Another What Boat Thread

Hang on.  Doesn't he want to single hand it?

Something like a musto skiff but easier?  A windsurferer sort of thing you can sit down in?

Doesn't sound one bit like an Osprey to me!

Better than the RS500, lighter than the Vago or Xenon (who's PYs are artificially low for marketing reasons), look at a laser 3000 with all the new kit - or if you've the dough a whole new V3000.  Dagger board unfortunately - and might feel a bit slow after a planing wind surfer!  Back up to an RS700 or MPS once you have the hang of it perhaps.

If you actually want to sit instead of trapeze - an RS vario?

Very interesting responses, I'll have broader google on the Osprey, but I
generally dont do old, have enough issues with old and my own body
parts.

Fixation with retracting centreboard?

Well, I'm the one who first fitted a retracting centreboard to a windsurfer
all those years ago, so know the benefits in offwind speed and planing.

O.K. there is a counter argument amongst the assym brigade about the
"foiling off the daggerboard" but that's only because they have no choice
in the matter.

If you've ever tried launching a Musto Skiff off a steep shelving beach into
the teeth of a shore dump, with a dagger board and none kick back
straight up and down foil rudder, only to find a few yards out the small
shingle has jammed the receptor totally, you'll soon develop an aversion
to daggerboards as your confidence in sailing sitting down is totally
trashed.

I'm glad to read the off colour bits about the 500 & Vago, but still there
doesn't appear to be anything that fits the bill. Lazer 3000? Yep got one,
its what I'm using at the moment and its quite fun single handing it, but
its way small, if the wind drops as inevitably it does club racing in the
evening, it sucks to the water. Had bloody Lazers and those Blaze things
come through me the other night like I was standing still. Went from 4th
to 14th in one leg as the wind dropped a few points, clearly not enough
volume, to use windsurf speak.

However it has served a useful purpose in rebuilding my will to live on as
one who sits rather than stands.

The search just has to continue, oh and heavy?

Don't even suggest it, launching is one thing, but once ashore, you
better be able to push it uphill quick or have the back ripped out buy a
curly monster.

I just can't see me shoving an Osprey up hill, especially with my yellow
wellies filling up with all sorts of liquid ballast.

Edited by Graemef

Javelin? What's a Javelin? How many weired and wonderful boats are there
out there? More google.

The Musto skiff was my nemesis, I've lived a life of action watersports,
turning my hand to pretty much anything I fancy and being usually able
to master it.

So when a chum of mind offered it as a "loaner" I thought, well, dingy
sailing, how difficult can it be? No dinghy sailor ever mastered
windsurfing, so it must be a cinch to switch the other way.

My record was 18 capsizes in one race. I learned what the term "in irons"
was the hard way, bloody heck why design a boat that wont tack in 10
mph without a lot of pfaffing around. I spent a good eighteen months
persevering, I'm not easily beaten.

Then I went on this training course, dont get me wrong, it was excellent,
the top guys were there and they showed how it should be done and in
the light winds I was making real progress. But then the next day dawned
windy and I watched these really top guys struggling, this is a whitstable,
its flat there, the launch is a piece of cake, yet still they're turning turtle
pitch poling and Lord knows what else.

Then I went back in the week following with another chum from whitty we
went out alone, it was a light SW blowing no more than 8- 12kts, he
broke his mast, I ended up swimming it as hard as i could away from the
mouth of the harbour where it was being carried upside down into the
commercial docks, luckily some kid came out and towed me clear.

That was my last Musto Skiff adventure, its a thoroughbred, like learning
to windsurf on an old long round board, teaching yourself horse riding on
an unbroken stallion.

The other thing that I never could come to grips with was the trapeze
thing, I still have a mental block when it comes to letting go both hands,
years of being hooked in on a harness and having a boom to hold.

With the MS you really need a third hand, the main sheet, tiller and the
spinnaker all on the go, there's a lot going on. Better than that pump
affair on the RS700 and probably a faster boat, but what I'd have given for
a self tacking jib thingy, would have made life so much easier.

Dont make any judgements about my experiences, the boat was a very
early prototype, it had a North Sail that didn't fit very well, a glass
housing for the rudder that also jammed with the same frequency as my
launches and I seriously had never really sailed dingies in my career
before, just didn't realise a bit of a revolution had happened.

Now I've got the bug, its a lot less demanding than windsurf racing and i
can use all the sailing tactical knowledge I've amassed over the years,
without the ball breaking pumping and joint wrenching large sails they all
use now.





Edited by Graemef

I dont get it.

I googled Javelin and read a load about it in New Zealand where they all
seem to use assym rigs, but the pictures on that U.K. site appear to have
those silly floating pole things that some boats have to stick up for the
spinnaker, why they persist with that I dont know. Imagine how less
complicated a 505 would be with an Assym spinnaker and through the
deck pole.

I really like the sound of that Javelin, is it a build it or have it built anyway
you like sort of open design class with a few measurements to the hull?

Would be cool to have one built the way you want it, assym spinnaker,
self tacking jib, retracting centreboard, open rear..

Edited by Graemef

If the Laser 3000 is out because it doesn't win in light airs, then I think the Contender is out on the same basis.

Did you try sitting right forward and heeling the boat when you felt the boat stick in light airs, Graemef? It's more likely wetted area than lack of volume slowing you if you're sailing singlehanded. As soon as it's trapeze time, it's perfectly possible to win with a 3000, assumiing you're sailing well. If you want to win in all weathers, you'll need more than one boat.