I remember thinking they were super cool, when they were new.

Any idea who still makes sails and trampolines for them? 

I look forward to following your progress and perhaps seeing the end product one day.

I've heard that they're a great cat and a blast to sail.

The Mystere 6.0's plan so far:

Get her on her paws again as quickly as possible to get a good idea of what she's all about....

I raced against a M6.0XL back in the later 1990's (Mike Fahle's cat) and in my mind it was amazing.... at least compared to my modified H18.

So, I want to gelcoat the bottom so that it's halfway fair, I've re-aligned the centerboards so that they won't wobble about and not create good lift to windward (they'll now be more efficient than the stock configuration). There was a lot of slop in the centerboard wells and boards. In a far past post, Mike had indicated that an F16 easily overtook him to windward while sailing through his lee. That might have been because of poor centerboard alignment and board slop from the factory.

The sails look pretty good for their age, except the luff rope has shrunk. I believe I can stretch it back out with a little soaking and tension, and some hard sailing. The jib has fold marks.... again, maybe some sailing will help. 

Standing rigging will be replaced with synthetics. But for now I think it will be ok for the remainder of this season.

Running rigging is usable for now.

The previous owner had the boat upside-down on old tires, covered with a heavy tarp. But had left everything on the boat, so the running rigging was somewhat preserved by the mud, but needs a lot of washing to get all the abrasive dirt particles out. All of that will be replaced by next year, though the rachets/blocks are in good order! For it's age, it ain't too bad! Far better than my  2010 F18's running equipment.

The centerboards and rudders are in very good condition, save for a couple little indications of light board-groundings.

There's a lot of loose bondo that is rolling around within the hulls. I've come to find out that is a typical 'feature' of the Mysteres. Eventually (hopefully this coming winter) the decks will have to come off and the internals dealt with. The decks most definitely appear as if there were some diy gelcoat 'corrections.' Chainplates will be attended to, then, as well... I was even thinking of making some carbon G10 for new chainplates. No corrosion!

The Mystere came with wings. They're almost identical to the stock H18 wings but not of as heavy gauge aluminum tubing. They don't impress me at all. Some welds are broken, with signs that it had been re-welded before. Not a big problem re-welding and re-reinforcing those welds, but the geometry makes them more of a lounge rather than a performance addition. We ain't old yet. I'd like to modify those wings so that they attach far more securely to the beams, and so that they are at a slightly elevated position relative to the decks, rather than being an easy-chair like they are now. I'd be very hesitant to trap off the existing wing design. They might fold up. The idea is to make them lower-slung, so with a flying hull, the lee's wing might be kissing the wave tops at times, and the crew is comfortably trapped out on the windward wing. That's an idea in progress.

I was also thinking about expanding her beam to 10+ ft like an 6.0 XL. Maybe in the future.

The boat felt very stiff when picking up one bow on the trailer and while it was on the ground (grass). No perceivable play between hulls and beams like our previous H18 had. The beam bolts came out pretty easily.... no fuss, no muss. Some were actually slightly more than finger-tight, so it's somewhat surprising to me that she felt so stiff. I'll be adding in some aluminum compression bushings for the bolts in the beam interiors.

As for decals, paint, beautification.... eh, she's an old cat. Her character will show that for this season.... Maybe next season she'll be all pretty, maybe with a big 'Grimalkin' painted on her topsides. I have some slightly-textured grey-colored SeaDeck that was destined for the F18 C2, but perhaps Grimalkin would like it better.

Oh, I believe she might be getting a spi pole and rigging.... I could use the F18's spi for the interim. 

Naturally, a spi rig gravitates to a self-tacking jib to help keep the crew from being overwhelmed. That means a radiused jib traveler. Possibly a recut jib. Or possibly just move the bridle wire chainplates further forward, but that would mean more pinching forces on the bows. So.... why not a foil with a pelican-striker setup to lower the jib foot/tack?

Yeah, I need to see and feel her temperament before I do any radical mods to her.

I like to blast around the lake, sound, or bay as fast as I can, just as much as any cat sailor does.... but I LOVE racing! That's where all the sailing skills and rules knowledge and the resulting tactics are put to the test. I love the comradery, too.

Yes, Lisa (awesome wife/crew) and I are racing in Oak Hollow Sailing Club's regattas every month and doing well on the club's old, basic H16, and we've been mixing it up with some H18's (our true rivals), so it will be a lot of fun to have a bigger, better weapon. The Mystere 6.0 has a relatively low Portsmouth Number of ~63.9, compared to an H18 of 71.4, so our work will be cut out for us on an old boat, initially. New sails would likely make her shine. I was surprised that her rating is actually lower than that of a SuperCat-20 (65.0).

Somewhat true to the previous owner's (Larry) ambitions though not as extreme as the Newport-Bermuda race he was 'planning,' I'd like to enter her into some long distance races down in Florida. We'll see. I think a long-ish distance race around the islands of Lake Erie would be a real hoot. Blasting around the Albemarle Sound (OBX) would be fun, too. Too bad Hardy Peters is not sponsoring/promoting any cat races over there as in past years.

So in a nutshell.... I gotta get this girl in the water ASAP and see what she'll do with enough work to make her seaworthy again. Then we'll take it from there!

Thanks for the post, Tom!

I came across a really nice 4.3, but it needs a new trampoline and I am struggling to determine if it’s going to be a nightmare. 

if you want to be able to reef while on water/sailing then you need to bypass the hook, put double purchase halyard and cleat it near mast step. 

if you want just to have a smaller sail area while learning the boat:

1. Add reef points to the sail. Use “a tail” between sail head and hook. You will need to drop sail to attach the tail.

2. Or find a smaller sail, and figure out how to put it on the mast. Probably using the same “tail” between sail head and the hook.

multiple hooks on a mast don’t really work. I mean they work if you can land the boat , reef it and sail away, but it is impractical and very difficult to use in real conditions on water. 

Watertribe adventure races require any sail crafts entering them to have two reefs, you can look up their solutions. 

Hobie Fleets – Hobie Class Association of North America

We just moved to Newport, NC and are looking for a place to put our Nacra 500 for the summer so we do not have to mast/unmast it every time.

Does anyone know a place on Harlowe creek or Morehead city or Atlantic Beach, NC where we can actually do that?

Thank you for your help.

Christophe