bulldog1935 wrote:
something else, Pure Fishing owns most tackle made now, and since Hardy designed the new Medalist using the Lightweight click-pawl, not having a Lightweight on the market increases demand for Medalist, while trimming inventory cuts their overhead.
Even more reason to later sell Limited-run Made in England Lightweights - the upgrade from Medalist.
The underlying architecture of the modern Medalist is pretty much a straight-up hybrid of the Marquis and Lightweight series -- full frame with a spool that rides over the top just like a Marquis, with a check system lifted straight from the Lightweights. And the modern Marquis LWT is pretty much Marquis cosmetics applied to the Hardy-made Orvis CFO architecture -- open frame and knob-driven check system. The Dutchess seems to be the only "classic" reel I've seen in a while that is different -- with its semi-open frame and all.
The Marquis and Dutchess do look pretty nice from a distance. I must be getting old, though -- I'm happy to pick up a Marquis or CFO from ca. 1980 and just use that - which of course doesn't do much for the manufacturing job base...