What Dinghy to buy

here's a left field idea:

WETA

Or a GP I sail my geep single handed and my father used to put a suit of old gull sails on to take the grandchildren out in.

Hey, that's not bigoted advice, my pal is four years older than me, similar weight and he sails a Phantom and is also relatively inexperienced, although he did spend some time in a Supernova, another better choice than a bloody Solo what is it with you people and Solo's? They are not even a nice boat ffs. The only reason given for using them is because there are lots of other retarded folk being sold the 'oh it's got a class we can all race together' bollox.

The Phantom is a great weight carrier it's a relatively easy boat to sail, stable, fast, performs well, what's not to like?

I agree with almost all of this, but you shouldn't rule out a Finn, which doesn't have to be high performance or high spec and would actually be pretty much the best boat for you, a deep cockpit single floor phantom which will have a comfy thwart to sit on, and, if you can find one, a megabyte, which would be perfect for you - like a Finn, but easier.  You really DO need to take account of your size and weight and a get a boat to suit, otherwise you will be uncomfortable and put off and eventually stop sailing, which would be tragic.  Try to get a test sail in all of these boats before you buy one so you can work out what suits you, don't just buy on spec.

I cant think of a single hander that won't have an element of crouching going downwind. Of course you can always stand up down wind and only crouch when you need to gybe.