newbie6 said..
Tasman Tiger .....sailing dingy. I would be thrilled if any sailors out there would give a quick review of this dingy. I am learning to sail and this boat came up for sail by chance. $700. 14 July 2020. Hard to find reviews. I live close to the beach in Frankston. Would it suit beginner and teenage grandchildren. Any comments gratefully received. Gina
Hi Gina,
Our family when I was in my early teens through to around 20 had one. It was a pretty tough boat that sailed well and I have great memories of sailing in Bate bay Port Hacking with my Dad and brother, the cockpit being longer suits more people than a Laser by comparison. Dad had a 3/4 sail made by Southside back then so it would be easier- similar concept to the Laser variants. The full sail was really too much for me as a scrawny 13/14 year old and I really couldn't sail it on my own until I was up around 65 to 70 kghave more "ballast" & could still struggle in some breeze.. haha would be fine now as have more "ballast" - with a mate it was fine. The thing to watch with those style of boats is that they can blow away from you in windier conditions after capsize though we survived. It can be a bit death rolly down wind as more rounded in section and kind of a bit of the way towards a Finn dingy in comparison to a Laser for crew weight and skill. The other thing to watch is the foil set up- the rudder & centreboard hard to deploy off the beach if it's choppy. I'd steer towards a Pacer as they go well and are versatile, have a jib and spinnaker if wanted and often used for training so give a learner some progression of skills, both foils swing down so easier to get off the beach. I'd probably only pay a few hundred for a TT now & then if it came with a trailer- a Pacer secondhand is probably 1000-2500 but a safer bet. The De Havilland mentioned above fulfills similar objectives to the Pacer- the Navy used to have the De Havilland Corsair as a slightly larger but similar training/competition boat. I'd pay the extra bucks for the Pacer for my Family and so far we've had two timber ones which came with some issues at a low cost, one I got off ebay with a trailer for 600 & sailed for a couple years locally and at Jervis bay and St georges basin then sold for 1k, the next we got for 100 with all sails, oars but it had been stored against a shed so had some rot in one side- this we fixed as a small family project then sailed for a year and sold for maybe 6 or 800.. cant really remember exactly- the fibreglass one s go for more and have less issues.
Jeff.
