Aero 7

Yeah Paul - the problem is that when on starvation rations I am around 90kg and I know you will point to some chap who is 95kg and does ok in your fleet but we all know that being at the top of a boat's weight range is a duff position to be in. The D0 is a lovely boat but it has too little sail and not enough buoyancy for me - the Aero 9 addresses one of those issues even if the hull is too small but my sense is that the boat is more competitive on handicap on the 7 sail and the added PY for the 9 is not warranted so if you sail a 9 you get to sail in a smaller fleet at opens (as compared to 7s or my H2 for that matter) and you get to struggle against an unrealistic PY when at the club.

To be clear,  the 9 is signifcantly faster than the 7 in most conditions.  I sail a laser.  I will approximately the same speed as the 7's.  The 9's are always significantly faster. 

Originally posted by Old bloke I think the problem with the Aero 9 handicap is not that it is wrong , but that the 9s perfomance and results are skewed.The 9 is ridiculously fast in light airs and confined waters, but as the wind increases others catch up.Certainly the 7 seems to go about as fast. In my case I go from beating 400s and merlins on the water to having trouble staying in front of young guns in Radials in the windy stuff. As a consequence, I think that most submitted results for the 9 are from small ponds, light airs or superheroes.