A regular thing and am starting to think of a decent singlehander and keep my mirror for 

Occasional family use

I am 5'7 and about 80KG and have a

And there you go.. the myth and dross is perpetuated another person is misled and the whole dire circumstance continues..

There is no such thing as a 'good Solo' they just exist for old people to perpetuate an illusion.

It is a fifty year old crap design built a bit better, that's it.

The fact there are so many? Same reason lots of people read the Sun.

And so what would you recommend... blow fifty grand piecemeal on several floating junks with no one to sail against?  Sell them off for less than you paid for them whilst spending even more being smarter than the market by commissioning your own design?  Eventually consigning the remnants of a failed (re)entry into competitive sailing to the bottom of the garden- holed, unloved without any intrinsic value... nothing but an eyesore to the mrs, a joke for the kids (dad's silly mid-life f*ck up), and nice warm home for badgers, foxes and field mice now the weather's drawing in (at least they appreciate the heat-asborbing black finish) 

... all this, only to find ultimate irony in a £700 sh*tter with a Laser logo?  Oddly enough, 'reversing-out' the very negative reason as to why it was never so popular in the first place.... that being it wasn't different enough from a Laser, so now you can sail it against Lasers and have a good race with that slight boat speed advantage you've always craved for (as long as you ignore the spreadsheet at the end and the fact that there's no 'proper racing' for it, why the hell not?)

Alternatively buy any of the boats listed in Getafix's list above... just make sure there's some other to sail against and get on enjoying the sport.  

p.s. if any of this is a bit pot, kettle, black... I was young and stupid, what's your excuse? 

Instead of buying a Blaze, getting a bit of a thrill out of sailing it and the benefit of a little Banditsomeness to help the spreadsheet blues, you should have bought a Blaze, the bloke that bought mine is your build and he rocks in it, he also has your propensity for third rank off the start line, but the speed of it carries him through the fleet. Or buy a Phantom, at least it was a better design and he can get the coffee on whilst he's bumbling about.

But Solo - ugh spare me..

Should be the perfect boat for you then Graeme 

you're probably right... if there were 20 Blazes at my club fielding 5 minimum, 10+ on a good day, I would gravitate towards one more than a Solo for sure; but there aren't, so I won't.  

And before saying 'buy one and they'll all come running', you and I know they won't and quite frankly why bother anyway?  It's just another boat, the fun is in the competition and as long as it's nice enough to sail, ('better' than a laser - in a sort of fashion), then that's fine by me.  

edit- third rank start, yep that's 'cos I was over, sailed back around the fleet and still came back through past you   But I'm glad it worked out like that, there's nothing quite like my smile as I sailed past you and there's nothing quite so nasty as my transom in the distance to know how owned you really were 

Sounds like a good plan Steve. Keep the mirror for the kids and get yourself something for when they are busy.

I think depending on what your after anything like a Laser or a Solo would be great. If theres lots of Solos at your club then it may be the best option. Up in Scotland now its one of the biggest single handed adult classes going.

Personally although I like the idea of the close racing I still prefer having something with a bit more speed so it just depends what your after in terms of really close racing or handicap racing in something with a bit more pace?

At £4k you have a great choice and can have any singlehanders except the newest classes like the 100 and D1 that have not yet got down to that price yet.

Happy shopping...

 

PS - dont listen to the numpties contstantly banging on about how rubbish older designs are.

What I can do however is point out the folly of others as it is such a target rich environment.

Typically for handicap racing:

Blaze- great in heavier winds and good in the sea (feel quick, but not too powerful)

Phantoms- great in marginal F2 winds, good on lakes and flat water (feel very powerful and quick)

Solos- great all rounders, hence their popularity, despite them being considered slow.  Very fair on handicap as it's one of the very few classes who can actually muster up some reasonable statistics from the club racing scene.

My honest advice, buy either a Laser or Solo and see if you like the racing and camaraderie of the sailing club.  You may find you like it quite a lot and this becomes more standard operating procedure than just going for a freeride sail.  It happens with a lot of our newbies once they've committed to buying a boat.  Even the guys who bought the weird and wonderful random choices appear to be migrating back to the Lasers, Solos and Fireballs.... it's just a better quality of racing to sail against similar boats, in turn, the 'sailing' is better and you get more out of the sport.  

If you just want to go fast, then just make sure you slow down for cameras on the way to the club.  It's the 'fastest' aspect of anyone's day out sailing...

Worst case scenario... you want to upgrade onto something else in a couple of years and you can probably sell the Solo or Laser for more or less what you paid for it.

Yep- thanks for the clarity Jim.

But this will also be reflected in the price, the older glass boats are around £500-£800, and as a cheap boat they're usually fine, but not going to be on pace with the newer boats as you'd expect.

If looking at the Solo Association classifieds, I'd look at the following adverts for £4-5k:

http://www.solosailing.org.uk/fs/fs_list.asp - http://www.solosailing.org.uk/fs/fs_list.asp

The one you catch and cannot help yourself in an irrational desire to affect as many others in the mistaken thought you will either be cured, or by affecting others the disease will somehow not seem so disgusting to the rest of society?

They're expecting over 100 boats, I wonder if your old buddy Roger Tush will be there?  

I tell you what, I'm unlikely to be able to take a full week off work for it, but I might tack on one of the weekends and just enjoy a few races in a fleet that big.  I don't think I've sailed in 100 boats on the same line since I was 14 years old, I can't miss that, especially at Hayling.    

You can use my boat for the rest of the week... up for it?

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/SOLO-Sailing-Dinghies-/110957845269?pt=UK_Sporting_Goods_Sailing_Boats_ET&hash=item19d59a5b15#ht_500wt_1288 - http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/SOLO-Sailing-Dinghies-/110957845269?pt=UK_Sporting_Goods_Sailing_Boats_ET&hash=item19d59a5b15#ht_500wt_1288

 

Perhaps we could do a deal James - half the entry each.

 

Cheers

 

Steve

It's a shallow existence, been there, done it, got the T shirt, no thanks, mucking about at the back in something you actually like sailing is much more fun and everyone sailing the same boat is boring.

There is no amount of money or promise of big fleet glory or company, that would condemn me to the total humiliation and acceptance that my self esteem is that compromised..

Or I'm that old. 

I feel sorry for you, no really I actually do. I wish I could help, but it's too late, you're sick and not in a 'bro' way...

Now, I accept inland that may be different, it's not so easy for the faster boats to stretch out to their handicap potential, but you can still play the position over the water game and those old mingers can still hold their own because of that.

Doesn't make it right though, they should still lay down when they're dead.

You might as well do away with the PY system, unless someone really needs it for self justification.

Sadly you'll never get that sort of antic to happen at many 'normal' clubs running handicap racing- folks are too precious about who's rated at what... I couldn't even get that much buy-in for a concept around a box rule for 700s and MPSs and they've got the same friggin' number.

Ironically it was sailors already fleet racing who thought it had some merit, and that kind of put things in perspective... most people electing to race handicap aren't really that fussed about the racing, it's just a drift around with mates, something vaguely organised and vaguely interesting.  Or maybe it's just a training exercise in between the more serious activity of circuit sailing.  

The current 'joke' at our club is that the handicap fleet have insisted the PRO start taking times for everyone, even though in the fleet boats it's totally pointless.  They then adjusted them on the spreadsheet for the various different fleet start times and then bundled it into an unofficial series.   So we've got folks racing others in different fleets that they're neither signed on to race against, nor started alongside, nevermind the anomaly a little bit of proper fleet racing (luffing, covering etc) that might throw into the mix ... then and this is no joke, AIUI, they've submitting the data back to the RYA like it's got some genuine credibility... the ultimate irony of PY racing, collecting the data by stealth from fleet sailors who care little for it... I guess at least there's no pretence that there's really a race going on when the 'competitors' don't even know they are 'racing' each other.

Oh well- each to his own n' all that.  

If you do look to buy a FRP solo, you will be looking at a Winder around the £4k mark.  The other builder Boon (Ovington) are a little newer and as such slightly more money.  I have not saile a Steve Parker built Solo, but there are few around so i would stick with whats known and buy a Winder.  The build quality is super and even a 10 year old boat will get you mixing it with the top of the fleet at club level.  Most important thing with a Solo is making sure you are using the correct rig for your weight.  The current fashion is to use the Selden D+  which suits sailors up-to about 90kg.  But for me, even at that weight i found it too soft and soon switched back to a Selden Cumulus which is a much stiffer mast and as such gave me more power, which was even more important when sailing in land.  I would also look to buy a boat with either a North or HD sail and keep clear of the rest.  That just my preference though.

If you do ask for advice on the Solo forum about hull and rig preferences you will get shot down fairly quickly as they have some bizarre class rule that's stops members selling the virtues of particular kit.

Nope, I don't get that one, you'll have to explain.. 

well there you go... this forum to the rescue, I'd ordered a D+ as initially advised as a good all rounder for my weight (95kg) (I'd assumed the cumulus section was an old softie TBH) and after seeing Russ's post above have made the enquiries, got the advice from builder, sailmaker and some local sages, and have changed my order to the Cumulus section as I'll be predominantly inland and light winds only.

Cheers Russ (& Y&Y forum community)

 

James good call changing order to Cumulus mate, its not as fashionable as the D+ is now, but for me (and you at your weight) its the correct mast choice.  I think you would loose out as its slightly bendier IIRC in terms of sideways bend.

let's be blunt before Grumpf does it for us, 'fashionable' is an ambiguous term.  I think you mean 'popular'. 

It's a Solo and will never be fashionable, even if it seems popular enough to encourage 120 people to its Nationals and has more singlehanded "proper" fleets around the country than nigh on anything else, almost irrespective of the location- river, tidal estuary, sea and ponds great and small... but it will never be fashionable, nor will it be cool; not on this forum anyway 

But thanks for the tip off, and what you've said above has been well supported by other folks too.

 

Have a look at this page for mast and weight combinations...

 

http://www.solosailing.org.uk/mboard/msg_list.asp?board=10&id=00CDE548-4527-433C-A0E8-D9968B634E54 - http://www.solosailing.org.uk/mboard/msg_list.asp?board=10&id=00CDE548-4527-433C-A0E8-D9968B634E54

 

For the record at roughly 85kg the D+ is pretty much spot on for me, but plenty weighing more use it to good effect.

 

 

 

One of the beauties of the Solo is that the rigs are pretty much interchangable and whole rigs for swop or sale come up quite often on the Class site adverts section.

 

You could spend forever waiting for the right combination of hull and rig to come up for sale at the right price in the right area, so its a judgement call really, but at the end of the day better to be sailing than waiting.

 

 

 

Loved my Cumulus and SM8k combo.

 

Mine is an older GRP boat and I do look enviously at the more modern FRP boats. An issue with GRP is that they lack the hull stiffness of FRP. One day I'll get a Boon or Winder hull - here's hoping.

 

Regarding rig it is very confusing as there are so many options.  Some can be narrowed down by weight and perhaps whether sailing inland or at sea but still a lot to choose from. At 81kg I am about in the middle of the range for the boat so the choice is about as wide as it can be. My sail is a bit tired so I am considering a couple of options so would be interested to hear the opinions of those with more experience.

 

Option 1: to buy one of the new composite (Dacron/Kevlar) sails from Edge - currently on a good offer price and stick it on the current Proctor C mast.

 

Option 2: to buy a good secondhand Wavelength mast and sail.

 

Both at about the same price.

 

Third option is to do nothing until I can afford what appears to be the current rig favoured by the National winners which seems to be a Selden D+ along with a North or Speed sail.

 

I think you are probably right about my mast but that's something I will leave for now.  If a Cumulus or D+ comes up secondhand then I will possibly see if I can afford to buy it.

 

 I have decided to go for the Edge sail.  It is a very good deal and the combination of dacron for the main part of the sail and kevlar for the leach os one that I like in principle to achieve the best of both worlds.

 

The Wavelength is an unknown quantity. Looking at one recently I liked the very full depth to the sail though did wonder how well it would point.  They do also seem to need a very different sailing style.  My thoughts, rightly or wrongly, are that they are probably very good in waves or gusty conditions - not really the conditions we have in Chichester harbour.