I am interested to know what kind of ride boats like the Hobie FXOne and Nacra 16sq afford in choppy, lumpy seas? The pics on the net always show these boats off on perfectly flat water.

I know my H14 with its "banana" hulls and unfashionable raised tramp handle those conditions beautifully.

Also how do they handle in a large shore break?

Had a late 70's H14T in mint condition myself for 20 years. Sold it before we moved to Chicago and have been kicking myself ever since.(Wish I still had it for high wind and heavy surf days) Have not sailed the boats you mention but own a 5.8NA for the last 4 years.

The Nacra hull can be driven hard in heavy chop. Quite nice, no pitch pole issues. Its volume and shape slices right through.

I would think twice before I would operate any Nacra in a shore break. My boat is a pain in the _____ to handle when we have any shore break in Lake MI. Plus the hulls are no where near as tough as an H14/16.

The H14/H16 are made for that.

Haha, yeah I wouldn't consider any other cat, other than the H14 or H16, for offshore sailing.

That said my una-rigged 14 is also a pain in the ____ in the shore break at times because our club is situated on a beach that, mainly, has a perpendicular onshore wind blowing.

Its a pitty that they've stopped making the 14 in the US.

Not sure why you'd say NACRAs aren't good in a shore break. Yes, a NACRA 5.8 has daggerboards, that design style is a challenge coming in & leaving shallow waters if you don't want to go sideways.
But NACRA 5.0 & 5.7 do not have daggerboards, and the hull shape is great for the surf.
And all the (old) NACRAs have good rudder systems which give reasonable steerage even when blades are only partly down.

redneck jim
NACRA 5.7 & NACRA 5.5
ex- NACRA5.2, 5.8, 5.0

I personally think that the Nacra boats are not built to withstand the rigors of "surfing". If I was sailing in these conditions on a regular basis, it would be a H16 for me.

I've got an H17, done pretty much River and lake sailing here in Jax. I want to take it the beach at some point and when I go back to Charleston for the summer, I will be sailing on a beach, do you think the 17 will have the same problems with sailing in surf?

You might be OK. That has the built in pivoting dagger boards right? As long as you don't get small pebbles in there and they lock up! Guy on my beach has them jammed in the up position and sill the boat performs OK. On our granite sand beach we have small pebbles that are a pain in the %&###!!! for boats with daggers.

I sail with a gal who has a h17. she takes it out in the small surf, but not the bigger stuff as it does not like it...

you should be ok on a pretty calm day once you get off shore...