First Sail in an RS200 for me and a First Sail for my 5yr Old Son

First Sail in an RS200 for me and a First Sail for my 5yr Old Son

Well this year I decided to get back into sailing after a few years out, I was going to get a single hander just so I didn't have to worry about a crew but my partner suggested I get a boat in which to teach our 5 year old son, Edward. So that put the kibosh on me getting anything exciting I thought.

After quite a lot of asking around at the club I narrowed it down to either an RS200 or a Laser 2000. The Laser sounded like it would be the more stable, user friendly boat to take a 5 year old out in and I nearly went down that route, but by chance I spoke to someone who has owned both for a similar reason and he said that the weight of the Laser 2000 made it really difficult to pull up and down the beach and slipways when you are effectively launching it on your own. He also said that in the 2000 he never did well on handicap but since swapping to an RS200 he's a lot more competitive and is now winning races.

That swung it for me, as although I know I'm not going to be competitive when out with my son at the moment (he only weighs 3 1/2 stone) I do want to race it and also I don't want it to be a struggle launching or recovering everytime we have a race that starts or ends at low tide. (I sail at Lyme Regis Sailing Club).

I ended up buying an RS200 and we took it out for the first time yesterday, it was 'blowing' at 2-3 and it was hot and sunny. The boat was easy to handle and lively enough that I'll have fun in it. Edward loved it, I gave him a sweet everytime we did a tack or a gybe, and now he wants to go sailing everytime its sunny!

So, if you're looking for a boat to take a youngster out in then consider the RS200.

Dave Stubbs

www.coastwatersports.com

RS200 Continuous Kicker..(including pictures)

RS200 Continuous Kicker..

A few months ago I bought an old RS200, sail number 489. It hadn't been modernised at all and still had the old square running system on it, anyway that's another story but i removed all that, along with a handful of spares from inside the bowsprit. But one of the important things that I wanted was a continuous kicker, as there's nothing worse than rounding the windward mark and needing to dump the kicker to find that all the spare rope is down to leeward!

Anyway after a bit of asking around I decided not to do anything fancy with take up slack elastic that I had had on previous Int 14s. I found a couple of cheek blocks that Allen Brothers make which fitted perfectly under the grab rails and are articulated so that they lie at the correct angle.

The block is an A2026

I drilled a small 3 mm pilot hole in the grab rail and fitted them with a couple of 20 mm pan head stainless screws, ran the rope from the cleat up to the new blocks and then fitted a small bullseye fairlead on in front of the centre jammer to guide the sheet back over to the other side.

I took the boat out for its first sail with my 5 year old son yesterday and although there is a bit of slack rope knocking around when the kicker is pulled on, it worked perfectly.

Any questions please ask

Dave

www.coastwatersports.com