Re: Topper Topaz vs. Laser Pico dinghy quality

On Sat, 2006-06-17 at 08:27 +0100, Alan C Clark wrote:

Both of these boats would be, in my opinion, too small for you. I have
sailed a Pico, I am 195cm and around 110 Kg, there was very little room to
move around in and certainly not the space for a passenger, however small.
They are both small boats, they will not have the stability to reassure a
small child, especially with you crashing about!

I have the same problem as you, last week I took my 4 year old daughter
sailing for the first time, so now I have to find a suitable boat to take
her again until she's big enough for an optimist. My Phantom is big enough
but is far too unstable, and I think that a proper, "sit in", stable boat is
vital to build confidence in the water. So the list is;

(a) Laser 2000 - ideal but expensive
(b) Sport 14 - big, no longer in production, very few around.
(c) GP 14 - ideal, but a little long in the tooth - can pay as much as you
want to.
(d) Miracle - nice sail, cheap, little small but stable, cheap
(e) RS Vision - bigish, stable, robust, quite expensive, but not a pleasant
sail.
(f) Topper Omega - bigish, stable, robust, quite expensive
(g) Wanderer - big, heavy, slow....

Hope this helps

Alan


I would also add the Comet Duo to the above list.
I have an RS Vision that I sail with my 5 and 3 year old. I disagree
that it's 'not a pleasant sail', it may not have quite the class of the
Laser 2000 but IMO it's a much better boat than the Topper.
The Pico may be ok to get you started but I suspect you would quickly
outgrow it - my club hires out Picos for 3 months at a time, it might be
an idea to see if you can find an arrangement like that or at least
borrow one for a couple of days to see how it works out.


.

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