Buying & sailing our first boat - fresh meat on an RS Feva

Warning; no technical jargon below!

I think some context needs to be set before continuing here, we are not sailors. We have absolutely no history, no family legacy going back generations, no names up on club walls, no plaques, photos, cups in our family. So you can be well assured that my son and I came into this sport/activity with very limited knowledge.

So after watching from the sidelines for a couple of months, I knew a boat was needed. But what boat, which class?

I wanted to sail as well, but that probably meant buying two boats? No, no way could we afford to have two boats sitting at home. Moreover, like many other families we simply did not have the space to store multiple boats. And with my son still being at an age where he wanted to sail with me (I think I have about 12 months left) I quickly realised it was going to be a double handed one. The search began; Google, YouTube, hours spent watching videos and reading reviews.

Some criteria for me at the time was:

1. It must have multiple uses, allow me to go sailing, but also take my son.
2. It must be capable of carrying the two of us when Fat Daddy’ puts on more weight and my son grows.
3. Mustn’t be too overly complicated and take too long to rig. We are not Olympic class sailors so spending valuable time tensioning and tweaking was not an option.
4. It must be light enough for me to single hand off and on a trailer.
5. It must be reasonably low maintenance (yeah I know, its a boat)
6. It must be robust to allow solo launching off the beach.

You may have noticed that I have not mentioned anything about Class. That was not high up on my list. My main priority at the time was just spending weekends with my son out on the water enjoying ourselves and keeping him off Minecraft. I new he would not want to be out there with the Ol Man’ in a few years and I’d get kicked off, so spending weekends out together was my No.1 priority. It was not about One Design, Class racing, It was time on the water with my son.

A leap of faith was needed.....

Just imagine coming home and telling the wife you’ve just bought a car, one which you have not driven, walked around, sat in, or even test driven. Yet thats exactly what we did with our boat. We took that leap and bought the RS Feva. And after a couple of practices in the driveway rigging we were off.

Well time flies when your having fun. Eighteen months have passed since that purchase and I can assure you that Fat Daddy’ is still sailing and the boy is still wanting to come out with me, but!.......

After our/my poor results in my second attempt at club racing on Sunday, Ive officially been kicked off the Helm. Yep, the inevitable has happened and Fat Daddy has been given the boot. Sigh........

I’m still hoping I can bribe my way onto the helm on the weekends. As I’m getting rather old and the knees aren’t what they used to be. But its all good fun and as stated above, I know I’ll lose this time out together with him very shortly. But I know it was money well spent. And something that hopefully he will look back on with fond memories. I have tried to give him an experience that was not available to me as a young person, which is what all parents try to do. So no regrets buying the Feva. Last year was the fastest winter Ive ever experienced as weekends were taken up with being outside, wet, cold, hungry, but absolutely brilliant. And I guarantee that my son will tell you exactly the same. So Feva 1, Minecraft 0. Got to be a winner there.

Brett & Aston.