beginners needing advice
Printed From: Yachts and Yachting Online
Category: General
Forum Name: Choosing a boat
Forum Discription: Ask any questions about the sport!
URL: http://www.yachtsandyachting.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=4650
Printed Date: 06 Aug 25 at 11:33am
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Topic: beginners needing advice
Posted By: bluegeorge
Subject: beginners needing advice
Date Posted: 14 Sep 08 at 8:19pm
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My sons (11 and 9) and I have all learnt to sail over the summer. We are now looking to purchase our own boat and join our local sailing club. I would be really gratefull for some advice on what we should be looking for. Have just been to boat show and looked at the Vision,Bahia and Xenon. Would this be a good option or too much to soon?. Our experience so far is in Opi's, toppers and Wayfarers.
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Replies:
Posted By: radixon
Date Posted: 14 Sep 08 at 8:33pm
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Just a question to throw in, are you sailing inland or on the sea? I have sailed all three of the options you list. All the boats are plastic fantastic by which they are all maintenance free and fairly robust. The Laser Bahia is the newest of the three. Its a great boat but the main doesn't set very well and has rather a lot of ropes all around the mast to make it confusing. The Xenon is a racey boat with a racing circuit. It is the most powerful of the three and it is a great boat to sail but may be a little to much to handle for a new sailor. The RS Vision is a good alrounder in my opinion. It is wasy to rig and sail. It can be handles well and isn't as powerful as the Xenon but enough to learn on. I know the Bahia and Vision can be reefed, unsure on the Xenon, so it is possible to still go out in stronger winds but be able to handle the boat. Instead of the Xenon, you may want to consider the Omega. Personally I would go for the Vision. Why, they hold their value and can be sold on very easily. I would look at trying one out on the water first, depending on where you live, there are various RS achedemies around the UK that I believe you can try boats. Another option is to join the local club and then get a sail in a mambers boat. If you mention where abouts you are, then I am sure someone here can assist. Oce you have found the boat you want, then Y+Y, Boatsandoutboards.co,uk and apolloduck.co.uk all have dinghies for sale advertised. ------------- |
Posted By: tmoore
Date Posted: 14 Sep 08 at 8:34pm
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in order to provide any real assistance we need to know a few things, your weights, if you intend to sail together regularly or if one of you will sail regularly alone and be joined by the other? your budget and also which your local club is and what they sail there (much easier to improve if you have someone good sailing the same boat who can help you) ------------- Landlocked in Africa RS300 - 410 Firefly F517 - Nutshell Micro Magic RC yacht - Eclipse |
Posted By: andymck
Date Posted: 14 Sep 08 at 8:41pm
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Everyone always gets this the wrong way round. Don't buy a boat first.
Find a local sailing club that meets the needs of your family. Then ask several members about what sort of boat will suit the club, its always best if there are several active boats of a similar type, as you will get tips and friendly advice, rather than what numpty bought one of those! You will probably find the club will have several boats that they will lend/hire to new members to get their sailing experience up, then borrow from/ crew for club members to see what you and the kids like. Then contact the class association of the type of boat you have settled on to find an up to date boat list, and get a second hand one, much cheaper, and you will do damage as you learn, so a shiny new one can wait a year or so. Sailing clubs up and down the country are littered with nearly new boats that were bought too soon and never see the water. Hope this helps AndyMck ------------- Andy Mck |
Posted By: HannahJ
Date Posted: 14 Sep 08 at 9:12pm
As above: join a club first, see what they sail, it's always more fun when there's others about to get tips from etc. Don't get tempted by the new plasticcy ones, the older designs like Wayfarers, GP14 etc have lasted for a reason. Personally having taught in a Vision I'd say avoid them... You may be better off getting a boat for the kids and starting off crewing for someone yourself - for the kids I'd say definitely a Mirror http://www.ukmirrorsailing.com">www.ukmirrorsailing.com , you can sail it with them and there's a great racing and training system.
------------- MIRROR 64799 "Dolphin" The pessimist complains about the wind; the optimist hopes it will change; the realist adjusts the sail |
Posted By: simonjohn
Date Posted: 15 Sep 08 at 8:29am
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Its so easy to put kids off. What do they want to do? Go play singlehanded in their own boat? Race two handed in ditto? Both race with Dad? and so on. Will they worry if they bash Dad's new boat? In which case secondhand and battered will do for a while until they are used to sailing. |
Posted By: craiggo
Date Posted: 15 Sep 08 at 1:24pm
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AndyMck is absolutely right.
Find a club, crew or borrow boats for a while, determine what the active classes at the club are and select the one that most closely fits the bill. Talk to the owners and class association, and get advice on buying second hand. Only buy when you are completely sure that you will make use of it. As mentioned by others here, there are too many boats in dinghy compounds that were bought brand new by people new to the sport that have been sailed twice in the last 10 years, and its funny how these boats tend to be those labelled as family racer/cruiser !! ie. Topper Sport 14 & 16, etc. etc. Paul |
Posted By: bluegeorge
Date Posted: 15 Sep 08 at 3:20pm
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Thank you all for the great advice. Our local club will be South Cerney in Gloucestershire. I think they have lasers for members to hire.We had already checked it out, but had thought it would be better if we had our own boat. So thank you for putting us straight on that one!. I think it would be really easy for us to get caught up in the excitment of buying our first boat and get it completly wrong. Thanks again Lisa
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Posted By: andymck
Date Posted: 15 Sep 08 at 7:04pm
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Good luck with the sailing, as always the more you put in the more you will
get hooked. Andy ------------- Andy Mck |
Posted By: ChrisJ
Date Posted: 17 Sep 08 at 5:38pm
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Take a look at a 2nd hand Laser 2000 (IF there are some already at South Cerney). |
Posted By: Merlinboy
Date Posted: 17 Sep 08 at 7:00pm
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Bluegeorge, With all of the boats listed you should be fine at south cerney, its a small sheltered lake, so i would very much doubt you will find them to much. A laser 2000 is a good shout. Very robust, loads of room for you to grow into (in terms of ability) and they have excellent residule values ------------- |
Posted By: timeintheboat
Date Posted: 17 Sep 08 at 7:49pm
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South Cerney is a nice little club. Albacores if I recall and even Flying Freds - which surprised me.
------------- Like some other things - sailing is more enjoyable when you do it with someone else |
Posted By: JimC
Date Posted: 17 Sep 08 at 8:17pm
I've seen some *horrendous* family rows about "the first scratch" with brand new boats. Much better that someone else should have done the damage already on your first boat:-) Keep the "first new boat" extra excitement for a way down the road... Thnk a bit about how you are going to sail too... If its going to be you and one youngster at a time then of the boats listed on the South Cerney website I have a lot of time for the RS Feva in its XL package. If they will be sailing together without parent then if the website is any guide at all the Cadet is the one to pick. But there's also a lot to be said for an old Topper for each of you:-) What I always advise is to get a feel for what its like pulling the boats round your club's dinghy park. Especially consider if the youngsters are cold and tired, you've sent them off to the shower and you're pulling it back to its berth on your own! |
Posted By: feva sailor
Date Posted: 17 Sep 08 at 8:52pm
well if you want a boat for the kids then an RS feva would be good. its also a very good racing boat, they can go as far as they'd like in it and they will develop their skills in it very quickly.
if they dont want to sail with just the 2 of them in the boat then the boats you have mentioned are fine. |
Posted By: English Dave
Date Posted: 18 Sep 08 at 6:34pm
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I learnt to sail at South Cerney. There are several lakes but I learnt
at SCSC's Cadet Sqn, using real Cadets before moving onto crewing
Scorpions until I got my own boat. The man who ran the Cadets is
doubtless dead by now (it's 30 years ago and he was 60-something even
then - sailed a Seafly) but the Cadet Sqn is great. If SCSC had kept
it's youth thing still going then that is without doubt the best way
for your boys to go. Otherwise, cannot fault the advice of andymck. My Dad was in the same shoes as yourself in 1980. Learn't to sail then bought a Miracle. Cracking boat for a beginner. However, there was only one other at SCSC (Komoshun - odd I can remember the boat's name but the name of the Cadet man escapes me) and that was only rarely sailed so he spent most of his time at the back of a handicap fleet. If he had got himself an Albacore he would have been one of many and enjoyed himself better. I stayed with the Cadets, racing against 5-8 others and am still sailing today. He got frustrated at being the only Miracle and gave up. The moral (of my tale at least) is that choosing the the theoretically perfect boat doesn't always provide the perfect solution when placed in the context of the Sailing Club. Actually, I remember South Cerney as being quite large for a gravel pit but then I was 10 and about 4'8" at the time so my memory may be skewed. Don - that was his name! Glad I remembered, it would have p'd me off otherwise. ------------- English Dave http://www.ballyholme.com - Ballyholme Yacht Club (You'd think I'd be better at it by now) Hurricane 5.9 SX RS700 |
Posted By: jeffers
Date Posted: 19 Sep 08 at 10:06am
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If memory serves didn't Y&Y do a feature on South Cerney recently? Anyone got the relevant issue at hand they could provide some hard facts as to what is currently sailed there....
------------- Paul ---------------------- D-Zero GBR 74 |