Catamaran of course but then what?
Mega yacht, high tech everything?
Something more traditional like a Wharram Pahi?
ultra efficient beach cat type?
For me it would be roughly the size of the Tiki 21, minimal accomodations optimized for one person, and easily broken down for storage and transport. Performance close to a modern spin boat of course!
I always likes Cat2Fold. Good performance, good for a few days on the water . Trailerable behind a standard pickup. Good performance.
Any boat you don't have to make the payments on, store, or maintain. Size, number of hulls, and power source are irrelevant.
Hobie 18 minus 100 LBS.
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Mega yacht, high tech everything?
Something more traditional like a Wharram Pahi?
ultra efficient beach cat type?
For me it would be roughly the size of the Tiki 21, minimal accomodations optimized for one person, and easily broken down for storage and transport. Performance close to a modern spin boat of course!
F22 it is then. What colour do you want?
pics?
Cool, I just went through this exercise... Here were my criteria for buying a boat. (not in order.)
1. Designed to handle well both 1-up (main alone) and 2-up (main and jib.) (I define this criteria by the speed of the boat being comparable in either configuration. i.e., the Texel ratings are about the same.) I sail alone about half the time and especially when racing, but when my wife is on board, she wants to be a crew member, not a passenger.
2. Has asym-spinniker. I just like the way they look.
3. Light weight, easy to handle on land, possible for one person to rig/derig. I do most of the work on my own.
4. Optimized for a 1-up crew of about 70kg, 2-up crew of about 120kg. We are pretty small people by Western standards.
5. Faster than a Hobie 16. If I want to go slower, I can just use the boats at my local sailing center.
6. Trailerable without breaking down the entire platform. It's bad enough having to take the mast down.
7. Cost less than $10K US including trailer and beach wheels or used boats in that price range are available. I'm not made of money.
What boats fit the above?
Vitamin Sea - J-24 Trimaran Conversion
http:/
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A Gunboat 62 of course.
http:/
Hey, a man can still dream, right?
(1) - PAID FOR
(2) - practically sails itself...fast
(3) - stores itself
(4) - makes chicks dig me (which makes items #1-3 easy by comparison)
(2) - practically sails itself...fast
(3) - stores itself
(4) - makes chicks dig me (which makes items #1-3 easy by comparison)
+1
1. Designed to handle well both 1-up (main alone) and 2-up (main and jib.) (I define this criteria by the speed of the boat being comparable in either configuration. i.e., the Texel ratings are about the same.) I sail alone about half the time and especially when racing, but when my wife is on board, she wants to be a crew member, not a passenger.
2. Has asym-spinniker. I just like the way they look.
3. Light weight, easy to handle on land, possible for one person to rig/derig. I do most of the work on my own.
4. Optimized for a 1-up crew of about 70kg, 2-up crew of about 120kg. We are pretty small people by Western standards.
5. Faster than a Hobie 16. If I want to go slower, I can just use the boats at my local sailing center.
6. Trailerable without breaking down the entire platform. It's bad enough having to take the mast down.
7. Cost less than $10K US including trailer and beach wheels or used boats in that price range are available. I'm not made of money.
What boats fit the above?
F16, pick your flavor.
(2) - practically sails itself...fast
(3) - stores itself
(4) - makes chicks dig me (which makes items #1-3 easy by comparison)
Ack, if I wanted a boat that fits number 2 above, I would get a motorboat.
Not just any F16 flavor. It's damn hard to find a Viper or Falcon for less than $10K with trailer and beach wheels. Blades and Taipans fit. The latter is what I ended up buying.
The Nacra 500 comes close (although its a bit too slow 1-up,) and the Topcat K2 is good choice. Both are quite a bit heaver than a Blade or Taipan though. I was keeping an eye out for all four with a preference for the F16 choices.
I also came close to buying a Mystere 5.0xl (though not well suited for 1-up sailing,) but the boat I found was in too bad of condition for the asking price.
The F16 haters can hate all they want, but if they can't find a boat that better fits me, I'm not interested.
I'll take mine in white.
Mega yacht, high tech everything?
Something more traditional like a Wharram Pahi?
ultra efficient beach cat type?
goes together in 15 minutes or less
trapeze boat
90 kg or less
Why do you say that?
Remember how I defined the term for this discussion. The Texel rating for 1-Up with main alone needs to be close to the rating for 2-Up with main and jib. That said, I don't know what the Texel rating is for a 1-Up Mystere 5.0 XL.
Looking back on my notes, I think I misspoke. The Mystere does seem to be a good boat for my purposes. It's on par with the Nacra 5.0 (about the same weight, but a little more sail area.) Like I said, if the one I found had been in better shape I would have bought it.
As to the Mystere 5.0 XL, it's an excellent solo boat. Unfortunately, I sold mine to step up to a 5.5, found that the 5.5 was not my
soul mate
but I could never find another 5.0 XL. Andrew (MN3) now is loving my old 5.5.
I went back to 16 feet and now solo a Nacra 5.0 with spin. The Nacra 5.0 is also an excellent solo platform but I'd much rather have the old Mystere 5.0XL (sniff <img src="<>/frown.gif" alt="frown" title="frown" height="15" width="15" /> ). And you're right that the specific M5.0 you saw was a real dog. Also, it was NOT an XL.
Daniel, you will find when you race the MiniMacho why F16 is not popular in the Dunedin fleet....shallow water inside the islands. Swing centerboards and boardless are 95% of our fleet. You'd best practice the inside route before the race or you'll be fixing mashed up boards and board throats. It can be done but you need to learn the local shoals. Out in the Gulf it's fine but even there you'll find unexpected shoals way offshore (South Three Rooker pass). Don't ask me how I know. Also, the beer is on the inside islands.
Perfect boat? Different strokes for different folks.
Dave the M 5.0 he looked at was your old boat. Ali's.
I thought it was that old beater from Craigslist. The guy selling that one had rags for sails and the hulls were mush. Little Jon thought the same. If Ali is willing to sell the old XL I should talk to her. With her getting married to a non-sailor her need for it is zilch. Next she'll have kids and you know what that does to most sailors (me, for example).
The old beater was Stevie's. Call her.
Also we will run (if possible) the Mini Macho so the upwind leg is in the Gulf so the board boats will have a easier time with the inside.
The boat I was referring to was Ali's boat. The main has been sitting in an inch or two of water for probably a year or so. Very moldy. Ali told me the boat cannot be towed out of where it is (in Clearwater) until the axle is fixed on the trailer. The outside port hull bow is quite soft. Both hulls had a couple of inches of standing water in them (and more mold.) Most of the blocks and cleats were sun damaged (the plastic was dry and cracked,) and she told me she wanted $1500 firm. My sailing friend who I consulted suggested it would probably cost $2000+ to get the boat back into useable shape. I was looking for something that would be ready to sail rather than a fixer-upper. I didn't even go look at the beater from Craigslist.
I might be able to convince a friend of mine with an Inter 17 to sail the mini-macho as well. His boards are much longer than mine, but we are both used to sailing in Clearwater Bay so hopefully we can handle the terrain. I guess we will find out when we sail them up to Dunedin on the Saturday before the race. 🙂
for me its the lagoon 500
H-17.
That is a capital idea. You could make one out of carbon fiber, but it would be prohibitively expensive. That was an idea I had for a business. You could make licensed carbon fiber copies of existing boats. Name the company Carbon Copies. The problem is I don't know the first thing about how to build boats, and I don't have the capital to start it.
Wouldn't there be a licensing problem?
Several people have just stated what their perfect boat is, but haven't given any reasons why... Personally, I'm more interested in the reasons than the final boat choice. Especially those that chose something like the Lagoon 500. Why would you want one? What need/desire would it fulfill?
Why do you think a (Hobie 18 minus 100 lbs) or (H-17) be better than any other boat?
Prying minds want to know. 🙂
For me, storage and
forgettability
are high on the feature list. If you have a boat in the water it's a 24/7 concern. I want one that will break down into the smallest possible package so that it doesn't take up too much space in my side yard (I refer to this area as the boat yard. My wife doesn't go there.)
Once launched it needs to be able to live off shore as well as in mangroves, because those are the places I like to sail.