laser or pico?

Hi guys,
Great forum! I would like to get some advice:
I've always sailed laser: radial and 4.7 I'm a lightweight sailor and I enjoy sailing 4.7 over radial, especially in heavy winds. I would like to buy a new boat, however, we have alittle addition to the family, and I would love to introduce the little one to sailing one day as well (now 6 months old, so a bit too young to hike out ) So, here's my question: should I go for the Laser or a pico? In the last one you can bring a little one along, but is it as much fun as a normal laser? Whats the max weight in a pico? BTW, I'm not really a racer.

Cheers

I have no experience with the pico... however, I know a couple of people who have Bytes. I have never gotten the chance to sail one hard and I prefer my laser, anyway (I am heavy enough to take advantage of all the sail), but the Byte has a smaller sail area and a much larger cockpit than the laser, with a handy area in front of the traveler and mainsheet where a passenger, especially a kid, can sit comfortably. It's a more modern design than the laser, too, and I think the hull is substantially lighter.

If you're looking for a capable dinghy with a smaller sail than the laser and plenty of room for passengers, you should definitely check it out. Here's a page with the hull layout: http://www.ps2000.ca/boats/byte/byte_layout.htm

The only big problem I see with them is that they are quite uncommon, making it unlikely that you would meet very many people who sail the same boat. And there have been some complaints about ps2000 violating one-design principles by introducing a new rig which is much faster. But both of these things really don't matter if you don't want to race.

Fire said:

Hi guys,
Great forum! I would like to get some advice:
I've always sailed laser: radial and 4.7 I'm a lightweight sailor and I enjoy sailing 4.7 over radial, especially in heavy winds. I would like to buy a new boat, however, we have alittle addition to the family, and I would love to introduce the little one to sailing one day as well (now 6 months old, so a bit too young to hike out ) So, here's my question: should I go for the Laser or a pico? In the last one you can bring a little one along, but is it as much fun as a normal laser? Whats the max weight in a pico? BTW, I'm not really a racer.

Cheers

Click to expand...

The boats are incomparable - neither is good or bad but their performance profile hardly overlaps. If you want a family friendly school boat to race/burn occaisionnally - Pico. If you want a race/burn up boat that you can take a passenger once in a blue moon in calmer conditions Laser!

thanks. I just like the idea of the pico being a family boat. But since i'll be the one sailing it the most, i want to keep the fun of hiking and getting wet! And I like to have a bit of a challange as well. I was reading about the sports version which has a bigger main. Anyone familiar with sailing this?
The byte looks cool, but not sure if it's easy to get one here in norway.