The first thing to consider when buying a sailing boat is what you are going to use it for. 'Sailing, you idiot!.' I hear you exclaim. Well yes of course but what kind of sailing? Single-handed or with a crew? Racing or cruising? Light airs or force six?
'Crew' sounds ominous I know but it merely means someone you have managed to get in the boat with you to balance it and pull a rope or two at crucial moments.
Some boats are designed specifically for solo sailing but to be honest most of these are a little 'tippy', a term used to described, as you have probably guessed, its tendency to capsize when you hit a gust. Ask my friend Dave about this. More on Dave later.
Better to get a steady two-hander my idle sailing friend. Most of these boats can in fact easily be sailed single-handed
Racing dinghies is a little like playing football on an ice rink with bare feet. It's hard enough for everyone to get in the right position to start let alone engage in any kind of meaningful sporting activity. That said it can be fun if approached with a spirit of relaxed pessimism as to one's chances of finishing anything other than in last place. Unfortunately there is a significant number of sailors who fail to adopt such an attitude and compete aggressively in a very non-idle manner, spoiling it for the rest of us. More on racing in a later post but suffice to say that boats specifically designed for racing display very similar characteristics to those who buy them: delicate, lightweight and inherently unstable.
No. The idle sailor will always favour a craft designed for relaxed enjoyment over flighty and anxiety-provoking racing boats.
