[quote=cirrussea]I've been a Hobie sailor since 1972, Had a branch dealership, Catamaran's Ltd. selling boats and renting in St. Augustine Florida for a number of years. 'Owned, sailed and at times in the '80's and '90's raced Hobie 14, 16 and 18's. Had a Monocat for a while, two Waves; a 17 later; a 21 and...Ta Da, a Prindle 18, the last one without daggerboards.
As I got a little older I started sailing Getaways. Mine have wings, later a spinnaker kit and I've generally dolled them up with the latest Harken everything and twin traps.
I love them. It's hard to pith pole one unless you are trying; impossible to turtle one so long as you have the foam bubble, they have a decent turn of speed but are very forgiving. And no damn daggerboards. The fin in place of those means you don't go to windward worth a damn unless you've got a good turn of speed and even then its not as good as a 16 or the 18 Prindle in my experience.
But the front tramp plus the wings means that you can carry a lot of kids and friends. For a Hobie its even fairly dry.
Now I life part of the year in Sandpoint Idaho, on the huge lake Pend O'reiile. I'm the only catamaran.
So of course I go out as uninvited guest for the Wednesday evening and Saturday morning races with the J-24s and -29s and Santanas and the like .... and of course murder them all over the course. I'm kind of The Pirate of O'Relle.
There are so many more options than there are now. If you looked up the Wikipedia segment on Beachcats, after the first paragraph, the one description of the history and all the models that came and went, that's me.
You'll enjoy your Getaway. Maybe when you are in port you'll find some mooohull racers to shut down :)[/quote]
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