RS500 ...

Going back on price.....

You can get a reasonable Laser/Fireball pretty much whatever you like for around £500 if you are prepared to shop round and do a little bit of work on it.

The older Lasers are still competitive at club level (I know I owned 75265 for a fair while and there it still 36177 raced regularly at the club). Just make sure they have reasonable sails and that the hull is not a wreck when you buy them.

Older Fireballs are different, they are a slightly different hull shape to the modern Winders but you can still have an immense amount of fun at club level in them, and a well sailed 'narrow' 'ball will still be comeptitve against and new 'wide' 'ball at club level on flat water (waves are a different proposition).

I believe the Osprey is similar, you can find some well sailed older boats that regularly beat the newer boats.

Also at my club we have both class racing and an 'all in'. If you want class racing then it is Solo, Laser or Phantom for singlehanding (we have one of the biggest Phantom fleets in the country apparently) and Enterprise for double handers. After that anything that is momnohull with a PY slower than 950 goes. It is quite telling though that the 'new' RS style classes have not been a big hit and traditional symetrical boats still outnumber them (we have 2 RS2's and a Sport 14 on assy and 4 FB's, 2 Scorps and a couple of GP14's to my knowledge).

We are more concerned that we don't become a all single handed club rather than the onslaught of 'new classes'....

Anyone else out there with the same concerns?

Paul

PS on the boats in your sailing lifetime I am on my 3rd boat and have been sailing for 8 years.

Getting back on subject slighty....has anyone actually seen the RS500 in the flesh?  One of the links above suggested it has been around Hayling Island Sailing Club and will be available to sail there on 10th Dec.

Also - why do we think the introduction of this boat has caused such a debate, when the Xenon, and even the Vago, seem to have arrived much more quietly.. ??

Finally - how much of the concern expressed above stem from the photos & reports which don't look very exciting...would people respond differently if it was going to have a big, fully adjustable, rig and a <1000 yardstick and so be more differentiated from Vago / V3000?

Oh, I forgot to say......Bahh, Humbug!

Originally posted by damp_freddie But as the thread goes, a light teenager would be better buying something like a fireball or a 29er

Should that be light teenager's rich parents?

I know my parents would never have even dreamed of buying me a 29er or even a boat /18th of the price! My first boat is my old 14 paid for by my student loan left over from living on the bread line...

Yes NeilP from back a bit, I have sailed  505s, but no I don't concur on the FD. It
is a displacement boat upwind. In moderate winds a single trap RS800 will eat it
(or a 49er of course) and in light winds a 29er or 59er will run rings around
it.  Infact  I remember FDs with sliding seats. Sailing has developed and I call it
progress when we are doing near wind speed up hill and more than wind speed down the leeward leg.

The 505 has done some open heart surgery to keep up interest/numbers against the onsluaght of trapp'd assyms for the lighter guys, and the 'marginal apparent wind' RS400. Bigger  kite, self launching pole, gybing centreboards and new sail materials. Now they have even  gone for transom strops and 'from boom' sheeting. How long before carbon rigs  and a 20 000 Euro price tag for a boat you have to travel now to get a fleet? Pricing itself out of  a market which has moved for more fun for buck.

I like single handers or assymetric sailing with crew. The phantom is one I forgot
and it's lack of prevalence is why. The 59er is realistically the only boat with
'higher apparent wind performance' which is suitable for 160kg plus.  I can't see
taking a new crew out on a 505 in club races against maybe one other (badly prepared) 5-oh here as a useful experience now. I could take any yacht crew out on a 59er and have a happy day converting them to dingy sailing. Pity there are so few



But as the thread goes, a light teenager would be better buying

 something like a fireball or a 29er and using the difference in price to a '500' (bound to be over

6500 GBP)

to have lessons and do travellors.