RS500 ...

160kg is a good weight for a 505 and would be more suited to you than sailing a V3000, RS500 etc. Our all up crew weight on the 49er is roughly 145-150kg and we were told we'd be too heavy to be competitive unless it was blowing in the RS800 when we were looking at boats. We also chose the 5000 over the 4000 for the same reason previously. Raced 505s with the same weight range as you stated and the boat goes really well, plus the new rules big kites make the boat sail like a skiff downwind plus you have the added bonus of being able to run deep.

Yay 59er would love to have a go.  Thing is, I'm not a middle-aged man with a beer gut & a Harley Davison, which I believed were entry criteria for the 59er class ;-)

Do we think a used 59er could be modded for single trap use?  I'm probably too mean to go brand new (lovely though the Ovi boats are).

Grim

Good point Jim.  I'd put my concern the other way around: the possiblity that we will get beaten around the club racing track just because of our likely team weight is a potential turn-off for me & my wife.  We're not Champs material, but would like to be competitive! 

Also, in my (not huge) experience it's a pain sailing a trapeze boat when you're always on the margin of being sufficiently powered up.  So the thought of sailing a Vago, Xenon, Rs500, V3000 etc is not appealing for a 160kg team on inland waters, unless maybe if we were somewhere with regular 15kt+ breezes.

We could 'just enjoy the sailing & racing' if we got a middle-aged Ent or Lark for under £1k, too!

cheers

Hello people

Been lurking here for ages - forgive me chiming in late, but . . .

I'm another one for whom the RS500 looks like a let-down, since I do want to get back into sailing, I'm typical SMOD fodder and yet there is only one choice for me at the moment and it's not the 500.

I sailed 'old OD' classes as a yoof - Ent, GP14, Lark - and now that the kids are bigger, the wife & I want to sail again (by which I mean race).  We've sailed most of the two-hander SMODs on summer holidays with Neilson et al, and we're in the market for a single-wire assy boat which is as well sorted as the RS800. 

We'll almost certainly get a L4000 and will most likely have a great time.  My purpose in posting is not to invite more comparison of L4000/RS800/505/FB etc but to point out that I think a key buying criterion which most of the SMOD market under-serves is weight range. 

Am I right in thinking that the SMOD model absolutely must mean a narrow weight range, because of OD rules on mast & sails? (Apart from the L4000 attempt at equalisation, natch).

If so, then it's obvious to me that RS are looking to serve potential SMOD buyers who are not sensitive to weight range ( & hence performance) - ie people looking for family / training / pottering boats.  And to someone like me, that's exactly what the RS500 is.  And for the reasons stated above (plus our combined weight of 160kg+) I won't be buying one.