O'Pen Bic

Originally posted by Philsy Hi, not my pride but more that I'm worried she's going to get disillusioned with sailing. She was out yesterday and was struggling to bail out water. She's a girl who loves extreme sports (madly so) and always wants speed and excitement. AS you say, though, she will decide in the end.

Ummm... my boy is 10. A freestyle skier, big jumps and tricks etc, Skateboarder -  he drops in on half pipes, kick flips, pop shuv it's etc, National champion Judo etc, he climbs with me....

So he's similar ie loves extreme sports, but in my experience put kids in the wrong boat and all that extreme sport confidence can drain away quite quickly if they haven't got the basics sorted.

Now if your daughter is struggerling to bail out an Oppy, is this because she has capsized because she hasn't got the skills sorted quite yet?  Or filled it up going downwind because of bad boat trim? Is she struggerling from lack of strength?

Is a faster less numerous boat going to help?

It is a lot less upsetting to struggle to bail out an Oppy than lack the strength to right a boat that you have capsized several times and can't get back into.

I speed read the post above this one and the poster said something about a 4.7.so appologies if I have missed what was said.

If you are looking at that route I would be temped to look at a Splash.
The boat is designed to kids rather than adults so it's got the right dimensions for their legs etc. Righting is easy ( floats low ) which for a kid in a Laser is hard. Slightly more stable but no less exciting, with loads of feel and it's responsive. It's ligther and you can get the sail down without removing the mast. Cheap too.


Edit: Sorry you were talking about a Topper 4.2. The comment still stands. I'd look at a Splash. A far superior boat.



Edited by Jack Sparrow

Thanks Paul, some good points. It does seem odd to me that kids are all
expected to sail the same class, it's a bit like forcing adults to all sail Lasers
because there are lots out there.

What's the Open Bic like with an Oppie rig? I assume that would make it
better for little kids - I also have a 6yr old who is keen to try sailing.

I'll investigate the Topper 4.2 route - we have an old Topper hanging
around.

Hi, not my pride but more that I'm worried she's going to get disillusioned
with sailing. She was out yesterday and was struggling to bail out water.
She's a girl who loves extreme sports (madly so) and always wants speed
and excitement.

AS you say, though, she will decide in the end.

Originally posted by Philsy Originally posted by laser4000 does she like to race it? If she does then stick with the oppy!! She's not that fussed on racing at the moment - prefers to have fun. That said, I guess an Open could race in a handicap fleet?

But in the future?? not many o'pen meetings around...

my nieces have recently turned 13 and are getting so much fun out of the oppy it's not true..ok so they're going and doing ALL the events, but it's really helped them grow and develop as kids/teenagers that I wouldn't have thought possible before..
300+ boats at the nationals for the last few years... if you go down the bic route then you're cutting off the option of getting into this (and for what benefit?)

Open bics dont have carbon masts, they're glass and epoxy