RS 200 vs RS 400

Personally, I found it hell upwind.... but downwind, all that pain and torment was worth it .  I also told my brother that he needed to eat lots of pies, as he was very weedly and girly... what a nice older sister I was.

Originally posted by Fans1024 Try 15 stone all up... they shift.

Thats just going to be painful upwind!

Originally posted by Wes Originally posted by combat wombat 200's are nice But they have the most dinky little handkerchief of a spinnaker   Indeed they do, and for blasting are not brilliant, but for fleet racing, maybe only the laser tops it!

They're great for blasting in anything above a force 4

I've sailed both the 200 and 400.  I didnt really like the 400 but loved the 200.  This is probably some thing to do with I'm 5'5" and about 9 stone ish....  I couldnt hike on the 400, as I was too short.  The sheet loads were pretty high and we didn't go out in a blow.  If we did, I doubt I could handle it.  Generally, I wasn't happy sailing it, as everything was a struggle.  The 200, on the other hand, I loved.  Great to hike in [for me anyway].  Sheet loads were light.  Sure, its tippier than the 400, but for us it was great.  But, we were about 3 stone lighter than you and I have no idea how the 200 carries weight.  But from a 5'5", 9 stone girl the 200 is the best.

Just stumbled across this post, though I'd add my little bit into it.

As TT said, I bought a 400 to learn to sail in. I came from a windsurfing background and am not a small guy (13st). The Mrs came from a yachting background so we bought a dinghy to meet in the middle. Both of us are very competative and have competed internationaly at various sports.

I loved the 400, it was fast, exciting, the sheet loads were not too high and it had a great grin factor about it. Yes the learning curve was steep, but I'd only sailed dinghies for 3 hours in total before!

The Mrs - she hated  the 400. She could barley sheet the jib in, could not raise the spinnaker quickly (or in a blow, at all), always dropped it into the water as it came down and worst of all, was too short to hike the damn thing! She ended up being scared of sailing which was no good for either one of us,

So, we bought TT's 200. It's more tippy for certain, and we've swum in ours quite a bit. It's a lot slower, but actually really good fun for the two of us. The front end complains every bit as much about not winning, but there is zero fear there, even in suicidal conditions. We are 22st all up so are in the upper end of the weight range, however, at the nationals last year there was a 19st crew fighting it out with the 24st crews at the front in upto force 6, yet at the inlands in a drifter the heavy crews managed to keep up with or beat the lighter ones so i'd say it carries weight better than you'd think. The comment about the 14st helm is right though, so you 'd need to get your weight forward if you are that heavy.

One other thing in the 200's favour is the number of boats in the open fleets as well as at club level. nationals was limited to 130 entries this year! Both fleets are very active so if you want to try one, join the 200 / 400 yahoo groups and you'll finad a willing local owner.