RS300 vs Blaze

As ever the only thing for anyone interested in either class or any other for that matter is to TRY them !   As has been said they are very different boats and both have their fans.  The Blaze may be easier to sail and possibly easier to sail reasonably well in a wider range of conditions - however like any other performance boat it rewards good technique and is just as challenging to race perhaps even more so.   However if you have not tried one you may find yourself slightly red-faced when it also punishes you fairly readily at first ! 

With larger fleets these days the Blaze is particularly attractive to those into tacticaI boat on boat racing.  Like many others who have owned and raced both 300 and Blazes, I appreciate the appeal of the 300 but overall prefer the Blaze characteristics and racing.  The boat is a particular delight when it blows of course but is still highly capable in the light stuff with good technique.

It's not a heavy boat either despite the implications of a few !  It's a couple of kg heavier than the minumum weight of a Solo but has the advantage (and carries the weight) of the wings as well as being bigger than either a Solo or 300.  Do note that it is also weighted with the centreboard in place.      

The suitable weight range is wide and < 70kg helms can and do compete effectively alongside 100+kg helms and vice versa - the stayed rig making it very easy to adjust the power available or needed.   We all have views naturally and the best way to make up your own mind is to contact the CA's and arrange a trial.   It must also be worth a look at the Solo, OK, Phantom, Supernova etc.    Each to their own ....

Classes should not see each other as mutually exclusive all the time - there's a lot of room out there for good boats of all shapes and sizes and you need to TRY them !
 
Blaze '720'


  

You are OK in the 300 with the A rig from maybe 65kg, though the jury is still out as to how competative it is, and with the B rig, I think Steve Cockerill won the nationals at about 75 kg, and Will Gulliver won at around 95 kg, and competed well at around 100 kg. Steve C was also Blaze champ at the same time. Certainly the 300 rig is very able to be depowered, but is also very powerful, and for fun and club sailing a lot would depend on your ability, but I would say 65-100+kilos.

Never sailed a blaze, but I'd imagine it's similar.

Hope this helps!

Thats the one dics....

Why don't you try and borrow one for they day when we come and visit then Alex? (or have I missed that). Work is such a nightmare that getting any sailing in at the minute is a distant memory.

RE what Blaze 720 said about the inlands - I am planning to get there, will sort it a bit closer to the time. Are there any decent B&Bs that way as I sure don;t fancy a tent.

One very noticable thing with the 300, because of what the same reasons Fizzicist said above re the effient hull, is that the boat is very quite when planing. There is hard any hum coming from the hull. In fact I know people who said it and didn't like the boat because there wasn't any noise coming from the hull when they were planning.