Hallo Dennis, had nou even eerder gezegd dat je op de Grevelingen vaart, dan had ik meteen in mijn commentaar rekening kunnen houden met de Nederlandse situatie.
Translated for you Non-Dutch speaking folks out here "Hello Dennis, if you had told us sooner that you are sailing on the Grevelingen, then I could have commented on you question with the Dutch situation in mind the first time around.
Here in the Netherlands we got one of the very best secondhand markets for beach cats anywhere. Whatever you fancy is available at a very attractive price. The only exceptions are the rotomoulded designs, for some reason they never caught on here.
Just like Tony (FX-one) I looked at marktplaats.nl and there are some interesting cats there :
There is a Hobie cat 16 at 995 Euro's
A Topcat F2 at 1500 Euro's
Nacra 5.2 at 750 Euro's (but requiring some repair work)
A Prindle 16 at 1500 Euro's
A nacra 5.7 at 1950 Euro's
A Hydra 16 incl Trailer at 1.250 Euro's
A hobie cat 13 for 750 Euro's
Another Hobie cat 13 for 1150 Euro's
A nacra 5.0 for 1650 Euro's
Another Prindle 16 going for the highest offer
Yet another Prindle 16 going for 500 Euro's
A hobie 16 for 1650 Euro's
Hobie cat 16 incl trailer for 1750 Euro's
Dart 18 for 1350 Euro's
Nacra 5.2 + trailer for 1550 Euro;s
Hobie 16 for 1000 euro
Prindle 15 for 1095 Euro
Prindle 18 for 1500 Euro
And that is just naming the offer below 2000 Euro's, with some negociations the asked prices of some 2000 + boat may well come down. As you see more then enough options available.
Personally I think the Hobie 13's are very attractive offers. These boats were the predessors of the Hobie wave that mr Leonard (surf city) is talking about. These are small and underpowered boats but for 750 and 1150 Euro's they are very attractively prices. The market is absolutely flat for these boats so you may even drop the 1150 somewhat with some skilled negociating. Both are offered with a mainsail and jib. The Hobie 13's are both lighter and faster then the Hobie wave. Compare 97 kg with 110 kg. Also note the Hobie 13 is fitted out more like a true beach catamaran with a trapeze etc.
The links to the Hobie 13's are :
750 Euro Hobie 13 1150 Euro Hobie 13The second boat I want to highlight is the nacra 5.0 for 1650 Euro's incl a trailer. The boat looks old and probably is only worth some 1000 Euro's plus something for the trailer but it is a boat that is still supported by the nacra dealor in the Netherlands (Scheveningen) and has excellent sailing characteristics plus modern looks. The only real downside is that you probably need a righting aid like a water bag when you go singlehanding. The nacra 5.0 is certainly a boat you will not tire off quickly.
1650 Euro nacra 5.0 The hobie 16's speak for themselfs. These boats are also still supported by the Hobie dealer in Noordwijk and these boats a very similar in pro's and con's to the nacra 5.0 but look less modern and are somewhat less well behaved as the nacra 5.0.
The Hydra 16 is a remarkable offer in the listing. I know these boats and they are pretty much a smaller version of the Tornado. They have kick-up centreboards (zwaarden) and are pretty interestin boats but have gone out of production a very long time ago and no replacements parts are available for them. These boats are typically very hard to sell because of this, BUT some owners have taken very good care of them and because of it being a dead class you can really negociate down the price. In effect these can be very good bargains when you play your cards right. It is definately one of the more high performance boats of the listing with a lightweight aluminium mast. This boat is offered including trailer, wetsuits, trapeze harnesses, the works and they are willing to deliver the boat to your doorstep. Indicates to me that they really want to sell the boat. In the pictures the sails look al right.
1250 Euro Hydra 16 Personally I feel the Prindle 16's are great boats, but the Nacra dealer here in Holland ceased to stock replacements parts for them. They sold their hole stock to another guy in Zandvoort, but it will get harder to find replacement parts in the future. Not that you often need to however.
For the boat specs on all the named boats, like sail area weight etc, go to :
http://www.watersportverbond.nl/data/Z8F_numdet-01-4-02-2007.pdfIf you have further questions about a specific design then don't hesitate to ask. I know most of the boats named as I sailed many of them at one time or another.
Another thing I can advice is to find two inexpensive offers of the same boat and by them both and assemble one single boat from it using all the best parts. The left overs you can use as your own stock of replacement parts or sell them off. This approach is especially handy when dealing with Prindle 16's. Often the selling off of a Prindle 16 in parts brings back in more money then selling the whole boat. And there are heaps of Prindle 16's in the Netherlands so this trick will work for many many many years in the future. The same trick is applied to Prindle 18's, nacra 5.2's and some other boats that are inexpensive on the secondhand market.
And Ohh before I forget that Dart 18 offered for 1350 Euro's is a very attracive offer as well. Also this boat is supported by a Dutch dealer, so replacement parts are relative easy to come by. The dart 18 class in Netherlands is small but very active and extremely great fun, great people.
Good luck
Wouter
