Top five favourite dinghies

That would be like Grumph slating a Skipper 14 because it was rubbish on his bit of sea (though I don't believe a Skipper 14 would be good anywhere other than disappearing down a whirlpool. As an aside, how many of those infernal things did they make? They're always on ebay and elsewhere, so unless it's the same pile of poo being passed around...)

The LII is and was a fabulous boat, you just put it in a place that it wasn't suited to.... 18 Ft Skiff on a gravel pit-esque.

L2 lovely boat. Goes like stink..needs some commitment though and a good crew, (by todays standards anyway). Lively as hell, light, empties quickly, minimal string, manageable in big winds, tough as old boots...the go-kart of the sailing world.

Now has a one piece mast and on open water a PY that's just a bit embarrassing. (+ 20 this year)



Edited by transient - 12 Aug 14 at 2:48pm

Lol.....not sure I could cope with the crew position either, my wife used to do it....She's much better at multi tasking. When sailing boats that were less demanding of the crew she got bored and started picking holes in what I was doing......;-)   disaster.

Edited by transient - 12 Aug 14 at 3:26pm

(1)   Fireball (at speed, on the wire dragging trailing leg and watch helm Drown in my controlled spray;  haaa-ha !  Actually just cannot stop grinning in a Fireball.  )

Edited by OultonBen - 13 Aug 14 at 3:33pm

Originally posted by OultonBen LOVE: (1)   Fireball (at speed, on the wire dragging trailing leg and watch helm Drown in my controlled spray;  haaa-ha !  Actually just cannot stop grinning in a Fireball.  ) (2=) Phantom (totally responsive, huge range of conditions ..... but MUST-HAVE cushions sewn onto my knees!) (2=) D-One (Challenging in a blow, but a huge NEW exciting experience.) (4)   Merlin Rocket (again sooo responsive and able to cope with very wide range of conditions; huge bandwidth of experience to sail against; large Opens & e.g. Salcombe Week) (5)   OK (For their Champs'14, wishing really Good-Luck to them at BlingO next week !) HATE: (1)   Caboodle (  No you won't recognise it;  this was a barely floating "Park-Bench" designed by the famous Jack Chippendale; test sailed it on Barton Broad; respectfully tried to be very 'nice' to Jack about the disaster he'd generated; nope I think he sold not a single one !) (2)   No-one can 'Love' a Laser ?  It's a (fitness-) machine, hateful to sail, breaks knees and backs; however it has its place ..... where it was designed to stay:-  On the Beach. (3)   800  ( Simply lost too much range of conditions to race in (too light, too windy, too wavey, too reachy ....).  However, when conditions were right, boy was that a neat boat !) (4)   Finn ( There's a great deal of skill involved in Bullfighting, provocatively flapping red cloth at them and sticking sharp knives in them to make them Really Angry;  ..... but Why ?) (5)   OptiMist (Does this count as a dinghy, or as industrial packaging for a Dyson Cleaner?  What a sad introduction and turn-off to our young people.   "Opti" + "Mist" = Best(Latin) + Rubbish(German) ...... yes that just about describes, "Best-Rubbish" ! )