Hi, I have loved sailing since I was about 8 but never got to go very often. Now I'm 18 and I live 10 mins from the sea I was thinking about getting my own boat and was wondering what people thought I should get as I have no idea really and don't know much about boats. I've got quite a few certificates like day sailing and seamanship skills so I'm fairly confident. I'd want to get a fast boat but I'd want to be able to sail it on my own and also with my mates who have never sailed before so the crew weight could be anywhere between 15 and 30 stone. I'd also like it to have a trapeze as I'd quite like to learn how to do that and also a spineaker as I would also like to learn how 2 use these. It has to cost up to £1500 as well. I know that I'm being quite specific but there must be a boat out there thats just rite. Someone suggested a laser 2? Thanks for your help.

Are you going to join your local club?  If not where are you going to keep it?  I guess you realise that a boat which is fast with 15 stone all up will not be fast with 30.  If you want to sail it single handed and use a spinnaker then it'll have to be a Vario, which will cost more than £1500.  If you want it to be fast and use a spinnaker single handed then you are talking real high perfomance - in which case you need to buy something else first to get trained up.

You can learn a lot and not spend much money buy sailing a Laser, but it won't be very fast with 30 stone and it doesn't have a spinnaker.  You definitely need to visit your local club.

To be honest I wasn't gonna join a club as the nearest 1 is about 30-45 mins away and not intrested in racing at the moment. Plus I've pretty much always sailed on coastal waters so prefer to do that although I know its gonna cost more to maintain. Plus my gran lives bout 1/4 mile from a slipway so was just gonna keep it at her house and launch it.

I'm not too worried about it going fast with 30 stones as it will rarely be this heavy. It will usually be either just me or some of my friends who are pretty light so the weight will be 15 stone most of the time and 25 stone other times.

I would consider joining a yacht club - inland or coastal.  You can learn lots from other sailors, sail/train/race in similar boats to what they have at their clubs and, most importantly, you will have safety cover!  To launch from a random slipway with your mates and from what I gather, little experience, could be dangerous.

Have a look around your nearest club to find out what goes on there.

Make sure you know what you are getting into with a wooden boat.  Here's a link to a page on the Bough Beech SC website which tells you a bit about boats.

http://homepages.rya-online.net/BoughBeechSC/boats.htm - http://homepages.rya-online.net/BoughBeechSC/boats.htm

Not sure a fireball would be single handable.  Anyone tried?

Laser 2 is perhaps a less good boat and  slower - but with the spinny down it's certainly single hand friendly - and with it up an interesting challenge. 

And they're so cheap!!!