What Asymettric?

Redback is probably right, if you want to learn racing and get good at it, a trapeze asymetric may not be the right thing at all. 

But .... do you want to race?  It's not compulsory and a trapeze asymetric is certainly the most fun.

RS600 / RS700 / MPS = single handed only and perhaps a bit too advanced

Contender = good value fast boat, but no room for 2 (not much for one!), heavy on the slipway (unless you remove those lead weights) and no spinny to play with.

Vario = good bet, but quite pricey even 2nd hand - and no chance to learn trapezing

Laser = no trapeze, no asymetric, little speed for the effort involved and dispiriting to race as the standard is SOO high.  But you're the perfect weight!

My own choice for the same criteria was an old laser 2 (but it still took me two or three seasons to get from beginner to S/H trapezer).  These days it would have been a laser 3000 which might be worth a look; especially a decent 2nd hand one with the original sail plan (about £2.5k), complete with furling jib and reefable main for confidence on windy days. 

Maybe move onto a contender or RS700 in a few years or a bigger double hander.

Edited by NickA

Suprised no-one has mentioned the Vortex.

You can sail it in asymmetric or standard mode(different handicap), so if it's too windy leave the kite alone, if it's lighter, you can get used to using it. There's no easier platform for learning to singlehand trapeze, but they're still very fast in most conditions.

Edited by Hector

Theres a guy at my club who's taken his kids out on his vortex a few times.  plenty of room for them to sit and a kite to play with.
Its got the speed with the stability so certainly a good learning boat in my books. 

Originally posted by redback Here's simple test (and big boat sailing will have helped here) - you should know the answer instinctively.  Assume you have just sailed up the beat of a windward/leeward course and you found the right hand side paid, what gybe should you be trying to get onto after the windward mark?

 

There is no one answer to that- let alone know the answer insticntively. Do you race often or read books, leading you to believe such black or white situations exist in sailing?!

It would depend entirely as to why the right hand side of the beat paid, if the tide was favoured on that side of the course then the downwind (assym) boat would want to stay on starboard gybe, for the opposite reasons as upwind (ie. sail into less adverse currect/ with more +ve current).

If the right paid due to there being more wind on the right hand side of the track, then downwind then you would want to gybe on port to get into the more pressure on that side.

Again these are only 2, simplistic options, there are many, many other possibilties as to why one side of the beat was favoured...

 

While I wouldn't want to put daveb off trying dinghy sailing if his only experience has been big boats he's going to struggle to get to grips with both the vareo and 600 without a lot of swimming. Same probably goes for the Contender and laser. At least the Laser is easy to right... I would suggest the Feva is worth a look, can be single-handed or with crew. A traditional option if you're not too tall would be a mirror. niether boats have a trapeze and are at least forgiving if you don't sail them flat. Single-handed trapezing, while not that difficult is also not that easy.

Best advice would be to visit your local dinghy club and see what you can try out before commiting any money. It might be worth picking a sunny day with a force 4 wind and see if you can sail a Topper around a triangle. If that's easy then try a laser (radial probably if you're just 10st) if you manage that easily then you should feel confident about a vareo or contender (although I would still put the 600 on hold until you have a couple of years experience under your belt - not that I've sailed one but I've watched a very good sailor at our club go up the learning curve).