RS aero

Dan, the boat buying approach you describe sums it up for me, only I consider low 100s to be spending plenty. Of course, I'm now on my 2nd new sail for the Lightning, both of which cost more than the boat, so I guess I feel I want to spend my money on what makes the biggest difference in performance.

True - for every zero there's a few aeros... Might as well keep this thread proportional.

Just goes to show - in real life, the sail material is immaterial - after all, Lasers, Toppers, Oppies, all the RS training range use Dacron. It is only us on here who see it as old fashioned, and some of us prefer it that way - easier to read in the light stuff.

Originally posted by SimonW99 Lightness makes the boats far more responsive, the react very quickly. miss a puff or a shift and the guy next to you is gone and vice versa. Its a little like comparing boats from the volvo now to those doing the whitebred 25 years ago. I sat on a rib and watched the V70's leave Portsmouth a few years ago they were all side by side  with very little wind at all. As the bits of wind filled, the guys who made the calls slightly quicker got the acceleration and were away. By the time we were off cowes with the mid fleet boats the leaders were at hurst point. The gaps opened up that quickly.  Try racing an aero and it really is like that. They react so quickly you can make big gains or losses boat on boat in very little time.   Having sailed Lasers, the difference is very noticeable.

I sometimes wonder how people know that this factor or that factor is responsible for this or that effect.

Certainly with boats I take on the approach Dan outlines - spend no more than I can write off, anything back is a bonus. But I keep boats for years not months. With yachts I guess it's all different, not least because the things cost so much to actually own each year...

With dinghies though isn't secondhand price largely a representation of popularity, the price collapses because noone wants the things.

There seem to me to be very few people posting on this forum at the moment, wonder if it's represenative of anything.

Edited by JimC - 10 Feb 15 at 9:25am