choice dinghy/cat

seeking advice from the pros

I'm an occasional laser sailor on the belgian coast and looking for the next step. cant figure it out though. the belgian beach clubs are dominated completely by cats (hobies, darts, nacra). they're nice to sail, but so heavy and large (transport, logistics, etc). also, most often i'm alone, hence the convenience of the laser.  however, i occasionally sail with my father, a friend, and within a few years hopefully my son- which makes the laser too small. the laser vago appeals to me in principle but i havent seen it let alone sail it (there's a few about on the coast here).  skiffs you dont see at all here.  i'd be very grateful if people have some suggestions about the vago or other boats, or even a cat. criteria:

• easy, convenient boat (to rig, to transport, to store)
• can be sailed single or two persons
• can handle ocean (choppy conditions)
• not too extreme (65 year old or 10 year old need to cope)
• not boring either (eg trapeze, spinnaker)

many thanks

 

 

A Sprint 15 (used to be Dart 15) catamaran satisfies all your requirements. And you can sail it off the beach with the rest of them.
It can be sailed in the following way:- unarig for one person hiking, 2 sails for 2 persons hiking, or 2 sails for 1 person trapezing. Can be car topped but easier trailed.

Laser 2 is great fun, is light, can be singlehanded or trapezed.   Got both my children excited by sailing.

But, for me at 58 with creaky knees the cockpit is a bit cramped and the boom too low.

When you find a boat as light as the L2 with a higher boom and a bit more space, tell me please.

I have a Vago and have been very pleased with it but then again I only started sailing in March so I'm not exactly endowed with a great knowledge of classes yet.

We chose it for the same single/double handed capabilities as you mentioned. So far we've mostly sailed it double handed after a few scares with sailing it single handed. I had an instance where it took 5 attempts to right it after a capsize. Each time it came up it would promptly fall over the other way. So knackered! This I think is more due to my inexperience than the boat. Also, when it's capsized it does sit very high in the water which makes climbing back onto the centre board from the water very difficult. Obviously dry capsizes aren't a problem.

We just bought the standard sail as we only had the larger XD version. This has given us a much larger wind window. With the standard sail fully reefed it doesn't look much bigger than a Pico sail!

 

Originally posted by Laser 173312 I'd say a Sprint 15 also. They're much lighter than the Dart 16 that replaced it.

Hi Laser 173312,

In order not to confuse anyone, I just thought that I would mention that the Dart 16 did not replace the Dart 15/Sprint 15, they are both still available to buy new.  They are totally different boats and the Sprint 15 is a thriving class with an excellent class association.  Sprint Bob will, no doubt, add comment when he says this topic.

Ian  (Yorkshire Dales S.C.)