To be new 12 sailer!?

[popeye]

Hi All
Having been out the fantastic hobbie for 2 years now i am planning my return. I am thinking about buying a good spec 12 in the very near future to sail with my wife and my brother in law on the very extreme of days on the sea!
I have never owned or helmed a 12 before but they are the only boat that tick most boxed for me having come from a fairly extreme boat background. Owned RS800, Int Moth, Rs600, 700 and last boat a 400 with the wife but two light in all honistly.

After some advice re the best optium weight and and best design for the sea. Me and the wife combined weigh 23st but i know mine will drop again once sailing. as for with the brother in law will be around 26st, is this to heavy for any 12 evan in heavy winds?

All advice apreciated.  Thanks Alistair (Popeye)

[john m (Guest)]

Hi Popeye.

23 stone is OK - we sail our Paradigm 2 with 22.5 and we go ok, so it definetly carries weight ok.  We are probably the heaviest towards the front of the fleet and have also done OK in both Final CHapter and Feeling Foolish but I would suggest that the Chapter carries the weight a little better than the foolish.  

26 is probably a bit too much.

I have previously owned 3515 - I really miss it - it is a great ship.

John

[Mrs Wobbly (Guest)]

HI Pop eye
We had the same dilemas and were advised that the Paradigm2 is a good weight carrier , we are about 23 stone, and it has worked well.  I had crewed a range of 12 designs previously and the Paradigm2 is really roomy for the crew and helm compared to some other designs. This was a deciding factor as we are 6 ft 2 and 5 ft 5. We have a foil and a normal rudder which we inter change as we have learnt to handle the boat. We have only really estaury sailed but it goes well. If water gets in it empties out really quickly. The high sides can mean that the wind gets under them so we found righting lines helpful as we got to grips with an exciting and quite tippy boat. 
Para-docs crew.

[popeye]

Thanks for the info. well iam on the hunt so if anyone is planning on selling a good boat then let me know.
Iam not far from Hayling so could meet u all at the nationals next year!