RS300 vs Blaze

Hehe, opposite opinions posted in the self same minute . Let's see if Mike can 'referee' it!

 

Originally posted by Villan I'm currently considering a Blaze, but is my 65kg (10 st) too light?

I was little over 9st when I started in the Blaze, and admittedly is was tricky as the wind got up. Then I stopped smoking, got a few years older, and I'm now up to about 10.5st. It has made things easier, gaining some weight, but its still a lot to do with technique and confidence. I've always found the rig very nice to power/depower easily so its still manageable (just don't cleat the main!).

I'd definitely recommend that at 10st you should at least give it a go. There's a group on yahoo if you want to find out more, or find a demo/trial sail. (As well as several other Blaze-ers on these forums).

Sales pitch over

Col

 

Hunts Sailing Club (www.huntssc.org.uk), Grafham smaller (and some say friendlier) little brother.

Paul

Was up at the club today sorting out my new berth. There was a fair amount of dicussion, I have a queue of people wanting a go when I get it all cleaned up (it's a bit dirty as it has been sat for a while).

Watch this apce, I may get a fleet going (no promises though)......

Paul

Good for you mate! Let us know how you get on. For what it's worth, I was the 300 Nat rep, and loved the boat, but always looked at the Blaze as the nearest alternative, and would love to try one. The 300 has a stunning rig, powerful yet so controllable, and most of the difficulties just require a few basic techniques, but it does become very difficult to control with the rudder up. At Portchester, the castle gives a big wind shadow in prevailing S/W winds, and coming ashore in a wind that went round in circles with the rudder up was a nightmare. This was 2 mins, in an hour of sailing, but eventually became too much! The boat doesn't need a centreboard  (as opposed to the daggerboard it has) cos you never need to lift it much unless you are overpowered, but coming ashore trying to control an unstable boat, when standing near the bow(most tippy bit) to keep it moving (if you move back it stops) with a rudder that won't work, and then juggling a dagger board that is quite deep and keeps damaging itself or stopping the boat, well I just got fed up with it every race! The combination of  a boat with a centreboard  and a stable hull form with a good turn of speed sounds hard to beat after that. I think if I went out in open sea and tried both, I would prefer the 300, but if I had bought a Blaze, I would probably still have it.