Which boat?

I had a 29er almost all the way through my time at uni, got a bit of stick cos its a kiddies boat, but it was great fun, pretty forgiving and the best bit was club racing every weekend, and whatever you get that will be the best bit.  Of the boats you have mentioned:

800 if you have only a small amout of practice with high performance asymmetrics then this will be a VERY steep learning curve, you will do a lot of swimming and finding people (who know what they are doing) to sail with could be hard.  Also 800's a expensive to get hold of and run, you would be looking to spend the better part of £6000 for a decent one i'd have though. 

Laser 4000, great little boat, if a bit heavy, lots of great value second hand boats, but you are better of asking redback about them.  but i would suggest around the £3000 would get you a good one. 

29er, great boat, loads of fun, easy to sail, forgiving, fast, and built like a tank (without the weight) so last for ages, a lot of kids will be getting rid of boats now before they go to uni/start racing 49ers, so there will be a fair number of well maintained boats on the market, you can pick up earlier ones for around £2500 but for a really good one with spare bits probably look around £3500. 

The other thing you have to consider is how much money you will have to spend on the boat at university, i was always getting frustrated never having enough cash to do more than replace stuff as i wore out (if i was lucky). 

hope this helps

The youth means it's sailed in the youth squad.

@ those weights u mentioned...ur perfect for a 4k or a cherub!

Not had any experience of the 5k, would imagine it's just like sailing a bigger 4k tho...

Kasey.

Well the cheaper option is the 4000, there are plenty around at £2500 but all these high performance boats go through rope and blocks faster then your ordinary boats and as for sails the 4000 might be the most expensive.  The hulls are tough and with a bit of care you can keep the stick in the boat.  For real bargain basement high performance then you have to consider classes which are on the way out and I'd put the 5000 and the Boss in that bracket.  I'm sure they are tremendous fun and they cost very little until you need new sails or break something.

I think all the twin trapeze boats need a regular crew and regular sailing to keep the technique up to scratch - quite honestly so too does the 4000 if you are going to be the slightest bit competitive.  You need a partner to spread the cost and develop your technique together,  none of these boats can be sailed with a crew who doesn't know what his doing.  These are all high performance boats and not easily sailed and they are never going to be cheap.  They are quite different from a 420 not just faster versions of the same sort of thing.  The other thing to remember if you are sailing inland is that they don't go very well until the breeze is up - but when the breeze is up do they go!

Wuz thinking of trading in the ole heron , fancyin a carbon thingy sort of boat - light for dragging up beach an tough for over the rocks, with lots of sail so's I can get to me swally quicker , nit fussed about number of ulls, more the better , cant be *rsed racing against similar boats , no excuses for my performing !.

ave to be single hander , no one will sail with me , part from Black Jock me three legged collie.

I'm a shade orf 5 foot 2" , weighs in at 17 and 3/4 stone (can't do nuw money) , near full head o hair and whiskas to match, one good eye and a pair o ears , waterproof false leg n all me own teeth, have been likened to a gazelle when it comes to buyin a round .

Whadoya suggest (polite pleese)

Bob