RE: What model is good?
One word of caution. If you put all the go fasts that the class allows and use just enough ballast to get up to the class weight of 8# you might have a pretty tender yacht with a Fairwind. Mine weighs 8lb-2oz. In a stiff blow it is very tender and I find it better to sail by the quarter boards down wind to keep it from diving. Close hauled you must point high if you don't like to sail rail down. In a light to moderate breeze I can sail under and to leeward of all the other Fairwinds on our pond. It is a really fun boat. Fair priced and easy to put together. I had two VMP Soling 1M's and I believe I could keep up with them with my Fairwind. My Victoria was a fairly fast ship for its size. Not quite as easy to build but not too hard either. Since they have changed it a bit I might just get another.