First boat - Omega or laser 2000

I bought an Omega last September. We sail it on an inland lake and had been very happy with its performance. We bought it as a family boat and regularly sail it with 2 adults and 2 children on board, but it could easily take up to 5 adults. We have been sailing in light to medium winds and have found with its relatively large sail area it performs well and is great fun especially with the large asymmetric up.  I hear people find it hard to rig but we have no problems its easier than a laser 2000 to rig. Being plastic it has taken lots of knocks but still looks good.  I recently entered it in an asymmetric regatta, which took place in a force 5 gusting 6. I have to say I was disappointed in the asymmetry performance, it seemed it was too powerful it required a great deal of skill to prevent it capsizing! It is maybe my lack of skill but I had been sailing a laser 2000 the day before in the same conditions with no problems. I have since found some rigging tips on the topper site and will try them and see if this improves things. That said it performed well on the final day in a force 4 against laser 2000s. I had up until that weekend been very happy with it; if you want a good value, tough,fun, family boat then don’t listen to the others, see Topper and go try one.

Check out the RS Vision v Laser 2000 thread as well. I'm going through the
same decision-making process.

I'd not considered the Omega but wonder if I should add it to the equation.
There are some negative comments about it here, but is it really that bad?

I must confess, after being brought up with Wayfarers etc I've not desire to
go down that route. I really want something more modern and livier.

Phil

There's a couple of Omegas at my club - they just
don't seem very good... Not hugely fast, not very
maneuverable, really heavy, and always do REALLY
badly (whether or not this is the fault of those who
sail them or not...) I just wouldn't want to own one at
all, on the other hand - a laser 2000 - much better
idea.

not too bad, but sooooo hard to right again after a capsize.

Originally posted by Riggin Our club has a wayfarer that we can try when we have completed the course. They look plenty big enough if not slightly too big. I’m going to look at the Albacore it sounds a good boat, thanks for the picture.

how about a wanderer then?

 

 

 

Their class asoc page is www.wanderer.org.uk