Something like a vago or rs vision is what the clubs around us seem to have.

Either that or a way(barge)fairer is i virtual tank so would take a lot of punishment, plus its big enough to carry quite a few people although its quite heavy . . .

How do you plan to allocate this boat and run it ...?

We have club loan boats and they seem to create a lot of work.

I'd rather invest the budget in programmes to bring people on who have made a commitment and brought a boat sailed by others at the club to assist in class racing, or filter them into the club as crews.

For training kids I'd be looking at one double hander and a refreshed fleet of toppers.  Kids love to compete against each other and we find the quickest way to get them doing that is in single handers.  With a steep shingle beach toppers are light enough for 3 or 4 people to run in and grab (in fact you probably already know that, having a fleet!) As for the double hander bit of a quandry, plastic boats can take a beating but are heavy to haul up a beach.  There have been lots of comments on most of the potentials so I'd trawl through the posts to have a look.

I think Rick has a good point,  I have seen activity at some clubs actually decline in the long term,  once the initial enthusiasm of the new loan fleet has passed.  The club boats at our local club are now used infrequently.

It would appear those who borrow a loan boat are less likely to get involved in racing and help with running the club.  Those who have made a commitment and invested in a boat are more likely to make the effort to use their purchase.

I do think there is a role for loan boats to allow newcomers to try before buying,  but effort should be made to move them onto their own boat as soon as they are showing long term interest.

I'd stay away from the Vago if you are teaching complete newbies. Dragging a Wayfarer up a beach will require a lot of manpower/elephants. Also not the best boat for letting newbies loose in unsupervised. If you are in that market you may be better going for the Vision.

If buying new then consider the RS Vision/Laser Bahia/Topper Omega. Tough boats that are modern enough to appeal but simple enough to sail. If you are looking at younger sailors then a Topaz might be worth a look. If dragging over shingle is your only option then rotomoulded has got to be a better option than GRP.

Different circumstances, I know as we have a slipway launching only, but we have only just recently retired a fleet (6) of Laser2s. Their long daggerboards count against them for beaches as it may be difficult to beat the shorebreak when launching in an onshore breeze. We took the spinnaker and trapeze stuff off them and the mainsails were modded locally to add reefing points and yellow/blue pannels at the head. This meant that they could be used for team racing. The boats were old when we got them and they lasted for about 4 years before we moved them on to concentrate on Picos (most of our beginners are kids and Picos can be sailed 1 or 2 up).

I'm not necessarily suggesting Laser2s for your club, just saying that a boat that wouldn't normally be considered a "trainer" worked well for us. It meant that beginners could race each other in near identical boats that were a lot "racier" than a traditional trainer. And that we had enough money to buy 6 old boats rather than 2 new boats.

Just a thought.