Todd,
<br>Your last sentence is exactly what I was thinking - Wave, 14, then 16 and others. Different size sails for the 14 could also extend its range, like the Laser. My niece just got a nice 14 turbo, and I'm the one who will get to help her, but I think a Wave might be an easier boat to get her started on. However, the 14 was free, so that counts for something!
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<br>It's fun to watch the young kids in the Optis - the low rig means they can be safe in a lot of conditions and they really fly when the wind kicks up! Fun to watch, and I bet it helps add confidence too.
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<br>Awhile ago I put a message on the old forum that was an open call to the designers of the world to come up with an intro cat design for the youngest sailors that captured the spirit of the opti - with the added provision that clubs could actually build the design inexpensively from non-exotic materials (just the way the Opti started as a class) and different rigs to keep the boat interesting as sailors grow in confidence (like the Laser rigs you mention). I had more than a few ideas for this that I laid out. After initial training on this kind of a boat they could move up to the next cat in the chain. It still seems like a great idea to me, but the response was thundering silence. Perhaps because a designer might only make money selling plans instead of boats, I don't know. There are a few designs out there that might fill the bill with a few mods...
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<br>Cheers!<br><br>Keith Chapman, Annapolis, Md.
<br>H-18
<br>Northstar 500 (monoslug)
<br>WRCRA - www.wrcra.org