Lark Dinghy

Yo good folk,
     Thinking of swapping boats. Currently sailing a Laser 2 and an Enterprise. My fair lady crews but now is thinking of having a replacement knee operation. The L2 in light wind has nowhere for her to comfortably sit in. She does however love the the conventional spinny. The Ent on the other hand, although comfortable for her in light wind is a pile of crap and not worth doing up, no spinny either.

I've been looking at the Lark but know nothing about them apart from what's on wikipedia. It has a thwart, it has a symmetric spinny, it's small, plenty of good reasonably priced ones about (prepared to go to 3k for one), we are well within the ideal crew weight , it looks like a nice little boat...it ticks quite a few of our boxes.

Questions, always questions:
 Any known pitfalls with these boats? Best builder? It seems to be quite heavy for a small boat, what's that all about? Good sea boat?


I'd be interested to hear from anyone with experience of the Lark.

Thanks all. 

Edited by sawman - 28 Jul 19 at 7:47pm

Originally posted by sawman Originally posted by Sussex Lad Tippy not a problem. Miracle mmmm a sweet boat but a bit slow for me.....also a little bit too "old school"  (ducking in anticipation). We have enjoyed the Ent  but not keen to get another even if it has a kite. Just been sailing for a week alongside an old Kestrel in Chichester harbour. It went like a like a rocket, a real dark horse given the handicap. Thoroughly impressed with it on the water, not so much on the beach though @120kgs hull. Kestrel is a great sea boat, the hartley kestrels (number 1530 and on) go nicely and were reliably down to weight when built (the older boats were variable in this respect). If you want light on shore and decent speed you could also look at Scorpion, but I don't think it is very knee friendly upfront

Scorpion has come up in discussion elsewhere. Have sailed against them at the Sheppey race a few times and they do look quite good with a versatile rig although very narrow for a hiking boat. Look like they could be quite a handful when the wind gets up.

For the moment I'm trying to get info on the Lark. 

I only really sailed University team racing Larks, and if a boat can stand up to that kind of abuse they must be reasonably robust. They are more rolly than a Laser 2 but probably not much tippyer overall, certainly more crew space. They do have an aluminium centerboard and this can bend if you stand too far from the hull on a capsize, so something worth checking on a purchace. I seem to recall that some were worse than others for scooping water on agressive roll tacks, but can't remember which.