Advice needed - odd sized team!

Thank you all very much for your thoughts.

I must admit I've never sailed a 505 or osprey but I'll definately take a look at them. I think to be honest it's the height of my crew that's a worry to me more than the weight. It's nothing short of miserable sailing a lot of dinghies when you're that tall and I guess that we'd be prepared to forego the trapeze etc for a couple of seasons in the interests of improving without swimming too much...

You're probably right "redback", I've spent far too long looking after other folks' sailing skills and not nearly enough time getting slick at racing! Guess we need a compromise between caution and stupidity..

Have sailed both a 470 and a fireball in the past and from what I remember, neither was too easy to fit a tall chap into?

Not a huge cat fan. Can't say why really, just didn't have as much fun - tried darts and hobies in the past.

Thanks for all the advice though - and I'll keep an eye out for any further musings from wise folk here.

I guess I was in a similar situation at the beginning of last season when I started sailing again after a 20 year break. My wife had never sailed before but was persuaded to try crewing an Osprey - she loved it so much we had our own a fortnight later. After sailing all year we are still very much learning what the boat can do but are still very happy sailing her. There is loads of room (The new mark IV has even more...) and she is very controlable in all winds. We have only capsized three times but she is a doddle to right again. The sheet loads can be a bit heavy but I guess that is true of any large trapeze boat.

Having said all that we do have a very active Osprey fleet at Kielder and we get loads of help and encouragement from them. Our challenge for this season is to finish before the rest have got ashore!