newby question

I used to fit four in a laser 2 (three of them were small
though). I wouldn't really recommend it.

The Comet trio has the advantage that you can fit an
asymetric spinnaker to it if you want to go faster down
wind ....

... as do the recent generation of rotomoulded plastic
family boats like the RS Vision and Topper Magno. The
topper Omega is a huge boat but surely weighs a tonne -
and does anyone need that much room?

We've had some fantastic family days out in a borrowed
Laser Stratos - which as well as an asymetric also had
trapeze wires, from which we could hang the twins .. one
each side! But they are expensive and so are their
spares.

Personally I'm not a big fan of old Wayfarers; they seem
cluttered and old fashioned, with big flappy cloth sails
and slatted wooden benches to get your feet stuck in and
not that much space for the size of the boat. Having to
varnish the thing as well is just pushing it too far.
Must be some reasonably priced, easy care, plastic
wayfarers about.

where are you based because i know that bury lake young
mariners in London are selling off their entire fleet of
wayfarers at quite a reasonable price because they have
just bought 6 new ones this year.
so if you are wiling to travel or live in London you could
get a cheep reliable boat for your family.

Edited by tim grasse

As with all heavy boats it is well worth buying an extra wheel for the front of your launching trolley - that way the trolley takes all of the weight and your energy can go into forward motion. The best £30 I ever spent!

Originally posted by MerlinMags Seeing as a Wayfarer can seat 6, you might find there are other boats suitable for your family of just 4...

Tha reminds me of those specs for cruisers such as claim that a 34-footer is 8-berth, when in fact it's comfy for two couples for a week. There's a difference between the number of people you can seat/fit in when motoring a dinghy, and how many can comfortably sail aboard.

I've sailed a Wayfarer with a dozen people on board for transport across a bay, but for racing two is the ideal number, and for cruising I guess you could happily fit in a couple of kids, but you need the sort of space offered by a Wayfarer to do it comfortably.

Most Wayfarers sail well if properly set up, but as ever you get what you pay for.

Flavour of the moment are the new grp Hartley boats, available as racers with foam sandwich construction, or much cheaper without the foam but still outwardly identical. Opinions are divided, but my view is that the top wooden boats can still keep up. Older grp are generally a bit slower but correspondingly cheaper.

I know of one wooden boat which was sent to Paintcraft a few years ago, and has been sailed regularly since with very little maintenance. I guess that in a year or so the owner will organise another trip to Paintcraft and the cycle will continue. While the Paintcraft prices might seem high, if the cost is effectively spread over a number of years it begins to look pretty cheap.

The only Wayfarers that i would avoid would be the SD - self-drainer, and the World - also a self-drainer. Both those boats are just fine when they are sailing, and actually rather convenient in that they get rid of water quickly, but both invert on capsizing and are tricky to get upright and sail away in a blow. OK, you shouldn't capsize a Wayfarer very often, but it's not a characteristic you want in a family boat.

Sure, the wooden boats and the Mk1, 2 and Plus S variants come up full of water and take a while to empty, but at least they are very easy to right - a much safer characteristic in my view.

With many helms buying new Hartleys, now is an excellent time to bag a top class wooden boat.

Details of the different versions here: http://www.wayfarer.org.uk/uploads/Wayfarer_Versions_2009_v7 .pdf

Rest assured that the Wayfarer is one of the few dinghies that will comfortably meet your needs.