A better question might be (or at least the answers are shorter)
Are then any major similarities between the two ?
They are both meant for singlehanding, they both have a single sail
Hull shape is different (round bottom vs chined)
F5 has more sail area
F5 has mid boom sheeting w/ traveller
F5 doesn't have much racing activity anymore (if any)
Sailing them feels totally different to me. The F5 feels more powerful upwind, but the Laser is faster and steers smoother thru a chop. Downwind the Laser is much more exciting to sail, more responsive to waves, more rewarding of skill.
I grew up sailing a F5. It's generally considered a better boat in terms of design (it had the Laser to learn from). It's considerably more stable than the Laser (wider beam), and I used to have better speed on all points of sail than the other kids in their Lasers.
But it's a dead class with no racing, so unless you want a purely recreational boat, it's kinda useless.
> I used to have better speed on all points of sail than the other kids in their Lasers.
It may be differences in ability, too.
As a counter example, in our fleet of 13 Lasers and one Force 5, we always had to wait 60 to 80 sec. for the Force 5 to finish in short evening races where the winner crossed the line in 12-14 minutes.
Probably a better yardstick is the Portsmouth Rating (Numbers):
I think I'll know better once I go and actually take a look at the boat, but as of "right now", I'm leaning towards a Laser.
Everything just points that way....
Quanity...I should be able to find one fairly easy
A true one design...I really want to focus on improving my skills & I don't want to use new equipment as a crutch or keep having to buy new gadgets just because they're there.
There's an active fleet in Chicago and if I choose to race.....I can.
Thanks for all the great information everyone!
Mick
One more thing...I just picked up Dick Tillman's book; I'm pretty much skipping over the racing aspects covered in the book for now & just focusing on the information about the boat itself. I'm pleased to say that there's a lot of great information there & it's only helping to get me more excited about it.
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