RS200

What a remarkably negative thread. The 200 is a sweet little thing, if rather too small for my over substantial frame at the front end.

Its the most popular two handed class in the country for good reason. Its in the nature of the beast for a low powered boat that must be little over 12 foot waterline not to be warp speed fast, but its the quickest two hander in its size range on the PY list, and quicker than a N12, even a Lark and quite a few other longer boats. Indeed there are precious few sit on the side pole kite boats of any length that are much faster. As for the PY, due to the large numbers racing its one of the best attested numbers out there.

Originally posted by eric_c For an asy boat, they are terribly slow. Even slower than their PY suggests. Their PY and reputatiuon is boosted by many very good younger sailors sailing them in strong breeze.

Given they are very heavy why did they go gunwhale hung trolley? They all seem to deform on the load point.

Had one of the old ones briefly a few years ago but decided to go back to symmetric.

So apart from it being an assy which didn't suit us the three things that I found to be irritations:
It does have an open transom but don't let that fool you. If you get water in it it will take quite a while to get rid of. Inefficient bailer with a bowl shaped cockpit. So capsizes, hove to between races and launching (water comes in through the internal bung if you forget to put it in), and big seas.

Spinnaker chute was an afterthought during design so it's a bit tight and does take a lot of wear because it sticks up. Ours was coming apart at the seams and was near impossible to repair. Wear and tear on spinny resulting. Also extra wear and tear on the foot of the jib.

The RS 200 was advertised as a lightweight boat at the time with some ridiculous weight quoted on their website. Turns out the weight quoted was for an unfitted hull and the actual hull weight was not particularly light. RS have since amended their advertising.

No doubt good technique and  work arounds help for some of these issues

Edited by Sussex Lad - 12 Oct 21 at 9:06am

Old deck, look for longitudinal crack on the underneath of the hull running where the toe straps are. Also check the deck for flex where the toe straps attach, either or both of these is a sign of the skin coming away from the stringers and is quite an expensive repair. Or, you might find some obvious changes in gel colour on the underside from the front of the case going back where the repair has previously been done, which is probably a good sign for an old boat as I've not heard of them going twice! 

Check the boom for cracks at the kicker fitting. High loads an a bit of corrosion between steel and alloy here make it a common failure point. The old poles can wear through at the bow where they are strapped down with the steel band. 

On the new deck boats (1600+) check the rudder gudgeons have been bolted on not screwed. Also check where it hangs on the trolley arms as the hull can crack at the gunwall and flair out (the older hulls had rib of reinforcement here, which also stopped the boats slipping off the trolley, shame that feature was lost). 

Generally, they are a pretty robust boat and even a very old hull, with some new fittings and ropes, and attention to settings will be competitive. Luke just won the endeavour with a 21 year old boat. 

Edited by Mozzy - 11 Oct 21 at 8:24am