470 skipper avaliable

I don't know about this class, we don't have it in my country.. I'm 50kg, do you think I'd be considered tiny for it? 

There's a Merlin Rocket fleet (technical symmetric hiking dinghy) at Welsh Harp (Wembley S.C. http://www.wembleysailingclub.co.uk/) in north London and various others on the Thames in south west London at Tamesis and Hampton Olympic 470 silver medallist Stu Bithell sails Merlins too!

Edited by patj - 07 Sep 12 at 7:05pm

50 kilos is what? about 8 stone? I'm 10.5 stone and I used to have to weight train like f*ck to achieve enough upper body strength to helm my Osprey competitively. I've helmed 505s too and the sheet loads are about the same. I expect a Javelin will be in the same ball-park. I would not, in all conscience, recommend any of those 3 as a long-term option for the OP (nor would I recommend Carsington or Glossop to someone based in London). A 420 is a cracking idea though and I'd also recommend that the OP follows Pat's suggestion at least once and have a go in a Merlin. Maybe he/she should go along to the Forumite next month?

Slightly off thread but as a point of interest. I know of a Lady Osprey helm who is always in the top flight light or heavy weather and she is certainly not relying on being all muscles or weight to achieve her results. Perhaps the full raking carbon rigs are helping to even out skill vs strength. 

We still have a couple of 470's racing in our fleet, one of them Bithels old boat, both Father Daughter teams , they are very good sea boats, do well when the wind's up. One of them sailed right over me at the start on thursday in a bit of a breeze (4-5), bloody nuisance they are when its windy..