15% discount on class legal Sprint spares for 1 year

[cat bitz]

Hi all Sprint sailors

We have now set up a facebook group called BITZ BRANDS and are offering a 15% discount on all your Sprint sailing spares, watches, knives etc etc for the next 12 months if you join our group.

Happy sailing
Cat Bitz

[Jaycb]

Do Cat-bitz sell mainsails? I thought you did but can't find them on your website.

[Bob Carter]

The only mainsails that are "in class" are Hyde made and sold through Windsport/Catparts.
Cheers
Bob

[Jaycb]

Hi Bob,
Re. your last post , does that mean that there are in fact alternate sails out there that will fit the Dart 15 OK even though they're not "class-legal"?

[Bob Carter]

No - I'm not aware of any apart from the DX sails but most sailmakers can make out of class sails. The Sprint 15 Association supplied alternative (class legal) sails for a time when the Laser Centre had very high mark-ups (a new mainsail was over £750 some 7 years ago), which we objected to. When Windsport took over they agreed to match the price we were selling alternative sails for if we did not sell our alternative sails. We agree with this provided the cost of sails from Windsport remained reasonable. Windsport have kept their prices reasonable so we have been happy to not offer alternatives. We depend on Windsport to supply new boats, spare parts and they also support many of our events. I hope that you see that the mutual benefits are sensible.
Cheers
Bob

[cat bitz]

Hi
We have just produced a new sail for the Dart 18, it is the same cloth and a very very similar cut, the price is £605 for the main and £126 for the jib, the quality is exactly the same as the original Dart 18 sails.

We are currently working on the same for the Sprint 15 which will be a considerable saving on the original item but obviously cant be used for class racing. We are aiming at a retail price of £450.00 for the Sprint mainsail.

If you look at our new webashop www.DinghySail.com you will see that we are now producing these for almost all catamaran classes.

Please join our facebook group to be kept upto date with latest information and offers

[Bob Carter]

I see that Windsport are now charging £587.60 for the white mainsail - this is an increase of £90.55 in the last 10 months.
Hopefully this is the result of the weak pound (as they come from the Phillipines) and it will reduce when the pound recovers................

[Jaycb]

Bob - I do indeed see the benefits of supporting Brian and I'm sure that his support for the Dart is part of the reason so many are sailing out there. I've bought quite a few bits from Windsport and will continue to do so. I may end up buying a new one anyway but it's a lot of money for a boat that's worth less than £1000. (While I'm on the subject, can I ask if the new sails include battens please?)
The thing is, the club I sail at is so Laser-centric that I doubt they'd know or care if I had non class-legal parts on my boat; cats never win races there and only seem to make up the numbers. So if I can find an alternative sail that's cheaper I'd be foolish not to get one.

Cat-bitz - do you have a firm delivery date for your sails yet?

[cat bitz]

Hi

We can now confirm the price of our Dacron Sprint 15 sails as

Mainsail £ 484.69
Jib £ 159.99

If you buy a main and jib together we are offering a special price of £625.00

Delivery is about 3 weeks .
This price is without battens but includes sail bag.

feel free to contact andy@bitz-brands.com if you need anymore info

Regards

Cat Bitz

[Erling]

In the Nationals two out of the first three boats had sail numbers of 1150 or less and both had new class legal mains. I would expect if they sold there boat due to sale price they would keep the new main for there next boat. For a cost saving of 20% it stops you sailing against other 15 for the life of the main.

[Jaycb]

The Cat-bitz one's not such a good deal if it doesn't include battens. Mine are all shot to bits so I wouldn't really want to re-use them. I'm assuming the class legal ones do include battens?

Would a club really stop you from competing in a race? What's wrong with allowing an "illegal" boat to compete, but just not include them in the results?

[cat bitz]

Hi

I am pretty certain that the class legal ones do not include battens either so you will have to add the battens as an extra cost,

A cheaper option is the fibreglass battens used on the Dart 16 which are a lot lot cheaper and a bit more robust but they are not tapered.

Feel free to drop me an email if you want to talk about the sails in more details

Regards

Cat Bitz

[Erling]

Hi Jaycb.
Any boat in a race will affect other boats in the race, that is the reason boats that have been black flaged must leave the race course.
The reason we have one sailmaker is that they all want to make the fastest sail possible so we would end up with having to buy new sails every time someone made a break through.
PS
Batterns extra

[Andrew Hannah]

Please forgive me, if I am blunt.

If you want someone to stock and supply the entire range of boat parts, you cannot have another outfit cherry-picking the business.

There may be a short-term gain for the buyer. But the danger is that we'll lose our supplier for unique parts. And you know what that means.

We must have discipline, and stick by our one-design rules.

[Duncan Ford]

Well said Bob, Andrew and Erling.

Presumably Cat Bitz battens are also non class-legal?

One point Jacyb is missing is that anyone who buys out of class rig for a one design boat like the Sprint 15 effectively reduces the resale value of their boat significantly and certainly more than the £100 difference in mainsail cost.

I am sure Windsport are pushing for the best price from their mainsail supplier (no doubt Brian is checking after reading this thread), so you also have to question whether there may be a quality difference as well.

It seems slightly disturbing somehow to see open correspondence on the Association web between a member, and a supplier seeking sales of non class-legal rig. It is a free market, of course but, hopefully, this thread will have served to highlight the benefits of staying class-legal.

Duncan Ford
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