casual racing for the geriatric

[Bobc]

Flying Fifteens are a bit too dinghy-like for the OP I suspect.

The small Beneteau Firsts are fabulous boats and pretty quick. That's what I would go for personally.

 

[Daydream believer]

I have a Hanse 311 & a Squib. i find I can sail the hanse single handed in a race 30 miles with less stress than i can the squib round the cans with the dinghies for 3 laps.Obviously I cannot handle the cruising chute so easily on the Hanse, but I am considering a furling code zero instead.. If i seriously wanted to hoist a downwind sail I would dump the cruising chute get a spinnaker, get some cadets from the club & race with that. Let the youngsters run about & play with the strings & helm & have some fun. Especially if windy & let them put too much sail up just for the hell of it.
Trouble for the OP would be the fin keel for drying moorings. But then, same for the squib.

 

[TernVI]

....
Trouble for the OP would be the fin keel for drying moorings. But then, same for the squib.

Surely drying moorings are a dead loss for most racing?
Unless you only race around high tide for a short time, at a different time every week?

 

[Daydream believer]

Surely drying moorings are a dead loss for most racing?
Unless you only race around high tide for a short time, at a different time every week?

As far as I am aware the local BJRC, a successful racing committee in our area, seem to do quite well at organising races around the tides, to let boats lock in & out of locks & marinas, as well as use the tide to race in & out of the Blackwater & be home for HW. Perhaps others can do that quite easily; perhaps not; but it is all part of making racing accessible to all

 

[Birdseye]

Surely drying moorings are a dead loss for most racing?
Unless you only race around high tide for a short time, at a different time every week?

Exactly. So what happens is that we have a mix of races either round the channel markers etc ( there are lots in the bristol channel) at high water for 3 hours or going out before low water and coming back on the rising tide for 4 to 6 hours. But then we are sailing out of Cardiff which has a dredged channel and access all times at neaps as -5 to +5 at springs. But places to visit have narrower access times, typically HW +/- 3 or 4. So if you visit and stay overnight then you have to dry out. Plus distances are greater between ports.

 

[Allan]

Birdseye, although a house move and renovation have delayed things, I'm hoping to do something similar to you. My trips would probably be a little longer than yours but as you, single handed. I plan to get an old GRP long keeled boat around 30-32 feet. Like you I plan to visit places in the Bristol channel occasionally. Having visited for years with a bilge keeled boat, I know very few places I couldn't visit with something that could learn against a wall. The only one I can think of right now is Watermouth.
One reason for going to long keel is that it gives more time to do things when the tiller is left. I completely agree with something that was said earlier, a furled downwind sail on a short bowsprit seems the way to go. We've done many miles on the Starlight goose winging the genoa and cruising chute, having both on furlers seems good compromise, possibly with outriggers like some of the racing boats. Having a relatively low cost boat means you can do some experimental things.
Allan

 

[JumbleDuck]

Surely drying moorings are a dead loss for most racing?
Unless you only race around high tide for a short time, at a different time every week?

In many places - at least for some budgets - there is no choice.

 

[TernVI]

Where there's no sensible deep moorings for a racing dayboat, there's usually better racing in dinghies than boats which live on half-tide moorings.
Or even 'dry sailed' keelboats.
It's difficult enough keeping critical mass in a racing fleet without being totally controlled by the tide.
There are a lot of older people racing dinghies regularly.