How the language we use is important, then again the word "accident" does seem somewhat inadequate of late, and I'll tell you I'm reading way too many stories like this these days...
Over the last couple of years I've been paying a lot of attention to the whole crowd funding thing and I've seen a lot of small companies in the film making gear business bring products to market that never would have happened without it. In my view, Kickstarter and other systems of the same ilk do make sense.
So, I have to ask myself why I have not seen much in the way of new products for sailors and cruisers coming to market via the crowd funding route?
It seems to me a near perfect venue for a designer of boats to do something creative outside the bounds of the same old same and attract a niche client base in the process but, despite the fact it seems tailor made for boat design, I don't see anyone doing it.
Why is it there's no one with clever and cunning products for sailing and cruising? I mean seriously it's not like there are not a plethora of things that could be done better on boats and since so many sailors are tinkerers and closet inventors, why are they not doing their thing on a venue that seems perfect for the enterprise?
What little stuff you do see from boat folk seems to be the "I want to go cruising please give me some money to do it with" sort which I tend to find a bit depressing and bothersome.
Personally, I've played with the idea of using Kickstarter to fund a project to study, develop, and evolve better rigs based on traditional overlooked sail designs in a real scientific manner. It seems to me that a lot more real science in sail would be no bad thing...
Maybe you just have a cool idea based on an Arduino that would improve the lot of cruisers everywhere or, just maybe, there's no one left with any good ideas anymore.
Listening to JB & the Moonshine Band
So it goes...
Bruce+
2 days ago
