Sensible boats?

Yeah i did the sensible thing of going out for the first time in a finn, that was borrowed off somebody else, in chichester harbour last weekend when my usual habitat is in a laser in a resevoir. The wind was awesome and absolutely flew along speeding past a couple of ribs, then tried to gibe and got very wet. But what an absolute blast, now gotta try and save my pennies together and buy one.

Originally posted by turnturtle Originally posted by Doug.H   I believe every boat is controllable by anyone, its simply a matter of time. Doug spot on Doug- but there is a section on the learning curve  (or bell curve when you don' taken a boat out for a few weeks!) where you are more in-than-out of the water and this can become the liability referred too. It's true also, some rescue bods don't help- I had one really windy episode where the rescue kept holding onto the forestay as I tried to right the boat; I actually had to ask them to let go- they were only trying their best to help, but all I needed to do was get my weight off the daggerboard; around the front of the rack & into the centre line asap- when they were holding the bow from a high sided rib seemed to lift up the nose and power up the rig causing all manner of carnage!

Dont even get me started on rescue boats.

To shorten a very long story: a couple off weeks ago I broke the wing on the moth and sat there capsized waiting for help. After about 10 minutes the rescue boat arived and got ready to through me a tow rope.
A few minutes of explaining that you cant tow a moth, especialy with only one rack and he didnt beleive me but was going along with what I said.
He then demanded I got in the rescue boat and proceeded to stick his boot against the (very thin) hull and right her, then tell me to get in and drop the main.
A few more minutes argueing about not just being able to get in and walk about a boat 33cms wide.
Hes not happy
A few more minutes trying to explain to him the benifits of not having a halyard and having to capsize to drop the main
I jump back in the water next to the now capsized boat and start pulling the main off, he storms off back to shore in a huff.

My B14 stays in the dinghy park if its blowing.  I'm with liddel on this, I've been hurt badly by fast boats in breeze before and its learned me a few things!

WHen I was at Derwent Week a few months ago, it blew dogs off chains so I borrowed a friends Topaz Race - what a blast in breeze!  Easily more fun than my B14 would have been in that wind, as it would have just been stressful and wet, and mostly spent upside down with the kite trawling in the water. 

Now I've got the Contender, it's my high wind boat as it's not over-canvassed! 

The title was just of the top of my head. I think m_liddell is most 'on topic' (as intended!) so far.

But when Rick says "with bigger sails you have more fun in the lighter stuff", I can only observe that I'd have thought it's more embarassment than fun that you experience when a good Wayfarer slips past your skiffy thing in the light stuff. Well, OK not normally 'slips past' but is at least, 'irritiatingly close'...

These tricky boats actually seem to be no good at either end of the scale (unless you're Stenhouse) - they have a narrow F3-4 window when they fly, the rest of the time you hear 'no point going out today' - is that fun?

I have this with my 14, anything F5 or above and she staying in the boatpark. Spending all your time wiping out and making lots of work for the guys on safety is a bit irresponsible and an accident waiting to happen. Start small and build up.

I think a big part of the problem is safety cover. At most clubs if you don't race then you will be sailing with no safety cover at all which is not exactly conducive to learning how to sail a high performance boat when it's windy. A lot of people who do safety don't sail high performance boats and are clueless when it comes to helping one in difficulties.

In an ideal world I'd have a high wind 'easy' boat and a more challenging boat I'm still learning to keep upright!
 

 

Edited by m_liddell