http://www.laserperformance.com/blog/laserperformance-set-to-launch-new-grp-foils
http://www.laserperformance.com/blo...-simon-cooke-to-launch-infused-foils-globally
Next found the following
http://www.simoncooke.co.nz/newzealand.html
Finally found a website for a company called OMTRO.
http://www.omtro.com/portfolio/grp-infused-foils
Perhaps they could buy some from PSA?Unlikely. My spy who works for LP says they have a warehouse with 100+ new hulls in it at present. The issue they have is getting enough foils and spars to keep up with the flow of sales.