I have been thinking about purchasing a sailing catamaran. I have been sailing for about 4 years, and to be honest I have only ever sailed monohulls

I have been contemplating on purchasing a Supercat 17. I found one for sale for 1,650USD with trailer. Do you guys have any tips suggestions warnings?

Is it out of my league?
Is the price fair?
Do you have any tips, suggestions, advice?
Anything helps. I am happy to answer additional questions.


Here is a link to the facebook post on which the boat is for sale on.
https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/209040490840827/?referralSurface=messenger_lightspeed_banner&referralCode=messenger_banner

I am possibly also looking for someone in the area, that can help me take a look at it, as I don't know enough about them. I am willing to pay them.
I am located In Central PA
Seller in East Greenbush, NY
Would be sailing with my brother



Edited by startingsalor on May 30, 2021 - 09:18 PM.

Notice the Hobie sails...Not going to be exactly same dimension as stock. Don't know anything about SC boats, except they're supposed to be decent to good boats, but wet rides.

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Chuck C
NACRA 500 Mk2
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The Hobie sails are puzzling. The access ports in the transoms means the gudgeons have been refastened. Paint on the rudder cages is a bad idea. This one has some issues. Without real SC17 sails the price is too high. You'll put in at least the purchase amount in fixing her up. A true rocket once she's tuned up. A definite change from monohull sailing.
There are SC17 parts and sails in the classifieds on the Beachcats classifieds.

http://owners.aquarius-sail.com/phpbb3/
Read up at this site.
I would go over this one with a really fine tooth comb. Request a bunch more pics.
Feel free to shoot me a PM if you want to discuss this further.
Having given it further thought, If you are just dipping your toe into beach cats, this one is the deep end of a murky pool. It's going to need a lot! Super Cats are a handful to sail. Consider a fully found Hobie Getaway until you get the hang of a catamaran. Then when you get a high performance cat you will be able to appreciate it.

On closer inspection, it looks like all the aluminum has been painted white. This means the corrosion hides under the paint. I IM'd the seller about the Hobie sails. He replied that this was a common replacement for Super Cats. I'm calling BS on that one.
This cat is way up by Albany NY.It's on CL up there. I'm not making the trip. It needs saving. I can't suggest you try.



Edited by gahamby on May 31, 2021 - 03:52 PM.

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'82 Super Cat 15
Hull #315
Virginia
Previously owned: '70 H14, '79 H16, '68 Sailmaster 26, '85 H14T
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I'm far from authoritative on the SuperCats, but I'm in the middle of prepping my 19 for the season (I know, late start) and am trying to learn fast.

On the matter of transom hatches: One of my hulls has one, the other doesn't. I dropped in to Aquarius on the way home from picking up my boat to meet Tom, and his comment was that when he sees those he glasses them back over. My boat had the original bent SS gudgeons, and I'm replacing them with the cast Al. After removing the old ones I found one of the holes in the unhatched transom was stripped, and Tom's recommendation was to helicoil it, as the plates are 1/4" thick. I did that, and it looks fine. So the presence of a hatch doesn't necessarily mean it was for gudgeon replacement. You can do it that way, but it shouldn't be required.

I'm with gahamby in that, especially without the normal sails, the asking price is high. I'd also encourage you to get in touch with Tom (he likes to keep track of where the boats are) as well as check out their forum (though it's extremely low-traffic).

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Southern Alberta and all over the damn place.
*
1981 SuperCat 20 "Roberts' Rockets"
1983 SuperCat 19
TriFoiler #23 "Unfair Advantage"
Mystere 17
Unicorn A-Class (probably made by Trowbridge) that I couldn't resist rescuing at auction.
H18 & Zygal (classic) Tornado - stolen and destroyed - very unpleasant story.
Invitation and Mistral and Sunflower and windsurfers w/ Harken hydrofoils and god knows what else...
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http://www.aquarius-sail.com/

As to the transom hatches, I don't know of a reason to put them in except to get to the gudgeon plates or maybe the crossbar bolt plates. (long reach that)

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'82 Super Cat 15
Hull #315
Virginia
Previously owned: '70 H14, '79 H16, '68 Sailmaster 26, '85 H14T
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