Solo Opinions?

Originally posted by EmmyC I was attracted to it as it's composite rather than wooden

That's arguably the worst of both worlds. Pre foam sandwich GRP is without any doubt the worst material to build a Solo from, that's why wood boats kept on being popular for so long, and wood decks mean you stil have to maintain, keep out of the frost etc.

Edited by JimC - 21 Feb 19 at 12:31pm

I've not sailed a Solo for a long time so I'm not up to date with developments in the class, but I sailed a GRP/composite boat for a season probably 10 or so years back. I found this very slow, and a pal of mine who also had a similar boat at the same time was also very slow. We were sailing against some of our pals who had modern FRP ships, and the difference in speed was very marked. And these were guys who I'd sailed against for years in Lasers, Phantoms etc and we'd been broadly similar in ability. JimC and Nick are right, if I wanted an inexpensive Solo I'd buy a wooden boat from a decent builder with the right rig.

On our reservoir I saw about a 5% improvement in performance when someone upgraded from a good modern wooden boat to foam sandwich. I was staggered, I never would have anticipated such a big differential.

Not quite true about the performance. The guy who was 11th at the nationals last year sailed a composite boat that is probably 10-12 years old. He had an old wavelength rig and edge sail. Not what you would consider top gear but with 3 results in the top 10 you cannot say it held back too much! 

Originally posted by Fatboi Not quite true about the performance. The guy who was 11th at the nationals last year sailed a composite boat that is probably 10-12 years old. He had an old wavelength rig and edge sail. Not what you would consider top gear but with 3 results in the top 10 you cannot say it held back too much!