A personal review of the RS Feva

by Francois Hillier on 23 Sep 2008 Here's a great story from Sail-World reader Francois Hillier- it's a review of the RS Feva which he tried out at Gosford Sailing Club last weekend. Performance Sailcraft, the Australian manufacturer and importer of the British RS range, are organising a series of free RS Demo Days at clubs across Australia. Francois and his wife went along to have a sail on the RS Feva and were so impressed that they sent us the following review.

'To give you an idea of what we put this little training/racing boat through, my wife and I are both heavy weights, I’m the heaviest sailor in our Laser fleet at Gosford of 35 plus boats weighing in at 104kgs. My wife until this trial has little to no sailing experience and until this point had never sailed two up. She had no idea what a jib was.

Weather

WNW 15 gusting over 30 knots with the heavy gusts hitting like a Mohammad Ali upper cut, it was rig breaking weather.

The boat in a word is “Simple”. I gave my wife a quick run down on the Jib a very simple set up, and explained how it worked and where on the boat she needed to sit, and how to respond as the boat powered up.

Next we launched the boat.

Remember this little boat is designed for kids, so straight away you would think there would be a buoyancy problem. No, no such problem. The Boat took my wife’s weight, then mine and still had very positive buoyancy.

After a very short moment getting use to the very light and responsive steering, we powered up the little boat.

WOW!

This little boat not only took our weight, it was very easy to control, it accelerated very well and at one stage both of us were sitting on the side with my wife hanging right out. It went through waves, over waves and destroyed waves, each time with no concern as the water just went straight out the back, a very safe boat.

The rap up

The RS Feva is the best lead in boat, I have seen in its range for years. The hull is very comfortable being soft on the knees even for two adults with plenty of room. The controls are so simple that it takes all the difficulty out of learning to sail multi sail boats.

I would recommend this boat to anybody with kids, whether they wanted to race or just to have abit of fun. It would suit two kids or parent and child with more fun than you can poke a stick at.

We now look forward to sailing the RS 200, if the “Little boat” is that fun, can’t wait to see what her big sister is like!'

Francois Hillier

http://www.hhhracing.com

For more information on the RS range:

http://rssailing.com.au

Email Jason at Jason@lasersailing.com.au for more information about the RS Demo Weekends and to book one for your club. Not only do you get to try out the super fun RS range but you also get a free BBQ! Woollahra Sailing Club will host an RS Demo Day on the 18th and 19th of October.

Performance Sailcraft contact details:
Performance Sailcraft Pty Ltd
Lot 7 Catamaran Road, Ourimbah NSW 2258
Australia