Hello guys,

Anyone know anything about, own, want to sell, love/hate the westerly GK24?? I'm looking into buying one to start learning to race.  Can anyone suggest an alternative? Im looking at spending upto £3000 which is abit restrictive for a keelboat however im competant to carry out pretty much any repairs that may be required.  Lemme know what u think i should do, since passing my yachtmasters 2 months ago, im eager to get into racing. 

Oh speaking of which, anyone doing Fastnet 2005? need competant, fun loving, hard working crew?? I know crew placements are rarer than rocking horse sh*t, but one can only ask..... Anyway GK's.......lemme know your thoughts.

Thanks guys and gals,

Kenney

Crew placements are not rare at all. With some previous racing experience, a bit of effort to find a boat and the willingness to commit for the season, you should have no problem getting an offer. I've done 3 Fastnets, incidentally.

General advice - do not buy a GK24. They are awful antiquated boats. Go crewing on other people's racing keelboats. With a season under your belt, you will know exactly what to buy - if you still want to. But really - you are not going to get a 24 foot keelboat worth racing for that kind of money (£3000). A new set of sails will cost getting on for that. You'd be better off crewing other people's boats or racing dinghies.

thanks for the tip, i was kinda thinking along those lines anyway. 

I did mean rare for a sailor like myself with only cruising miles in the log.  I have the competance, but ive never been in a racing environment, so whose knows how differently things are done.  I must say i think you must be in the minority calling the GK "awful". Antiquated maybe, but as budget one designs many people of an authority of such things still rate them quite well.  Having said that, with the likes of the J24 coming tantelisingly close to a similar price bracket maybe they are soon to die a death. Innevitable really. 

So.  Crew.  Anyone got any interesting campaign plans, especially ones that are in infancy? And what is the ratio of available crew to available boats thease days, whats your thoughts?

Really? Who are these "many people of authority"? The GK24 is pretty much moribund as a racing class and has been for many years. The last nationals seems to be been several years ago. See http://www.gk24.org.uk/html/history.html - http://www.gk24.org.uk/html/history.html  

If you can say where you live and a little more about yourself and your sailing experience, I may be able to suggest some ways of finding a keelboat to crew on. I won't be on this forum for a week now but I'll look on my return.

Incidentally, I owned a 24 foot racing keelboat for several years, so I know something about these kinds of boats.

I definitely agree with crewing on other peoples boats as a starter. It helps you for example work out the type of boat you like, the role you like on a boat, the people you like sailing with amongst other things. It is a great way to start to race.

If the vendee is your aim, the JOG have a crew list http://www.jog.org.uk/ - http://www.jog.org.uk/  as do RORC. When the Warsash Spring Series is up and running they also I think have a crew list on their website.

I would certainly recommend saving your £3000 for a while as buying the boat is just the beginning, running it is another!