Is the Cadet finished?

My own rather biased opinion is that the Mirror is really the better boat, as it's more versatile, can be sailed by a wider variety of crew weights - even adults - and the Winder MK3 is a nicely laid out, modern interior with very consistent "out of the box" performance. By comparison the Cadet looks old fashioned and small.

The Feva seems too heavy and softand there seem to be rumours floating around about variable build quality. Ok it has an assymetric but from what I've seen it looks too slow and numb to be a realistic "feeder" to the 29er. Whilst the other two boats might also be slow at least they are light enough to be sailed effectively by younger helms and with conventional spinnakers they teach more about boat on boat tactics. The Feva misses this but then doesn't really go fast enough to teach the skills required for skiffs either. Its strength is perhaps that it is a tough lump of rotomoulded plastic which makes it good for sailing schools, but is that relevant for pathway classes?

For my money the two conventional boats are natural feeders towards the 470 class but the only junior boat I can think of that is a realistic trainer for the 29er is the RS200.

My understanding was that the cadet was having a big revival

I think we can all agree that currently, there just isn't the ideal boat that suits the thousands of 9-15 age group.

Time for our designers to get their act together in my opinion.

How about this! An RS Aero hull (right size and only 36-38 kg) with a suitable rig. Mast step would need to be shifted aft.

I believe the new generation of sailors deserve a new boat based on state of the art thinking and trends as the Mirror and Cadet just don't cut it any more. And I think from reading this thread, the Feva also has it's limitations. I think kids want to grow up with Nathan Outeridge's boats, not Robin Knox-Johnson's. We need to stop thinking if it was good enough for us to start our sailing then it's good enough the next group.

With the dramatic changes that has happened with big boat sailing over the past decade in regards to asymmetrics and incredible boat speeds, Junior sailing boats have dragged a long way behind to our juniors detriment. RS have given it a go and credit to them but there's nothing else making waves.

Thanks for the chat.

On the site homepage, there was a very appropriate pair of photos of Allegre (70 footer) and a Terra.

Their hull shapes from this downwind angle are superb.

cheers.

Some kids will love the Cadet / Mirror route, though rarely both! Some will prefer the single-handed route. Adults should encourage, not coerce. As with boats for grown-ups - horses for courses.

The whole point of a Cadet is that it is a kids boat, no adults allowed...