It depends what you want from your club boat

One suggestion that will get me laughed at from others on this forum would be the RS Vision

Big, Plastic, Robust, can be fitted with a full Racing kit (asymetric, trapeze) and from a club economic point of view it is ideal as a training boat

My 2p.  Now running for cover

Originally posted by Garry RS200 without question - even though I don't sail one

I say...... Scorpion, perfect because: they are consistent to their handicap over the whole wind range, easy to sail for improving beginners but technically demanding to offer the best sailors a challenge, tolerant of a broad range of weight (while still being competitive), plane upwind in a breeze, cheap to buy/run with good resale value, pretty boat to be proud of, equally at home on the sea and inland, full of experience in the class to help champion wannabes, not too heavy to tow up the slipway - or with your litle car, choice of construction methods, class always receptive to developments in the sport, comfortable to hike - or sit, light sheet loads, not made by one manufacturer, choice of sail manufacturers for develoment/lower cost/better quality....... Oh I could go on all day - SAIL SCORPION!!!!

As a Firefly sailor I'm obviously going to suggest the Firefly. Great inland tactical boat that are also perfect for team racing. The Rondar plastic boats are well priced, and they are a great Wife/husband or Parent/child boat.

Better yet, take all of you who are looking to change along to the dinghy show, look at all the boats, note all the ones you like, and then take them for test sails. Classes will fall over themselves for a chance to get a fleet at a new club!

It depends very much on the style of the club.

Where I sail there are few members who would be prepared to invest in a new boat. Any new class would have to be a well established class with a wide range of second hand boats in sailable condition.

I had great fun sailing a Snipe...second hand boats available, tight, tactical racing from F0.5 to 6 and true international racing (that is sailing against people who don't have English as their 1st language). The one design i now so well established that if you want to do a championship in Rio you only take your sails with you. Not many classes that you can say that about.

Unfortunately if you want a class to appeal to a wide range of sailors or potential sailors then now adays you probably need to have an assymetric class.  Since they already have the GP14 I wasn't sure what extra benefit adding either the Lark or Scorpion would add to the club!  I was trying to be objective rather than promote the class I sail.

How about the Tasar?

No kite but very fast and good for new crews ...

Rick

You could always agree to buy only old boats to start with. This an option often chosen by FF15 fleets abroad. It's good for the class who get a new fleet, and create space elsewhere for new boats.

There should be a good few classes that have cheap 10-15 year old boats available.

Gordon

The absence of a kite may well be an advantage for pond sailing. When sailing a Snipe it atakes about 5 seconds to go from close hauled set-up to down wind and vice versa. Can't do that with a kite!

Gordon

DO NOT BUY OMEGA's! Please save yourself from the expense, the Scottish Sailing Centre on Cumbrae bought a fleet of these as training boats uder the pretence of all that is mentioned above, and now they are saying that they have never seen a poorer boat! The standard of the fitting out is shocking with all of the specialist topper parts breaking within the first few weeks, the spinaker system is seriously flaud and two of the rigs fell down within a day of each other as the fittings tore out of the hull. They are not actually as stable as everyone seems to think either. Although i can see everyones point about the potential "all-roundness" of the boat it is verging on upsetting at how poor the boat has turned out to be. Another thing is that the mainsheet loads are very large for a boat of its type and due to the system that topper have installed on the mainsheet, there is nothing to be done to prevent the falls of the mainsheet twisting terribly causing increased loads on the sheet! The centre is now looking to formalise a list of complaints i believe and get better boats pretty quick

just a forewarning

we have a huge fleet of omegas at hawley, as to do farmoor apparently and according to my knowledge neither club have had problems with them

if they bought them new from topper they will have had the "advantage" of experiencing the poor quality topper now seem to supply their boats in. my club recently purchased 16 new toppers only to have 12 of them break within a week of assembly. it seems that the topper supplied plastic parts weren't strong enough to cope with the strain of being a club boat. i was suggesting picking up some cheap boats second hand (by second hand i mean demo models and Champ of Champs throw offs) which have usually had the faults you mentioned above ironed out, it may be worth the centre you mentioned giving topper a call and getting them to asses and repair the problems with the boats.

i know the boat you want its the laser 2000

they never fall apart (not at the center that i work at any way) you can teach any thing in them you can race them on a good open cercit and there good for club racing to what els do you want

they may be a bit pricey thow

I would recomend the Vago, they are fun to sail, can be sailed single or double handed, the XD has a trapeze and with two sail sizes they offer some scope for different weights and abilities etc. Although the Vago is cheap the quality of fittings is up to the same standard as the L2K and the Stratos, i.e. they are cheap because of the plastic hulls not the quality of fittings. In addition Queen Mary have run a couple of Vago's as club boats and haven't had any problems with them.

The L2K is a lovely boat, which is just starting to look a bit pricey now. They are ideal as club boats and again Queen Mary run a large fleet without major problems, just the usual problems of careless use and abuse.

I will second that the taser is good fun to sail and fast with the new sail plan they look even better.