Sensible boats?

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! 

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.

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.

well I know that feeling.Quite a few of the 49er boys(me included)  at our club were out in Laser 2000's Sunday afternoon They were a blast!

We didn't think twice about taking the 5000 out in windy weather,but the 49er does have it's limits not sure what yet.But we know ours at the moment

The problem with clubs having rescue boats is that people become very reliant on them. Having operated various types of club rescue boats over the years, once the weather gets seriously windy it's actually incredibly difficult to rescue many of the "non sensible" boats.
People often think that because your boat has an engine it can do anything, which really isn't the case. Self rescue is nearly always the best option, unless someone is injured.
Having said that, it is important for people operating club rescue boats to be familiar with how to rescue the types of boats sailed at the club, particularly for dealing with boats like the Moth and skiff type things, or even windsurfers!
As for last weekend, I didn't think it was excessively windy ...... however loads of other people did, the only finishers were a Fireball (me), a Contender and a Vortex. We were still on the middle mast rake setting so could have coped with plenty more wind!! But that's the advantage of sailing a "sensible" boat - and sailing in the really light stuff isn't too bad either..