r/dinghysailing

Hey! I'm a rising college junior, and this past year (my sophomore year) I got into sailing and have really been enjoying it. Honestly, I haven't been able to dedicate much time to it yet, but I want to practice and improve this summer before I return to campus. I think I'm still pretty close to a beginner.

Where should I go for lessons? Or, how should I proceed? Most of the adult lessons I'm finding around LA are for keelboats, but my college team predominantly sails FJs. (I think we're also exploring the option of doing a big boat regatta, but that's a separate thing.)

If I signed up for keelboat lessons around LA, would those skills translate well enough to FJs? Or, maybe I should ask does anyone know where I should go for lessons? Anywhere that teaches how to sail dinghies?

Last summer I took some sailing lessons at my local yacht club and had a great time. Looking at getting a small sailing dinghy to continue my sailing adventure this summer. During my lessons I crewed a Flying Scott and a Mariner 19 and spent a lot of time solo on a Laser. Really enjoyed the Laser but at 6'3" and 225 lbs on a good day it was not the most comfortable boat for me.

I'm looking at some options for purchasing a sailing dinghy, looking for something that will be comfortable/stable for me and easily trailerable by a cossover SUV (1500 llbs towing). Something light weight to be able to get in and out of the water easily solo and quick to set up/get underway. Being able to single hand it would be preferable but also able to accommodate one or two other people. Will mostly be looking to sail in and around the Fingerlakes region of central New York.

I've been looking at boats like the Wayfarer/cl16, Capri 14.2, and the RS Quest.

In looking around at what I can find in my area on Facebook marketplace and a couple dealers pickings are slim, lots of larger boats out there like the Catalina 25's and smaller dinghys like Lasers and Sunfish but there is not much in the smaller day sailor that meets what I'm looking for above.

One option I've found is a 2021 RS Quest at a local dealer, that is "New" for around $8500. It's never been in the water, original sails and accessories that have never been put on, but the catch is the hull, mast and stays have been sitting outside for basically 5+ years through NY Winters. Hull, mast and stays seems in good shape when I took a look at it at the yard, but I don't know exactly what to look for in smaller details. Certainly some lines/bungies on it like the main halyard look like they might need replaced due to ware/weathering. Price seems good for what I'm seeing in the area and for the Quest specifically as I've yet to see one of those on the secondary market.

Looking for any opinions on if this seems like it would be a good fit for me, or if there is any issues I may not know to look for.

Hi all, I’m looking to buy a new trapeze harness, and so I turn to the subreddits.

Does anyone have any experience with Back supported harnesses? I used to use a Burke Hargave but I’m looking at the Zhik T2/T4/T5.

Any info on Ronstan and Forward would be appreciated as well.

I've been pondering on this a while now.

The only time I really feel I have enough power in my boat is when there's too much power which in my laser (standard sail) is about 20-25knots, and I depower it. I'm a typical weight for laser, 75kg.

In lighter wind, I'm always wishing I could get more power in the thing, keeping boat flat - tick, going fast - not so tick. Reaches and by the lee are OK, I suppose, and it's mostly close hauled where I am forever feeling underpowered.

Anyway, when it's windy and I depower the boat, it becomes very easy to sail while still having plenty of power, it's strange to me, because I would think when it was less windy, not depowering the boat should have broadly the same effect.

Made more concrete what I mean by 'very easy to sail', it seems like at higher wind speeds, you can get away with a very wide range of angles of attack of sail, and it still works fine so less accuracy is needed there, and the power in the sail itself is more consistent. Since you're going faster, steering becomes a lot more responsive and easier. In short, the more wind you have, right until the point it's more wind than you can manage, the easier it is to sail.

My conjecture is, I sail on a very small lake such that effectively the whole lake is in the lee of a tree or building, and I feel that when it is windier the wind direction becomes more consistent, and this probably explains it in large part.

The small lake I feel must have something to do with it, because on the instances I have sailed on a large lake on a moderate day, I've been struck by how easy everything was, with the sail essentially not needing trimming for a whole leg some times. I would still say I felt I was underpowered, but the power that was there was very consistent and so a lot easier to use.

I've been building Varea, it's a free web app that takes your Garmin .FIT files and turns them into useful tactical analysis for sailing and foiling. Wind direction calculated via an API call to a meteo service, tack/gybe detection with entry/exit speed, VMG breakdown, foiling ratio, start analysis, polar chart. No hardware needed, just upload the file your watch already records.
It's still an MVP so it's gonna bit slow in the part where it analyzes the data but I'll work on it if i get some traction, also I've just finished setting it up in english so if you find any mistakes or if you know of some features that would be useful please let me know!!
https://varea.vercel.app/

I have an aft main boat, and I don’t love it but I love everything else about my boat.

When single handing it just feels really unnatural to face rear, and means that I can’t see the jib. I could keep battling to get used to it but frankly most boats are centre main and I’m used to sailing single handlers with that setup.

Therefore I’ve been considering conversion.

Before drilling any holes, I wondered if anybody has ever tested a centre main set up by just using a block hanging off a strap round the boom and a similar set up around the thwart with a block on top?!

Original post:

https://www.reddit.com/r/dinghysailing/comments/1syhyzk/my_fat_butt_bought_an_opti/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button

Update:

It was an absolute blast. I will certainly go out again with the same setup. It was certainly no lazy boy, but the fun level was far greater than the discomfort level! In a weird body-mindful way, it was refreshing to bend and stretch in irregular ways... Is this why people go to yoga?

Lake sailing winds were light and did shift around, but it was very fun. I couldn't stop smiling.

I did capsize to a gust, and I did find it difficult to get back in. Luckily small inland lakes always have shore nearby :D which was my preferred recovery technique. I never gave re-boarding a true good try, because the beach was always so close... Something to do next time I'm out.

A Laser Pico, RS Aero, or RS Zest certainly look like more suitable boats for my situation, and I'm sure would sail better... Holy cow a used Aero costs more than my car! At that point I'll just buy a real boat.

Laser Pico may be an upgrade I'll look for, mostly because they seem more affordable, but I'm probably more likely to upgrade to a proper daysailer that lives at a marina, once the budget allows. In the meantime, more Opti sailing!

While a Sunfish certainly looks like it'd be a better experience than my Opti experience, somehow all the complete Sunfish boats for sale near me are more than I paid for my Opti... not sure how that came to be, but that's how I ended up with the Opti in the first place.

From the original post: "You can do anything you put your mind to. Don’t let all this negativity get you down!". My, my... the average user of this forum sure is a fun stopper. I thought sailors were supposed to be easy going!

https://preview.redd.it/8fu97ymm550h1.png?width=931&format=png&auto=webp&s=71f9f9507a4c54777526f490b1103dce69771876

Not sure if allowed here or not… Got a mirror 10 in the garage, in pretty good condition, freshly painted and varnished, it has two sets of sails, masts and rigging, including spinnaker, launch trolley and road trolley. What kind of pricing would you recommend advertising it as in the UK?