Kite or no kite?

Albacores are great boats, we have a fleet at Tewkesbury.  however in my opinion and having owned cheaper boats you will be outclassed by the modern Ovi's.  Even the old wooden woofs seem to struggle now!  Thats not to say don't buy one, it would be good to cut your teeth in something like an older composite porter, which would still put you on the line if you sail well.  For me i wouldn't touch a fosrite for anything other than cruising.  If you upped your budget by £500-£1000 you would get a very, very nice boat that would be more than capable.

Originally posted by PeterG It's always going to be far more fun sailing in a class fleet than competing on handicap.

I think we can say categorically that isn't true for everyone, otherwise there wouldn't be so much more handicap racing than club racing.

However if you don't have strong feelings about what sort of boat you want to sail there is a lot to be said for having a boat that is sailed in numbers at your club. You know it probably suits the water, you know there'll be backup available and a good number of other advantages.

Reasons not to get a kite boat:

Go for the class that is sailed at your club ie the Albacore. It is much more satisfying to race boat on boat when you know how well you have done immediately on the water and can measure your progress. In handicap racing, you have little idea until the results are published.

The only reason that so much handicap racing goes on is that clubs are not brave enough to encourage fleets.

As for Mags and his please before spinnaker action, my crew react to shorter words like yes, go or down! If you are slick the spinnaker can be up and drawing within a maximum of 2 boats lengths of the mark so that on short legs, it can still pay off.

I would go for FRP as opposed to GRP. Much stiffer and ages better.