Hey Dennis,

If you walked into my shop, our dialog would go something liked this:

(Me)
"Good afternoon Dennis, Welcome to Surf City".
(You)
“I'm looking for an easily trailerable boat, and (inevitably?) some website suggested a Hobie…I don't intend to race seriously because I could never be at enough regattas to pick up significant points. That means I will be pleasure sailing, the pleasure primarily coming from running rings around other boats, just for the heck of it.”
(Me)
“Pretty much any cat can rig fairly quickly with practice. Some rig more quickly than others though, and it doesn't sound like a spinnaker is your thing, so we'll rule out spin boats.”
(You)
“I will be single-handing a lot (or taking small children along), which is even 'worse' :-)”
(Me)
It’s great that you want to get your kids into sailing so early! There are ways that we can make a boat like a Hobie 16 able to be put together and sailed by one person, but that’s not what that boat was built for. If the wind came up and you dumped, it would be very difficult to right while dealing with your children. How about a cat that is a little less powered up. And when the wind does pipe up how about a reef to keep things mellow for the kids?”
(You)
"I don't know how compatible a cat is to what my wife enjoys though... It may still be a hard sell"
(Me)
“Sounds like something with backrests would work out nicely. And, it will give the kids an extra something to hold onto.”
(You)
“I agree about being able to right the boat single handedly, that is a definite MUST. I do NOT want to be the one giving cats a bad name around here.”
(Me)
“Good call! You can provision a cat with a righting bag or pole, but with kids on board you want to get it upright as quickly as possible. Or even better, lessen the chances of a capsize by choosing a hull design with a lot of buoyancy forward, and a de-powered sail plan. But, you also want the option of adding sail to make it more exciting.”
(You)
“I'm also a do-it yourself type of guy. I do not like the idea of buying anything that is made from polypropylene or polyethylene. I can handle glass and epoxy, but There is no way I know of, of fixing sloppy PP/PE (I still have nightmares from the days of my old surfboard).”
(Me)
Plastic’s come a long way. I have never had to do warranty work on any Hobie rotomolded sailboat hull due to defect in manufacturing…I’ve never even seen one get a hole, and I’ve been selling their products since 1999. Hobie rotomolded boats are very tough.”

Sounds like the Flyer 2 A-class is the perfect….
Just Kidding!

Based on the above info taken from your posts. I would say that a Hobie Wave would be the ticket. Add the jib kit so that the kids could get used to crewing and maybe backrests for the wife.

This whole dialog is a total farce though. If you brought the family into the shop my dialog would’ve been with your wife. Because everyone knows when kids are involved, the wife picks the boat.
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