Our club has 7 Bravos. We bought them to use as a teaching fleet. I have been taking them out a fair amount due to having limited time and children. The boat is very quick to rig in our setting. You grab the rudder and mainsheet out of the sail locker, attach the rudder, attach the mainsheet block, put the hook on the clew, shove the boat off of the dock, unroll the sail and you're sailing. Even though it is heavier than a Laser it is much easier to slide around on the dock. In less than 5 minutes I'm out sailing, I can go out at times when I have as little as 20-40 minutes to spare, and consider it worthwhile for the effort expended. I can take out my 8 year old twins with me. They like to sit on the bows and collect milfoil. They can move around the boat and we don't have to worry much about weight placement. My daughter's first solo sail was last summer in an El Toro, her response was that she definitely preferred the Bravo, the El Toro was too tippy. Taking them out on a Laser is a pain, as their placement is important.
Maybe I'm doing it all wrong, but here is my take on the sailing characteristics. First of all the boat was not built for me, I weigh 260 lbs. The few times I've had it out in decent wind, about the time I think I'm going to have to hike and get the boat really moving, nothing happens, I look up and see that the fathead has blown off, and sheeting in more doesn't seem to help. I believe that the mast bend characteristics were not designed for me. <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif" alt="" /> On reaches in wind, I pound the bridgedeck which slows me down.
Upwind in light air puzzled me for awhile, the helm felt like it had some, reasonable, amount of weather helm, but when I looked at the tiller, it was angled slightly to leeward, indicating lee helm. I finally noticed the wake angle and figured out that the tiller probably really is angled to weather of the wake track. This is when sailing the boat flat. Getting your weight forward and to leeward, getting the lee bow in reduces leeway significantly. A longer hiking stick would be useful for this, but that would really annoy the beginners.
Without the boom, you have to sail fairly high reaches to go downwind because the sail will cup and be mostly useless. I haven't sailed in one of our club races without booms yet to experiment with angles. With the boom, dead downwind, or close to it seems to be the fastest point downwind. Sample size, one club Friday race, light wind, 3-4 starts.
The boom is easy to rig, and you can furl the sail to within a couple of turns of being completely furled while the sail is attached to the boom, the outhaul slug runs the entire length of the boom. You need to release the boom vang as the boom starts tilting up quickly as the sail winds up.
Upwind the boat could use a traveler to position the sail's clew to the leeward corner, by the time you get the top of the sail sheeted in (telltales flying), the sail is on the centerline of the boat which seems to be higher than the boat wants to point with any speed. The boom helps some as you can put on the vang and not have to sheet as close to the center, but the vang is not very powerful.
Just as a general impression watching the boats sail around the bay, the Bravo seems to be slower than a Laser most of the time. The one time I really tried to pace against a Bravo, I was on a Laser, wind 3/4 - full hike for me close hauled. The Bravo matched me closely in pointing and made about the same leeway. Speed was close enough that it took about a half minute to see that the Laser was pulling ahead.
Tacking seems to be about average for a boardless cat, you have to do it slow and careful. I have no trouble except in near drifter conditions. It has been a problem for the beginners though, as they have a tendency to jam the rudder over hard, which works fine for the Lasers, but just gets you stuck head to wind in a cat.
I think that the boat is fine for what it is. It gets me out on the water when I normally wouldn't have the time, and it sails alright. The mods I suggested would complicate the boat, making it less desirable as a quick, easy sail. If I only have time for a couple of quick reaches, I don't bother with the boom. If I intend going upwind and downwind, I grab the boom.
John
Miracle 20
Cal 40
access to variety of dinghies at WYC
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