Hi, I currently sail a laser but I am a bit light for it at the moment at 10 stone 10, but I am still growing ( I hope!).  I'm wondering about swapping it for a rs600 with wide wings,  however there are non at my club and there is a very good fleet of lasers. I just find the laser a bit boring and I'm not a great fan of hiking. I have no experience of trapezing . 

Do you think I should stick to the close racing of lasers or the fun of a 600 in the handicap fleet?

 Thanks

The 300 is good on the water and their are a rigs about, usually for a bit less than the b's if you are prepared to wait. Are there any other clubs near to you with fleets of 600's or 300's or something that you could maybe join or ask if you could have a go in one?

But you do need to sail it somewhere where there are other fast boats or you need to commit to travel.  On a small lake its not really that competitive imv.

i like the look of 300's they look a lot of fun, but i haven't sailed one yet and as they are going through a strong period finding a cheap second hand one is pretty near on impossible.

Contender not being fully batterned and if you get one with a carbon rig would be much better in my opinion. 

In terms of your sailing area, 60 acres is a bit on the small side, but it's doable. You would struggle to perform on handicap but if that isn't a consideration then go for it.

I occasionally sail at Ulley sailing club which is 35 acres, and is definately too small to get the best out of the boat. Until recently I regularly sailed at Pennine sailing club which is 120 acres however we rarely used the whole water, perhaps two thirds of it, and I was competitive there.

Whereabouts are you?

You'd have been surprised to see the whole fleet planing up and down wind at the nationals in 25 knots of breeze then.

You need to use the controls like a windsurfer or indeed a Laser and really max out the controls when its windy but its the boats best conditions - its those 6-8 knots that are teh most difficult!

If you are talking about the same day I think you are, that was a very tough day indeed! On the verge of dangerous coming back in through the wall!  Made even harder by crowds of 600s and 700s, some without sails up, drifting around in a huge breaking swell!

It was awesome in the 100! right up until the point my kite sheet decided it wanted to go under the boat... not having a kite downwind was very scary with nothing to keep the bow up!  

I think the moral of the whole day was that with enough balls any boat can be sailed anywhere and in any conditions... so go for it! If you want a 600 have a go at it... if it doesnt work, well its going to keep its value pretty well so flog it and try something else!

 

Sorry for the late reply. I know Beaver quite well (oops that came out a bit wrong...) but for those that don't it's a man-made, square lake surrounded mainly by open land and isn't your typical small, shifty lake, you can use every inch of the water.

I reckon a Contender, 600 or Vortex would be fine there, one thing to bear in mind is the depth, which may just limit you to the Vortex. A mate of mine had a 300 there and had to cut down his rudder, and the 300 and 600 have the same rudder blade. A Vortex has dagger-style centreboards and rudder so you don't have to put them all the way down.

The Contender might be an issue then, it has a very long Centreboard.

Back to the original question, I think the reason that Darts have prospered there in the past is due to the lack of centreboards so perhaps a singlehanded cat or a Vortex?

Yeah I doubt I would ever actually sail a moth but, I've always thought of them as impossible and I'd just like to prove myself wrong. I always thought they were faster than that... I can't tell sarcasm over the Internet!

And is anybody on an iPad here as it won't let me type on the forum?

I am, it seems to work well, but when I first signed up to the forum it wouldn't let me type anything.

Haha, I have got the opposit problem 8 stone, and overpowered in my moth in moderate to heavy winds! I have also got a laser but only a radial and full rig, and in a radial (when I was half a stone lighter) I could sail anything unless it was a force 5 or higher.

Erm... I'll keep the laser as a back up until I know I want to keep the other boat then I shall sell the lasers and then occasionally sail my dads. How did you fix the iPad thing? I'm having to copy and paste :/ 

The lasers rig is pretty easy to depower so you will get away with it in most winds at your weight

If I was your weight, I would have thought that would be perfect for a lowrider moth, (what I have got) I have got a 1970's skol moth (see cvrda for pictures) I am just a bit too light for that, but still growing, I would have thought 2 stone extra weight in my moth would be perfect. If you want you can come up to Bartley Sailing Club and have a go with mine? It's a fun boat, but not much room under the boom, with a different sail it would work well.

I love the 300 I think there a tad out of my price range though :/ they do look great boats though. 

This is an iPad 2 , when I click on the box the keyboard doesn't come up though?

Just out of interest JimC, what would you say a ghool 2 moth would come under in your categories of moth?

There's something you have to do, can't remember what it is now, I run two ID's here, the other one iGRF is for my iPad, whatever it is you have to do, I did on that ID. Try a search in the for the website section, they did do something so we can use iPads, took us long enough to get them to change the issue with links breaking on safari they are that PC retarded on here, it's all that 'still using wood to make boats with' culture, luddites one and all.