That old chestnut, what dinghy!

Originally posted by olly_love Have to disagree with felixstowe ferry being a gastro pub, every sat they have 70 youth sailors and an active sat racing series planned for this year, Also the asbo will have the standard prOblem at the deben by being deep draft even win the cb you can't sail properly with it up

Unfortunately Olly, there is no planned weekend racing at FFSC for 2012 other than when an open meeting is held. I understand there will be youth sailing on Saturday mornings, with racing, if you say so.  Sadly, the club hardly converted any of the youths into club members in the 25 years or so it has been running. Not surprising since they did not teach racing! They are allowed to eat and drink in the club on Wednesday evenings!

I'm not sure what you mean by a deep drafted asbo.  Several AltO's with pivoting c/b sail at DYC. The c/b need never be raised when going to windward unlike if sailing at FFSC or WSC, and even if partially raised, the AltO still sails to windward rather well. At DYC there is plenty of space and plenty of depth, though the dagger classes, vortexes and a 4K,  do sometimes have problems.

I note you were not at the GGP.  QMSC should be deep enough for a B14 dagger. Only joking, of course!

there was a lot of racing going on when we were there in the spring.

Originally posted by oldarnus Originally posted by rogue Grumpf- the Deben has several sailing options from tree lined, very tidal affected 'river' sailing in Woodbridge, through to the Ferry, which has a lovely tidal bar to chuck up some serious sh*t in an easterly/north easterly . That looks more like Waldringfield to me, by can't really tell. Sure, that's Waldringfield. They do sail on all tides but plenty of shallows at low water and though bags of water at high tide, racing tends to be processional. Deben YC always race at high tide when ther is plenty of space and variety. Racing is far less processional with potentially long courses and a stretch known as 'Troublesome Reach' where a challenging figure of eight course is available. I agree not suitable for asymmetric single handers!Sadly Felixstowe Ferry SC has become a gastro-pub. There is no weekend racing and only a Wednesday evening race for a few lasers and one or two other assorted boats. What a waste of a great facility and wonderful sailing waters.

Thanks oldarn- good to know the old grey matter can still recollect childhood memories of 'looking for shark's teeth at 'the rocks', hopefully the Maybush pub grub is better than it was in the 80's- that sucks about Ferry, apart from one encounter with a right cock of a laser sailor in what, 1988 (how things change heh) it looked a cracking spot for dinghy sailing.

Since I have three masts for mine, the original wooden one, an alloy Needlespar and a carbon mast I'm well qualified to say that they're all the same, and there's as much room under the boom as a Laser, Enterprise, Lark etc.

personally I would say Phantom, but then I would wouldn't I? They were designed on the east coast for river/estuary sailing. However that said if there are Finn's in your club then if you can find something suitable it would make more sense if you want fleet racing. If you want to go faster and take part in open meetings then the Phantom makes more sense. There is a very vibrant eastern series where there is a lot of socialising to take part in, and it is very good fun. Have a look at the Phantom website www.phantomclass.org.uk and see what events are already pencilled in for 2012. There are more to come