Hello, I am just getting into sailing and would like to purchase my
first Cat. My wife & I would like something that we could use for
social week end sailing & eventually for regattas. I am a little
confused about all the different kinds of Cats available &
features.......I think I have narrowed it down to a few but would
appreciate some advice from experienced sailors before I buy. I have
been reading about the Hobie 16, Getaway, Wave...the Narca models &
the G-Cat's. What are the pro's & con's of each? which company & model
has the best rep for quality? Is most of the sailing at the beach or
is there any sailing done on local lakes around here? Is there any
place around the Tampa Bay area that We could rent any of these Cats
to try out before we buy? I live in Tampa Bay so I would be sailing
around this area mostly. Sorry about all the "newbie" questions, any
help would be greatly appreciated. thanks ArchAngel

On Sat, 17 Sep 2005 00:02:05 +0000, mmontiel wrote:

Hello, I am just getting into sailing and would like to purchase my
first Cat. My wife & I would like something that we could use for
social week end sailing & eventually for regattas. I am a little
confused about all the different kinds of Cats available &
features.......I think I have narrowed it down to a few but would
appreciate some advice from experienced sailors before I buy. I have
been reading about the Hobie 16, Getaway, Wave...the Narca models &
the G-Cat's. What are the pro's & con's of each? which company & model
has the best rep for quality? Is most of the sailing at the beach or
is there any sailing done on local lakes around here? Is there any
place around the Tampa Bay area that We could rent any of these Cats
to try out before we buy? I live in Tampa Bay so I would be sailing
around this area mostly. Sorry about all the "newbie" questions, any
help would be greatly appreciated. thanks ArchAngel

What is the cat crowd sailing in your area? Go and talk to them!
There are several beach cat fora at catsailor.com. I think you will
get more feedback there.

/Martin

Martin Schöön wrote:
On Sat, 17 Sep 2005 00:02:05 +0000, mmontiel wrote:


Hello, I am just getting into sailing and would like to purchase my
first Cat. My wife & I would like something that we could use for
social week end sailing & eventually for regattas. I am a little
confused about all the different kinds of Cats available &
features.......I think I have narrowed it down to a few but would
appreciate some advice from experienced sailors before I buy. I have
been reading about the Hobie 16, Getaway, Wave...the Narca models &
the G-Cat's. What are the pro's & con's of each? which company & model
has the best rep for quality? Is most of the sailing at the beach or
is there any sailing done on local lakes around here? Is there any
place around the Tampa Bay area that We could rent any of these Cats
to try out before we buy? I live in Tampa Bay so I would be sailing
around this area mostly. Sorry about all the "newbie" questions, any
help would be greatly appreciated. thanks ArchAngel


What is the cat crowd sailing in your area? Go and talk to them!
There are several beach cat fora at catsailor.com. I think you will
get more feedback there.

/Martin

Hi Martin,

I'm not sure why you have decided on a catamaran, though there are a lot
of good reasons. The Hobie Wave is a 14 foot catamaran, made of
plastic, and intended primarily for children. It's a bad choice for
adults, as the performance is lacking and you will soon become bored
hanging out with the 12-year-old crowd. The Hobie 16 is a good cat,
with exciting performance. It's a popular boat that is raced
everywhere. There is world-wide racing association for them where you
can get lots of help and be involved in lots of social activities. It's
a good, inexpensive, first catamaran. The Nacra cats are significantly
faster, better sailing craft than the Hobie 16s, but are more expensive.
You will also find that the Nacra crowd is far more serious about
racing. That's good if you are already a hard-core racer, but not so
good if you're just getting started. You won't find as many purely
social events or events for the whole family and, while I know and like
a lot of those guys, you will soon find that they outsail you so badly
in a race that you can't even see the next boat in front of you. There
is more information at the US Sailing website and the American Sailing
Association (ASA) website, but they also try to push their vrious
memberships (I belong to both) and schools (I have been both a student
and an instructor). There are innumerable opportunities to rent Hobie
cats at all sorts of ASA or US Sailing facilities. It's pretty cheap
too, but you can most likely sail all day, free, if you just get on the
e-mail list for the Hobie 16 association near you and let people know
that you want to sail. Feel free to call me if you have further questions.

Stan
310-287-2422

Martin Schöön wrote:
On Sat, 17 Sep 2005 00:02:05 +0000, mmontiel wrote:


Hello, I am just getting into sailing and would like to purchase my
first Cat. My wife & I would like something that we could use for
social week end sailing & eventually for regattas. I am a little
confused about all the different kinds of Cats available &
features.......I think I have narrowed it down to a few but would
appreciate some advice from experienced sailors before I buy. I have
been reading about the Hobie 16, Getaway, Wave...the Narca models &
the G-Cat's. What are the pro's & con's of each? which company & model
has the best rep for quality? Is most of the sailing at the beach or
is there any sailing done on local lakes around here? Is there any
place around the Tampa Bay area that We could rent any of these Cats
to try out before we buy? I live in Tampa Bay so I would be sailing
around this area mostly. Sorry about all the "newbie" questions, any
help would be greatly appreciated. thanks ArchAngel


What is the cat crowd sailing in your area? Go and talk to them!
There are several beach cat fora at catsailor.com. I think you will
get more feedback there.

/Martin

Sorry, the reply should have been addressed to "Archangel", not to Martin.

Stan