Just been researching RS's new boat the RS100. Looks a little like an MX Ray. It appears the RS100's a bloomin good boat selling well etc etc etc.

Unlike the MX Ray which was an appaling lump of junk. Before you watch the following video be aware its all tripe.

"The fastest monohull in the world" - My arse, I've never seen one beat a 20 year old laser. In case the few people on forums folornly asking questions about this failed excuse for a boat, find as I have, a few 10 year old webpages, or god forbid the infamous video of lies above and you'd be exited about it. Sounds good? It wasn't.

It was dog slow, really, you'll note in the video there's no upwind. In fact I and other dispasionate observers have noticed it was dreadul up wind. On any couse you choose it can't even beat a laser. A design 30 years older than it. The sites like this one talk about a light hull. Its 52kg a laser's only 59 and that was desinged in 1970! Its a heavy boat with a lousy hull shape misserably uncomforble to sail. Apparently it can go 20ks, frankly I doubt it, the mast wouldn't take it.

The UK site leftover for them claims more honestly "One of the fastest monohulls in the world" think the UK distributer was getting cold feet, and even then he was lying, it doesn't come close. It wasn't even the fastest production boat, even if you ignored its dreadful up wind speed and looked at its turn of speed down wind its really wasn't in the same league. In my and these guys opinion it may have just piped a laser on a broad reach, but not enough to justify the claims made. To put in in even more perspective, contenders have been around for decades at this point (about 98 the MX came in the US out 2000 they got to the UK) the RS600 was lauched in 94, they are both producation perfomace boats that would have absolutly no chance of even being able to see an MX Ray in their wash. There's plenty of other boats older and faster than an MX Ray, the blaze is a hiking dinghy with racks rather than flares will take a MX to the cleaners on any point of sail you like, to be honest I'd bet on supernovas, phantoms anything quicker than a laser, which is a long list.

"Planes in 6 knots of wind" - no it does't even if you put a small child on it wouldn't look at the bendy mast and the 52 kilos hull - a windsufter can't plane in 6 knots of breeze. "High speed in any wind" errm alowing for the fact its slow in any wind its even worse in the light stuff. I can't be bothered to go out on the net and proove it was't the first aysemetrical single hander, but I know it was tried on the 600 in 94 and the idea was abandoned. I'm sure there were Internatioal Canoes out there with aysermeteics by that time.

So if someones selling you an MX or you look at the new RS100 and think an old MX Ray will be simialar. Stop read this and don't buy it. You can't get spares, you're bum will hurt and you will be left wishing you'd bought a clapped out old laser. I suspect the reason the MX Ray died out so fast and so spectaculrly was the massive yawning chasm between the sales pitch and the truth its "its mother was a tricycle" What? Eh? its Father was a "Rocket Ship" unfortunatly its desiger and its builder weren't so impressive, its marketing department lied so badly its a miracle they weren't sued.

It makes me Angry, people I know had these and I felt so sorry for them being beaten by 20 year old lasers with sails you could poke a finger through. When the bits dried up we put the last abandoned one in a skip took three of us. The skip van driver took it back out - even he didn't want it.