Age Advice

Dinghyman

New Member
I'm 11 yrs. old and I weigh 76 pounds. Our family owns a sunfish and when I had my lesson I was on a sunfish. when the lesson was over the instructor said "I think the sunfish is too big for him. He should sail an Opti." He also quoted that I did really well. What surprised us was that he also said was "The sunfish is made for people 150 pounds and up." My dad said that if thats true, he's barely big enough for a sunfish. What do you think?:confused:
 
Im 200 pounds and I saili a sunfish. In light air its faster if you weigh less. In heavier winds 15+ knots its good to be a little fat, compared to 76 pounds.
 
I learned on a sunfish and I was 11 years old and weighed about the same.
ADVICE:
1) wear a life preserver, 2) get some floaty things on the top of your mast (getting righted after a capsize is harder at 76 lbs, 3) have fun in a sunfish!!!!!

About the floaty things-- I've read in this forum about empty milk jugs, foam pool snakes, etc... anything to prevent a turtle.

Lastly, save your money on a second boat, you'll grow into the sunfish!!!
 
I agree with your instructor. You are the perfect weight for an Opti and should be sailing that boat until you grow out or age out of it. Since you are the weight you are you should be able to sail for several more years in the blue or red fleet. My kids started out in Opti's and they are the best boat for kids beginning to sail. You can graduate to a Laser Radial or 420/FJ in a few years. A Sunfish is a lot for you to handle right now and I think you would only get discouraged when the breeze picks up. Have fun and listen to your instructor, he/she knows what they are talking about. If you decide to go to college and want to be in a sailing club they race mostly 420's and FJ's along with Lasers. Sorry to those of you who think differently, but the handwriting is on the wall for kids and sailing and the correct boat for them. You can always decide later on to move into a Sunfish.
 
You will likely get frustrated if it is really blowing and you are in a Sunfish, but that does not mean you have to completely abandon it for Optis. Sunfish are still great boats to learn in - you may find that there is a weekend where there is a chance to race Sunfish, and there is no Opti racing, and I think you should sail the Sunfish then instead of staying home playing croquet. How many boats are going to be racing may make a differnce too. Racing against 3 10 year olds in optis will probably not be as much fun as sailing against 20 skippers in Sunfish.

Although the other poster says you should forget about Sunfish and only think about Lasers and 420s, I completely disagree. Some of it depends on what part of the country you are in and what is popular there. If you can race in a fleet of 12 Sunfish or 3 Lasers or Radials, you should clearly sail the Sunfish. If there are 12 radials and 3 Sunfish, you might be better off with a radial. The big disadvantage to the Laser progression from 4.7 to Radial to full rig is that if you are in a radial and they start radials and full rigs together, you will get flattened and shot out the back. If there is a separate radial start, you are only sailing against others in radials, and you do not get the advantage of sailing against more experienced sailors in the full rig.

On the other hand, a standard Sunfish rig is very adjustable and can be massively depowered with a Jens rig or a reef, meaning smaller sailors can depower and still sail with the whole fleet and get the experience of sailing against all the Sunfish racers, including those with lots of experience. The silver medal winner at the Pan Am games was a 16 year old, showing that juniors are still heavily involved in the class and can do very well. I think he will be at the Worlds this year and you can see how he does.

I am sorry that the other poster has thrown in the towel on juniors sailing Sunfish - if you visit the Jersey Shore or Long Island you would find more kids in Sunfish than Lasers, and I imagine that applies to other parts of the country as well.

If you are lucky, your parents will get you an Opti and a Laser to go along with your Sunfish!!

BB
 
I agree having all 3 boats would be a plus. You can depower a Sunfish with a Jen's rig just like I do and I weigh 125 pounds and still have problems occasionally. So, at less than 80 pounds you will need to think about what you might be having more fun in and what the conditions are for the day. A Sunfish sails differently than most other boats. If you have an Opti fleet at your club congratulations and going to away regattas is even more fun with kids your age. I race all over the Jersey shore and frankly most kids sail Optis and then decide Sunfish, Laser Radial, 420 when they get a little larger. In fact at MAYRA they may get 30-50 Optis on the kids race day and on LBI they get 60+ Optis on Wednesdays at Interclub racing. Very few junior Sunfish compete in those YRA's. Since you have a Sunfish already and you may want to use it sometimes try to talk your parents into upgrading it if they haven't already so you can be even more competitive. You probably already know about a racing daggerboard and racing sail. Keep your options open and read up on the subject. Go to: Teamvanguard.com and go to the links for the Opti, Sunfish, and Laser radial fleets and see what's up with those fleets. Most of all HAVE FUN!
 
First, I would like to thank all of you for your advice. I really hated the idea of having to sail only opti's until i'm heavier than my dad. I don't like opti's at all. Being by Lake Erie means we have all kinds of competitions that include lasers, FJ's and other things. However, there are only 2 big regattas for the sunfish each season. The good thing is that both the races are for juniors only. I'm already saving up for my own sunfish. If my parent's were to kick in any money it would be for a zuma or an opti. (my dad wants a zuma). Other than racing the sunfish, I will pretty much always be sailing with my dad.

I've heard of the milk carton idea from a family friend we call "Skip" He is an incredible sailor. When he was young that's what he had to use to right the boat.

Thanks again for your posts!

P.S. If anyone has and old "fixer-upper" sunfish that they could sell for around
$150, I will buy it.
 
If the old man gets his Zuma have fun kicking his butt with a Sunfish. A sunfish is better on all points of sail than the Zuma. The Zuma is better for double handled sailing than a fish, but then a fish is better than an Opti...LOL
 
:)I myself weigh about 200lbs, and I have been teaching my 12 year old son on my sailfish which has no cockpit making it a little more hairy to hang on. I even flipped her a few times to show him how to recover without panicing. I learned on an old 12' echo, then progressed to an old nordica daysailer that was too heavy and slow. I am glad my son enjoys sailingand hope he continues.I am sure you will be fine with a little depowering of the sail, or putting on a few pounds! I know I can have a tough time keeping her from going over, but alot of that depends on you and your ability! I am on the northern shore of lake Erie (Turkey Point area) and the wind can be quite challenging at times.
Good luck on your decision!
 

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