Thanks for the reply. the asking price was always too high for a boat I wouldn't feel safe travelling more than a couple of hundred metres from the beach with. Owner was asking $1100 down from $1500. I would have been fairly interested had the hull not had such an obvious problem as the rig seems fairly good...not seen rigged up though. As for racing- I had not considered this at present. My daughter is showing some interest in sailing and especially using the trapeze so I need to buy a bigger Catamaran as my windrush 14 just isn't quite big enough for the two of us. Plus I don't have any guarantee that my daughter will want to sail more than a few times before wanting to do something else...hence I am reluctant to buy a more expensive one. Of course, if she was interested enough to race I would need a more recent hobie 16. Nick