Advice needed - odd sized team!

Hello,

New to this forum but wondered if anyone had any advice please.

What dinghy would you recommend for a pair - both under 30 (just!) -

One of us very experienced sailor (SI), though not much racing - 5'8" about 60 kg female - after some reasonable speed and bit of a challenge. Would like spinnaker and trapeze boat ideally.

Other virtual novice, 6'4" 92 kg after some speed but forgiving enough to progress on.

Tricky huh?

Any advice please? Apart from finding new partners!

4000? 400, 5000? 14?

If you both had a good lot of experience the 505 would be fine, but this is a big powerful boat that fifteen years ago was one of the most challenging high performance boats around. It hasn't got any less of a handful in the meantime! I'd feel very uncomfortsble about suggesting it for a relatively novice crew. The 59er is another boat in the same sort of category, for all it doesn't carry a trapeze it will carry the weight, but uit will be a mejor challenge.

I think you need to get an interim boat to sharpen up the skills at the front of the boat, because you don't want to buy a boat, spend all your time swimming andget frustrated. An RS400 maybe, although some folk spend a lot of time swimming in those, and I personally find it a bit havy on the mainsheet... Although I' no especial fan of the "sail whaetever is in numbers at your local club" philosophy, for an intermim boat that makes quite a bit of sense. It will be easier to sell on ther will be support in learning to sail it and so on...

Having owned a 5o5, I'd rather take a novice out in one on a blowy day than in any of the asymmetrics mentioned, 400 included - and I wouldn't fancy being 6' 4" in the front of a 400! Indeed, my first crew was a novice - 47 years old to boot (that wouldn't have been a problem, but he was too unfit even to get back into the boat after a (rare) capsize).

Osprey/Javelin - good suggestions, but my Fireball crew said he found the 'Ball twitchy compared to the 5-oh's he'd owned previously.

I think the point about the 505 being technical is valid, but it's also easy to sail and get started in, imho, and the tech stuff you can pick up in the fullness of time and on coaching days. Think how many dim yoofs you know who seem to have learned all there is to know about tactics/set-up after a couple of seasons 'squadding'?

 

Originally posted by Medway Maniac I think the point about the 505 being technical is valid, but it's also easy to sail and get started in, imho, and the tech stuff you can pick up in the fullness of time and on coaching days.

Agree completely with that, 505s have good performance and handling can be picked up quite easily but the art is getting the boat to go fast with fine tuning. I remember when the first 4000 turned up at my club and there was a bit of swimming involved from someone who moved from being quite competitve in the 505 fleet. I'm not saying the skill levels are higher but the 4000 seems to be tippier and being wider, there is more area to cross and less forgiving if you get it wrong. Also from the point of view of not racing, I'd be more happy going cruising and pottering about in a 505 than an assymetric and feel the boat is more flexible for general usuage, yet is faster than it's assymetric counterparts such as the RS400, Laser 4K, etc. Another option may be a Cat like a Dart 18 or Hobie 16 if you want a lot of speed for little hassle.

Edited by 49erGBR735HSC