Back in the day I had a Nacra 5.7 and I am looking to get back into Cat sailing again. I've seen Prindle and Sol's available and wondering how those compare to my old Nacra?
hx--John

I have never owned any of these brands but have been around many Prindles and Nacra's.

I know NOTHING about Sol's

Prindles were made by the same comp as NACRA (Performance)... but there are few similarities from what i know.

Prindles (seem to me) to follow more of a Hobie design (the 16's and 18's are very similar) where they are almost more for the rec sailor (of course they were also raced). They both had deck lids and rocker style hulls.

Where Nacra's (seem to me) to be more of a racing style cat (not exclusively) with more controls and modern (for their time) design.

both prindles and nacra's seem to hold up pretty well and have loyal followings.

I think both Nacra and Prindles are fine boats..

Solcats, Prindles, and Nacras are all good boats. Question is what do you want to do with cat sailing --recreational, racing, both?-- I think the Nacra is a step above the other two because of the racing pedigree and those sweet looking hulls. There will be more parts available for the Nacra than the Prindle/Solcat as well, which is a big plus. Other thing is money, all three manufacturer's boats can be had for a song. The 5.2s (my favorite cat) can be had for $1500, same story applies to the others.

One question...what sized cat are you looking for? Cause that can be a determining factor for the boat. For 18ft and on, go with a Nacra because of the wide presence of boats. Prindle made the P-19, which was basically a tornado calmed down, amazing boat, but few and far between.
For purely recreational sailing, a Prindle is hard to beat.

I am biased toward the Nacra.

I have the Nacra 5.5 Uni and love it. Boat setup takes a while to figure out (diamond wire tension and mast rake are my biggest setup issues), but once you get the settings close, the boat flies. The 5.5 is also available as a sloop rig and the Uni can be converted. I don't think it is legal for the sloop to have the carbon mast though.

Yellowhulls is right about the P19. Great boat. The Prindle 18-2 is a smaller version of the P19 and should be on your list if you are considering an 18 foot boat. The 18-2 and 19 are both centerboard boats and would be faster than the Nacra 5.7. The 18-2 (2-up) would be considerably faster than the Nacra 5.7 and about the same as the Nacra 5.5 Uni(1-up). The P19 will be outrun the P18-2 by about the same margin as the 18-2 outruns the 5.7. The P19 is comparable (as far as speed goes) to the Nacra 5.8 (falls between the orig 5.8 and 5.8 NA). Both Nacra and Prindle have great build quality.

Solcats are becoming rare and it may be a problem getting parts for them in the future. In fact, solcats are now listed as an inactive class with US Sailing.

I'll put in my 2 cents because I recently asked the group similar question and found their comments very helpful
you have to consider your regional area, what kind of boats predominate and therefore where you can get parts, and what is being raced if you are into racing
around east/central IA hobie 16/18's are most common, therefore because of numbers used boats are cheaper. I just bought a nice H-16 all set to race w/ a lot of new gear, and despite the new stuff saved enuf to even consider adding to my fleet next year, probably a 18 w/wings to take out a group of folks, while I'll single-hand my H-16 (or get crew about 80 lbs
I used to live in WI, will probably sail there a lot, but over there Nacra's predominate for racing (see CRAW website)
That said, I did see a nice used prindle 16 in the outdoor storage area by Lake McBride,near Iowa City, of course the owner could not be persuaded to part with her.....

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eddiecat

Nacra 5.0 (destroyed in storm)
Hobie 16 (restored)
Nacra 5.5- amalgam "Franken Cat"
--

I can see where Eddie is coming from. I bought my Nacra when I lived in Michigan. There is a great Nacra dealer and a fleet of 5.5 unis. Since then I moved to Texas which seems to be dominated by Hobies. This will limit me to a couple of regattas a year that run a portsmouth fleet.