Inexperienced sailors seeking advice :-) Bahia

ptcruiser

New Member
Hi all, my wife and I are fairly new to sailing (just completed Level 1). We have found a good (we hope) inland lake sailing club and are about to get ourselves a family sized sailing dinghy. We have been looking at the Bahia as this seems to suit our needs (and more), however there is very little information out there - not even a leaflet on the Laser site (just a very short description).

Have any of you got any experience of this boat - anything to say about it...what to look out for...etc. etc. would be very much appreciated. :)

We intend to sail mostly inland lakes and now and again take it to the Isle of Wight.
 
Re: Inexperienced sailors seeking advice :)

Have any of you got any experience of this boat - anything to say about it...what to look out for...etc. etc. would be very much appreciated. :)

We intend to sail mostly inland lakes and now and again take it to the Isle of Wight.

My husband just bought a Bahia. We've had it out 2 times on our small inland lake. It was light air both times, so it's hard to give an assessment, but so far, John is pleased with the boat.

One thing that's a bit annoying is in light air, when you tack, the top full batten on the mylar sail can be inverted. You have to give the sail a whack to get it right. I think that this is just something that you learn to deal with.

The boat seems easy to set up and use. The second time we had it out, we used the gennaker downwind. That was cool and there were no problems.

John and I have already had a bit of a dispute on where to sit in light air. I say in front of the U shaped thingy that has the mainsheet block, but he thinks it would be a problem to steer from there. We haven't tried sitting in front of it. Next time out I will try it.

The literature says the boat seats 5, well maybe 2 adults and 3 kids. You'd be pressed to be comfortable with 5 adults.

Here's the thread where I bought the boat: http://www.laserforum.org/showthread.php?t=7754

That's about all I have so far. We may get it out one more time before the docks come in, but it's rainy this week, so I don't know.
 
Re: Inexperienced sailors seeking advice :)

One thing that's a bit annoying is in light air, when you tack, the top full batten on the mylar sail can be inverted. You have to give the sail a whack to get it right. I think that this is just something that you learn to deal with.

This is a common problem with top full battens...try loosening the tension on the batten in light air. I assume there is some sort of hook-and-loop strap that puts tension on the batten in the batten pocket. Just take some tension off the batten and it should change sides without a problem.
 
Re: Inexperienced sailors seeking advice :)

This is a common problem with top full battens...try loosening the tension on the batten in light air. I assume there is some sort of hook-and-loop strap that puts tension on the batten in the batten pocket. Just take some tension off the batten and it should change sides without a problem.

Thanks. John says he'll have to look to see what sort of system there is holding the batten in place. He knows that there is some velcro.
 
Re: Inexperienced sailors seeking advice :)

This is a common problem with top full battens...try loosening the tension on the batten in light air. I assume there is some sort of hook-and-loop strap that puts tension on the batten in the batten pocket. Just take some tension off the batten and it should change sides without a problem.

Yep, or just give the boom a good pull and it'll pop right over. On some boats (such my main one.... Musto Skiff) you just get used to flicking the battens over - we never ease the batten tension.
 
Re: Inexperienced sailors seeking advice :)

Hehe. Just if you race it, make sure you don't forget that. i forgot that once racing Club 420s for a bit (the batten tension was cranked on) and quickly lost a few boats until I realized it didn't pop in the light wind.:p
 
Re: Inexperienced sailors seeking advice :)

Hehe. Just if you race it, make sure you don't forget that. i forgot that once racing Club 420s for a bit (the batten tension was cranked on) and quickly lost a few boats until I realized it didn't pop in the light wind.:p

forgot to mention that applying the vang will help the batten flick over easier.......just remember to ease the vang after it's flicked. The bigger the boat the tricker it gets - had lots of fun flicking the top batten on an X-35 keelboat two weeks ago in < 4 knots breeze.
 
When would you change the tension in that batten? I realize how it changes the fullness of the sail up top, so I'm assuming you'd want to loosen it in heavy air to flatten the sail?
 
Oooh...this has all gone very technical :confused:

Thanks for the info so far - it sounds like I am going for the right boat then...hopefully.??
 
Oooh...this has all gone very technical :confused:

Thanks for the info so far - it sounds like I am going for the right boat then...hopefully.??

I think that the Bahia is a nice family boat, and we are looking forward to taking friends out in it. I can't say how ocean worthy it is, but I'm hopeful.

I don't know of anyone else on this forum that has a Bahia to advise you. The boat is so new that it doesn't have its own forum, but there's a Vago forum. The Vago has many similarities to the Bahia with the sail plan and roto molded hull, so it would probably be useful to you to google Laser Vago forum.
 

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