A 2-man advanced trainer... on a budget

Thermidor - my folks took on a Fireball as their second boat after some meesing about in a tub and loved every minute of it (even sailing in waters infested with Hippos and crocs - literally).  Size and weight wise they were very similar to you.

My sister and I had our first sailing experience wedged into it as well - just incase Kids arrive unannounced...

Originally posted by stuarthop Fireballs are easy to sail, but can get very technical

While that may be true - and its true of just about any boat - remember its never compulsory to play that game.

The little tweaks and adjustments of the subtlest of controls may well make the difference between 1st and 5th in the Chmpionships. But if you're using the boat as an advances trainer, and your challenge for this season is to get from the bottom 5% of the fleet to mid way up you need virtually none of it.

Just about all of the controls and adjustments except kicker/cunningham/pole height can be lashed up or taped up in a reasonable central position while you concentrate on learning to sail the boat. When you are sailing the boat round the course to within a good shout of the standard of the top of the fleet only then need you worry about subtle tuning, and only then might it actually make any difference to performance compared to just practicing and learning to sail the boat better.

Its hard to believe that the diffeence in boat speed between a boat with decent sails and properly preepped foils but not doing all the adjustments could be more than 5 or 10 points of PY. But the difference between first and last on the water in any championship fleet you care to mention is equivalent to 200 points of PY.

And if, when you get to the stage where the string tweaking might make some significant difference and you decide you don't want to get in that game then you can always change class if you want to... @Course some of us like that too.

Originally posted by stuarthop a fireball or if you could live without a trapeze a scorpion would be a nice boat

well a hornet is basically a scorpion with a trapeze and i little bit bigger sail area

Didnt think of a hornet they seem to be dying out though or is that just in north wales?