Re: Topper Topaz vs. Laser Pico dinghy quality

Martin

Good for young children, car-toppable, readily available all over the world
(well parts of it) and cheap, I'm surprised no one has suggested a Mirror.
We take our children (3 and 6) in ours and they love it. When they don't
want to sail (which happens quite often) they are always up for a row.

It can be sailed single or double-handed, and you can decide between Main
only, main and jib, or main, jib, and the worlds smallest spinnaker ;-)

Our first mirror was £230 (with a folding launch trolley) from ebay. For
that price I figured if it fell apart, or they hated it, it really wouldn't
matter. As it is, its been a great success.

Lots of info over at http://www.ukmirrorsailing.com/

HTH

Rob

"Martin Larsen" <secret@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:UJOkg.21$Bu6.9@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
"Alan C Clark" <alancclark2004@xxxxxxxxxxx> 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

Thank you Alan for you advice.
I appreciate your list but I was hoping to find a dinghy that could be
easy transportable ie. on the car roof. Many of the models you list are
not available in Denmark or as you state quite expensive.

Martin




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