New Olympic events.

There are plenty of cheaper ways than buying a new Optimist to get onto the RYA junior pathway. You can for example buy a competitive second-hand Topper for less than £1000, and entry level boats for even less than that. There are already three competing single-handed RYA junior pathway boats in the UK - Optimist, Topper and Tera Sport - not to mention the Cadet and Feva double-handers. Do we really need yet another one?!?!

Originally posted by GML There are plenty of cheaper ways than buying a new Optimist to get onto the RYA junior pathway. You can for example buy a competitive second-hand Topper for less than £1000, and entry level boats for even less than that. There are already three competing single-handed RYA junior pathway boats in the UK - Optimist, Topper and Tera Sport - not to mention the Cadet and Feva double-handers. Do we really need yet another one?!?!

By the sound of it, then no, so why does anyone in their right mind force their kid into that extortionately priced sailing box then and Craiggo's right a sail cut in a hunk of junk like that isn't going to be worth one duff shift or crap start.

Edited by iGRF - 26 Oct 18 at 11:02am

Mirror no longer a training boat ?

Third girl in this year’s Opi national rankings is sailing a boat that must be nearly 20 years old!

So you don’t have to have a new boat.

Sails are interesting. They are expensive but the real killer is measurement and having numbers stuck in. Retailers make a killing for what is very quick work when you’ve made a template.

There is some proper BS out there: Winner tell you not to polish their boats because of the special 12 metre style non laminar flow in the boundary layer gelcoat. So there are lots of dirty winners out there by the end of race weekends.

But paying extra money for a Winner is like buying your food at Waitrose precisely because it’s more expensive and therefore higher quality.....and where do Opi family picnics come from? (Actually we ike the interesting stuff in Lidl!).

But sail and rig choice make a difference....

But Opis are just a microcosm of the capital versus campaign running costs that this thread began discussing. My kids boats will still be worth at least £1500 when they finish in Opis. So maximum £500 a year. Whereas we have spent more than 80 nights away from home since they got really keen last year.....

I’ll just add that I’ve been at Weymouth today watching the first Boys and Girls squad sessions of the year. Anyone who wants to criticise the system needs to see the sheer joy, exhilaration and camaraderie building in these groups as they come in after training in upwards of 30 knots. I genuinely think they’ll almost all be sailors for life.

And that’s what matters.

Sophisticated? I don't think that's an adjective I'd use. I had a look at a few pictures and can see various different cuts, but to me the overiding factor is more likely which tack you set that sticky up pole batten thing, go off the start line with that on the wrong side aint going to help I bet.