I have been sailing a monohull for a year or so. Looking to get a cat
I am looking to get one that is ok for 3 adults at least, not too frightening for someone new and reasonable enough to not outgrow too soon. I know it is hard to give advise without knowing my skills.
I have a mystere 5.5, a prindle 18, a prindle 19, a prindle escape 18 near me on the market place for around 2-3k.
I am liking the idea of Mystere apart from cool name, because of center boards, thinking it might tack better - lay guess, not a fact.
I like the look of prindle 19 but might be too much for me. Can any of them be sailed with reefed sail so that I can keep training wheels so to speak?
The Escape 18 would be my recommendation. Uses a 16 mast, has wings, and tacks well enough. Plenty of floatation for a crowd. You can also solo it. We have one at my club.
The 19 is a big boy boat. Both the Mystere and 19 are great machines. You won't outgrow the Mystere.
None can reef to my knowledge. You can depower a cat with a jib furler and hanking down on the cunningham. Get familiar with flipping. It is a rite of passage.
I have been advised to stay away from 19 by others too
I have a mystere for around 2k and I like the look of it.
I am also looking at a Escape Playcat from 2005. What do you think of those? It comes with something that looks like a back support rather than wing seat.
I do like the Escape 18. Playcat Escape is different it seems and looks like rotomolded.
Rotomolded plastic are tough, but slower. Prindles and Mystere are fiberglass and repairable; not the same with the rotomolded plastics, USUALLY. Escape Playcat won't have near the performance and you'll outgrow it, as opposed to the Prindle Escape. Generally, there appear to be enough Prindle spare parts floating around also and lots of people that have set them up. The exception to the above would be a Hobie Getaway, but much more expensive for a decent one and still not as performance boat as the others.
sure they can. All cats that sail in the Everglades Challenge are required to reef (or at least used to be required)
My mystere 6.0 had a reefing system added.
it really is not complex: add reefing grommets fore and aft (new tack for downhaul / new clew for boom and main blocks to hang off) , add a way to secure the rolled up part of the sail (i had a simple loops of webbing added to the sail on each side and simply ran a bit of line from one loop on one side to the other) there is no force applied to this rolled up part of the sail, you could use dental floss if you wanted to
take the mainsail off the hook and add a way to secure the halyard on the lower part of the mast: a simple cleat will do, I had a spin lock riveted in the bottom of my mast track) - viola !! you have a reefing system for as cheap as a few grommets and a cleat.
that being said, unless you are planning on going on a long distance race in hurricane season, or want to sail in 25+ knots ... it was not needed. I did sail in 25+ knots for fun and it was pretty amazing being out in that weather with out white knuckling it, but rigging, launching, anchoring and current were horrific to deal with .... not to mention dropping the mast afterwords
Reefed:
reefing loops and aft grommet for the new clew
foreward grommet for new tack
you can't see it but on the forward grommet on the other side of the sail, where that webbing strope is there is also a mast slug so the bolt rope can't pull out of the mast track
Prindle 19 is a good but a lot of boat - if you have experience it is fine - it is based off the Tornado design. If it is a P19MX, this is not for a newb
prindle 18 is a great boat, older design, less deck room for 3 adults would be a bit challenging unless small adults
prindle 18 escape is ... not so great imho - and will be hard to service, rotomolded hulls are heavy and slow - https://www.thebeachcats.…ms/viewtopic/topic/12850 - ymmv
Mystere 5.5 is the bomb. I owned 3 mysteres in the past. Yes the centerboards will assist with tacking, and can be retracted in shallow water and when beaching/launching. also - it is also based off the Tornado design, was actually a trainer boat for olympic sailors at one time. It is very easy to depower it - Lots of downhaul, lots of outhaul and you have depowered it some. furl the jib and you have depowerd it allot but lose some tacking control. OR you can just buy a used f18 sail (cheap) and it will have much less HorsePower than a stock sail. i had 3 of them through the years. i put them on in heavy air (I sailed solo 99% of the time). It is a very fast and responsive boat when sailed well (as is the P19)
Thanks Charlescarlis and MN3. Also, MN3, thanks for the detailed pics. I am in the Daytona Beach area. I will try to get the Mystere. Sounds like a great boat. I think the seller said no tramp. There is one on the boat in the pics but he said it needs one. I will contact the seller and see as I don't know if he meant it comes without one or it is in need of replacing.
Also, I don't know how easy they are to disassemble. Don't have a truck to haul the trailer at present and trying to get a rental truck that allows towing is a pain!!
the boats come apart with 8 bolts, 2 on each side of each beam (front and back) a new one will need to be ordered. all you need is a spanner wrench or a 9/16 rachet
you don't need a truck to haul a beach cat, any car with a tow hitch can do it (even a mini but not the best option). I have pulled cats with honda accords, lexus es and a honda crv. You can get a hitch attached at most U-haul locations for a few hundred bucks or put it on a car yourself with a hitch from etrailer.com
My car is a Mazda 6 and some genius at the Mazda decided the towing capacity is zero!! I found the enterprise truck rental or homedepot flat bed trucks. I don't mind hauling it on one of those. Enterprise guys allow towing on trucks with more than 3/4 ton. Homedepot ones can take it dismantled. I will also look at adding a tow hitch to my Mazda. I saw that they can tow 1500lb in Europe. So, I don't see why they forget the ability while swimming across the pond!!
Also, what do you mean by "new ones need to be ordered". Are you talking about the bolts? If so, will they need to be ordered from Mystere or any ordinary hardware store?
that was a typo, i meant the tramp is shot and a new one will need to be ordered
bolts are fine and even if you needed one for some reason (you lost one somehow), they are available at ace hardware
Tarch...I am in Deland. There is a great group of Cat Sailors in the Daytona Area. Hobie Fleet 80 and Halifax Sailing Assoc are whom I sail with. Send me a PM when you get a boat. Good Luck.
-- Pete
2001 NACRA 450 SOLD
2000 NACRA 500 TOTAL LOSS
2004 NACRA INTER 20 SOLD
2016 NACRA 500 Sport
DeLand, FL --
I am sure the Mazda can tow it. I doubt the whole trailer and boat weigh that much. Don't know about concerns with insurance being void if I do hit someone since Mazda says no towing allowed!! I know that most likely I am overthinking it.
On a separate note, that Mini pulling the cat is hilarious. Can't imagine the looks you get on the road
