Uni boats/ Firefly buying?

If you're not getting a set of six for team racing, DON'T get a firefly. Get something that can be used by a wider range of people comfortably. I sailed in them at uni (we had them for team racing, and the rest of the club had to put up with that) and at 180cm (5' 11")* I was far too tall to ever be comfortable, especially up front, in anything other than a blow.

If you're going for team racing, fine, but ideally you should be looking then at serious fund raising to get four or six identical ones.

Lark- try and avoid an old style one. No-one likes to sink.

L2K/GP/Ent would all be more suitable.

Try and raise more money. Uni boats will end up heavily used; you don't want to be starting with a beater. Seriously. Ours were used three times a week during term, they took a right pounding.

Also, figure out who is going to be the Bosun (ideally more then one person), and make sure they have final say on any purchase, as they'll have to maintain the things.

Originally posted by turnturtle    I sailed an event as student with 2 shot larks and 1 shot 420 per team... good job the beer was cheap, the sailing was sh*te.

Watch it Jimbo, I lovinly maintained those two 420s and the other 2 420s and the two Enterprises that we had at Uni.

For the purpose of team racing, they did the job although we did ultimately sell the Ents to get a complete fleet of six 420s. Apparantly through poor organisation and over the top health and safety numptyism my old uni sailing team is no more though !!!!

To be honest the best boats for team racing are probably Laser IIs, they take weight well, are easy to sail, and dont flood when you roll tack them (I hated uni Larks!!!!) they are also very cheap second hand.

To be honest your best bet is to contact Sevenoaks school, as they normally sell off entire fleets of boats regularly, at least they did in my day and try and pick up all six at a bargain price. Mr Hibberd used to be the man, but I guess he's moved on.

PS I didnt go to Sevenoaks school, but I did buy two 420s from them in the mid 90s.

the thing is we currently have about £500 and £1000 a term to work with. We have lost the J24 we were hiring this term. I understand old boats will have a lot of variation. As it stands are are in a really difficult place. I have emails class associations from the GP's, Ents, Larks, Fireflys in order to try and get trail boats for a term or so.

How can we buy boats to run a course to make money to buy more boats? We should have a club and powerboat useage. Royal cornwall yacht club are in for a grant to get boats at some later date. Ideally we need our own boats though as hiring is so expensive. . . . .

I have seen Laser 2's used at uni events. But surely they are a bit powerful when its windy without the kite. What about teaching beginners in? We cant really expect them to be able to sail laser2's their first time in the boat. . . . . .

Originally posted by Quagers The other option if looking for a flight of fireflys is to contact west kirby sailing club, their boats are very well maintained and they often refresh them. Can only echo those above, if your serious about team racing buy 6 fireflys all at once, if not go for something else. Also unless its really cheap avoid the harken fireflys! always go rondar if you have the choice.

Harken Fireflies? Not aware of any such thing. All the ones with the Rondar style deck/tank layout have been built by Rondar. Harken may have sponsored a batch for a uni somewhere, but any ex uni boats are going to have to be carefully checked over for even more abuse than expected.