New Name For The Aura

IMHO too many new designs are trying to be all things to all people. I don't know if this is customer lead or marketing think tank but it seems that boats like the Vago (and previously the Topaz )are trying to hook people with the promise of "fast as a 49er, easy to sail as a Mirror". This just isn't acheivable in the one boat and it is misleading of manufacturers to make it sound any other way. The majority of contributors on this forum sail high-performance boats but we all started on something simpler and slower and are probably the better sailors for it. Not that speed is everything or even the best thing - merely the preference of most who add their two-penneth to this forum.

As for the polyprop vs GRP debate. Rotomoulding offers real advantages over GRP with regard cost of manufacture as it can be automated BUT only if the batch size is large enough to make the tooling costs cost effective. Maintainance-free is something we were offered when we switched away from wooden boats. Was it true? Will it be true for the Vago or Aura? Doubt it. But I think this debate about construction is a red-herring.

Jo Richards seems to be repeatedly be given the same impossible brief by Laser design a high-performance, low maintanance family boat that is easy to sail. The irony is that Laser's most successful boat is the original Laser and it is successful because it doesn't try to be versatile.

TT, I hope you never had a chance to find out if the 200 was fragile - if so I want my money back

Loving it by the way, and the other half hasn't wanted to stop sailing despite chipping ice off the top cover at the weekend.

More accurately, flat means "feels" fast;  as sailing the boat seemed to me like a lot of effort for the amount of actual pace that comes out, hence the revised PY of around 1050 I guess.

.... but it could be an excellent beach boat from which to progress to a 29er, where only a little more balancing results in a much more impressive result!

On topic (!) the Aura could be a cheaper Stratos (good) or a heavy Stratos made wobbly in an effort to extract some performance (bad), we'll have to see and I'd be happy to try one out.  Love the jib.

Personally I sail a Pico when its REALLY windy .. and I'm not (that) ashamed to admit it!   So power to your elbow Sumo.

and any pre-teens who think I'm "gay" for liking colourful sails and the odd plastic boat  ... are wrong as it happens.

We actually own both a 4000 and a Vago, it used to be a 4000 and 200. the small one for me to learn to helm in. I haven't as yet helmed the 4000 in any races.

The Vago is faster than a Xenon, we have raced against one and easily beat it.

I did quite like the 200, but after a couple of things including some damage to mine and other boats, including seeing what happens if you run aground without a quick release cleat on the rudder, which is a big possibilty if you sail where I do, and not really enjoying the 200 open meetings like the 4000 ones. We thought it would be better to change to something that handles more like a 4000. The Vago is a lot of fun, and we do sail it when we wouldn't take the 4000 out because it is too windy. 

As I said I prefer the Vago for a number of reasons, but there are a few things that seem odd if you are used to a very stiff glass boat, but then it isn't designed as a high performance race boat. I would say it is a high performance play boat really. Good to get started with lots of sail options to try different types of sailing.

There aren't many boats that are designed so that you can easily put multiple sail shapes and sizes and also reef the sails, hike or trapeze quite easily. It is also quite easy to single hand, particularly if you can trapeze.