6'5 and 100 kg's, sounds like a Finn to me. Maybe an OK dinghy next but they like a bit lighter helm than a Finn.

Hi, additional info below as required;
Residing in South East Suburbs of Melbourne.
Plan on joining local club & most probably racing (although not seriously).
Budget less than $5k, but would rather get the right boat & be comfortable/suitable from the get go.

Appreciate your advice....thanks.

I'm not a fan of the Laser, never have been for many many reasons!! Was a Laser dealer in WA for a few years and they are possibly the worst built dinghy on the market with the worst quality gear!!

I think you'll find the Laser more cramped than Sabre, I think the Sabre is about as spacious as a solo dinghy gets!!

Could you look at a larger 2 person dinghy that you sail only with the main to start? A Corsair springs to mind.
Used to race one a bit single handed with just a main in anything up to 10 knots and I was only 65kg dripping wet back then!!!
The beauty of doing that is you can take more people as you progress, family, friends etc. and if you find someone to crew you can use the jib.

While I've never had a problem with the Laser's construction and the fittings seem to suit its purpose very well IMHO, as RF says it's got less room than the Sabre in some ways - for example it's hard to fit under the boom when the vang is right on at times. They do have the advantage that they are very easy to buy and sell, and $5k will get you one that is very good for club use; in fact a $5k Laser would actually take you to the top 10 at the Masters nationals. At 100kg you're very big but then again a lot of the Masters are also pretty big, and you can win state titles overall at up to 88kg in light winds.

The Sabre is slower but more forgiving to sail, especially downwind in chop. There are a couple sailing at Cleveland SC in Brissie and apparently maybe some at RQ. One thing is that the top Sabre sailors seem to be fairly light (in the 70-75kg range from what I can recall) although the class association website would have more info.

The Impulse class has a fairly good fleet (10 boats or so) at Oxley Sailing Club on the Brissie river and there are other boats around SEQ/NNSW. The Impulse is a sweet boat, like a Sabre but more oriented towards speed, and it has a bigger rig. Judging from the rig and the fact that Brownie is winning lots of nationals, it would seem to handle weight better than the Sabre (sorry Brownie!). If you went down that route you'd have plenty of people to sail with, as you would with the Laser.

OKs and Finns are of course other possibilities (they are in some ways better for your size) but the booms are very low and I don't think there are any others around SEQ for you to sail with and learn from.

Tasars are lovely but struggle mightily with 100kg in the back end and don't work well singlehanded.