Category Archives: Buying

New IOM Availability at near DF95 Price – Is that Unachievable??

Dinghy sailing clubs have been having a tougher time of it as the decades go by… One often quoted issue being the proliferation of the number of dinghy classes and destroying class racing. I have some sympathy with that and it has been the same in small keelboat classes too. A difficult situation.

I’ve not been trying radio sailing for very long, but it had occurred to me that there may be similar issues in radio sailing. Plus supply of new products can be very challenging for newcomers to deal with and…. enter the fabulous DF95 phenomenon.

I’ve been wondering quietly for some time if 3D printing and all that could get us to a position where you can quickly get availability of an IOM at a cost not wildly different to DF95.

It turns out that much greater minds than mine have been wondering about the same thing. Did you see this article on MYA today??

Our Trial Sail Program – and The New F6 Marblehead !!

If you are thinking of taking up any new sport, new pastime, new hobby … well, you need to try it first, don’t you agree?! It can sometimes be a little tricky to arrange in radio sailing.

For quite a while, Datchet has had a very smart International One Metre Class loan boat available for newcomers to try.

Today we are making a huge leap with our Trial Sail program. We are adding a 2023 F6 demonstrator Marblehead to the program, supplied by the UK builder K7Yachts!! As I write, well… it’s brand new! Our demo boat is finished in smart blue and looks fantastic. It’s the same hull shape as the 2023 UK Champion.

Why are we adding a Marblehead? To start with, the Marblehead is beautifully suited to our 475 acre lake and our ‘wave’ conditions. They are very fast on these waters and our fleet is extremely active. We race them every alternate Sunday through our 10 month formal season, plus Open Meetings etc.

It’s an interesting time in Radio Sailing. Builder lead times for One Metres is extremely long and measured usually in years. You can get a Marblehead from K7 in months not years. Here is the thing that surprised me – contrary to popular belief, a new Marblehead fitted up for at least Club Racing comes in at a substantially lower cost than the bill for my new One Metre.

Interested ?? See the “Trial Sail” tab on the main menu bar of this website – just below the website banner photo. Contact us by email at the email address shown on our Contact page.

And really, you ought to try one – racing with them is amazing!!

Putting Your Hull Number on Your New Marblehead?

One of my IOM colleagues, Peter, pointed me to this website today to design and buy hull numbers:-

https://www.vinylletteringonline.co.uk/lettering-designer

Peter also found this website in Italy:-

https://www.aa-parts.com/en/attrezzatura-di-coperta/attrezzatura-scafo/accessori/numero-di-registro-scafo-numero-velico.html