Hello Guys,


I have been lurking around in this forum for about a month now and after reading almost every single post and not finding an answer that I am looking for, I’ve decided to ask myself.
Let me be kind and introduced my self first. My name is Deniz. I am Turkish but living and working in the Philippines for about 7 months now. My sailing/racing background consists of racing Optimist and 4,70. Started racing Opti at the age of 6 and became champion in many championships including some international races until I was 15. Then started sailing 4,70 right after Opti – which was a terrible decision given the fact that I weighed 50 kilos and barely 1.60 cms at that time– and raced that boat for about 4 years without any significant success. Then I was able to buy my own big boat and sailed it across Europe and many other countries but never raced her or any other boat for about 10 years.
Here in the Philippines, I was introduced to this local yacht club with a relatively large hobie fleet (around 30) with really talented Hobie racers both expats and locals. So, I started to have the same passion for racing that I had 10 years ago and I am extremely excited about it. Finishing 4th out of 10 in the last weekend’s race with a rental boat from 90s and with sails numbered 70 000 something against the racers with latest boats was both encouraging and promising. Oh, that was also my third time on a multihull and first race with my crew and we teared the leach side of the jib right before the first start and didn’t want to go back to shore to change it.
Anyways, after giving this brief explanation here is my question; I have two options for a 16 here. And my only purpose is racing. We have races every single month here and I am so up for it.

1. The first boat I can buy is from 0203 (According to this site, first two digits represents the year it was built and the other two is the model it was manufactured for – I hope I am right about it)
The boat has been raced around 3 years for almost every single race but hasn’t been racing for about a year now. If I buy this boat, I will buy brand new sails and make the boat more competetive.


2. The second option I have is a boat from 0404 but brought to the Philippines from Australia in 2005 as brand new and assembled here for the first time. It has been raced for only 1 year and then slightly used for two years. If I buy this boat, I wont buy new sails.


None of these boats have any soft spots or any blemish that I am aware of. They are also in ready to sail condition.

Those two options will cost me pretty much the same. If you were me, which option would you go for?

And my second question would be; If I don’t buy brand new sails for the first option how competitive would the boat be against more recent boats and sails? Would it make such a big difference in light and moderate wind conditions?



Thanks in advance,


Regards,

Deniz