WA
3519 posts
Looking at one for sale in WA any one has sailed one? What is it like? Pointing , speed, minimum crew? Any info welcome.
NSW
1000 posts
I have sailed on a 780 5 crew very fast especially for the age not as fast as a meggels 24. We out pointed a new j70.
WA
3519 posts
Got told that the young hull design make the boat to round easily is that real or just bs? How is it in a bit of swell? Another coment I have heard is they perform well on flat water and do not like the chop?
NSW
1000 posts
All of the sports boats are little more than big dinghy so none like chop
NSW
7757 posts
I crewed on one for several races in a mixed trailer sailer fleet on Lake Illawarra. It was rigged with a 16 foot skiff rig which we had to reef the main when it was fresh. Average up wind but really got up and boogied off the wind. Now it has a conventional rig and apparently performs well. It was very light and easy to get on and off a trailer. Needs at least one crew.
NSW
3585 posts
The Windie is a nice boat, but surely it's not in the same postcode as a Rocket.
I'm not sure about the 6.6, but the few times I sailed the Rocket 7.8 I can't recall it being particularly slow in a chop for a sportsboat of its era. One problem with the Rockets is that so many were built by different people to different modifications that they have a very wide range of performance. Some were home build, short rigged and heavy and some were exotic deep-keel big-rig fliers.
Personally I really like the ones that were a bit cruisier as I don't really understand the flat-out sportsboat concept (if you want a boat you can't cruise why not buy a skiff or cat?) but that's just me.
NSW
7757 posts
The only 7.8's I have seen racing was in Canberra and they left the opposition for dead! The 6.6 is not quite the same. The Windrush is more cruising and with a cockpit tent is how I would do the Whitsundays. It's also a real good buy. I'm tempted to drive over and tow it home but the project manager has put a kibosh on that one!
Cisco is probably one a plane right now.
WA
3519 posts
The wind rush has always been Cisco favorit!
I like the 6.6 cause I am mainly racing also I thing I could set it up so I could cruise it alone. I am in Albany WA and will be there for a while, the water is pretty flat there and wind is pretty strong.
NSW
3585 posts
That's a great price for the little Rocket. I wonder if it was built with a shorter rig, or have I just become used to Rocket 7.8s with bigger rigs?
WA
3519 posts
Not sure about the rigging, not a lot of those around. I was interested in a similar yacht in Darwin but got sold before I sold my Farr and missed the deal. Was a bit dearer and had crappy sails.
The cheap deal on the one in Perth is the missing trailer, have one of my mate looking at a cheap trailer and modification (around the $1000 mark)
Will need to be a float on float off trailer because of the lead torpedo.
QLD
12365 posts
One thing I know about the Windrush Wildfire from experience is that they will punch to windward in a chop in 25 knots of breeze with jib and full main up and that was with two teenagers and one adult.
I heard of a guy in Perth who sails his single handed in the Fremantle Doctor out to Rotto just about every weekend.
