“Tough and pure” vs. “cruising people”: how do you take sides?

There are only two possibilities: either 90 percent of those who sail in Italy are hardcore sailors, or there is someone here who is cheating. No, we have not gone crazy, but today we decided to provoke you a little. The article we published two weeks ago about the new AST automatic winch management system launched by Harken and Jeanneau never ceases to make you discuss.

There are those (a few) who are shyly supportive:“It can fit… “,“It’s good for cruising…. “. Those (even fewer) allow themselves to be enthusiastic: “Great! A solution that allows everyone to go boating, just about everyone, and even with a very small crew!“.
Who put it on the technical:“Definitely great but : reaction time how can I decide seeing the wind etc. and staying grounded I am very doubtful.”

But most of you readers did not skimp on criticism. Some, frankly exaggerated (but it’s a classic of the Internet, where politeness doesn’t hold sway)“Wimpy stuff,”“When’s the automatic pee-pee?“.
Instead, most of the comments reveal the fear that the sail might lose its flavor, that difficulty in fine-tuning the sails (a chore but a great satisfaction), the caution in letting go under gust, that always having to have a watchful eye on everything. The spirit of sailing, we called it in the newsroom.

No use hiding behind a finger, sailing is changing fast

OUR OPINION
As we throw the stone today, we cannot hide the arm. We have received emails and phone calls on the subject, going around the docks in recent weeks our provists have heard it asked,“But what do you in the newsroom think? Needless to say, we were a bit divided here as well, but in the end we found a common thought: no use hiding behind a finger, sailing is changing, just as all aspects of our daily lives have changed. The AST system is a further leap forward in the world of easy sailing, in making life on board easier.

“I remember when boats started to fit self-tacking jibs or, more recently, when the gennaker replaced the symmetrical spi,” speaking is Alessandro de Angelis, the GdV editorial manager. “The comments were always negative, it seemed like it was the death of sailing. This has not been the case, because even the hardcore have become accustomed to and have begun to appreciate the comforts of simplification on board. Of course, if you want to have a full-blown regatta, you have to equip the boat in a certain way, but since most of the time you are sailing alone or with a skeleton crew, easy sailing has been the breakthrough. And, I’ll go out on a limb a bit, if the prices of the AST system are affordable, we will see it spread to many models“.

You, how do you deploy? Are you “hardcore” or “cruise people”?