Hi Vespa,

Everyone's advise has been good, both are excellent boats.
The H-18 is the best Beach Cat/Racer designed. The N5-8 is an excellent racer/beach cat. The order of the words is important !!! So I have to ask what type of sailing are you going to be doing ??? The 82-83' H-18 you have mostlikely wieghs between 320-330lbs, the "red-foam boats from mid 84-86'? wieghed from 390-400lbs but had issues if a heavy wieght crew w/ 7x1 mainsheet installed sailed the boat "hard". They had enough muscle and leverage to cause the boat to crack under the gunwales and eventually cause the bow to fold or even tear away (been there, done that!!!)
Ok?

The Nacra while an excellent race boat has some issues with Surfbreaks, mainly the landing. The hull design is fairly straight with plumb bows ... if you come off the wave with the bows pitched down, they have a tendency to drive/dig inro the beach and the boat pitchpoles in the surf, Ugly!!!
The H-18 with the hulls designed with a slight rocker will drive onto the beach but the bows will not dig in. Now if we compare the daggerboards you will notice that the N5-8's are straight, deeper and more efficent ... the H-18's are angled slightly and are shallower/wider, therefore they are not as efficent as the Nacra's ... BUT if you hit a sandbar or any object in the water you want to be on the Hobie, the slight angle to the boards allows the boat to pitch forward slightly dissipating the impact forces just enough to allow the boat to survive with no or minimal damage. The roller furler on the jib is a great help at times allowing the boat to be reefed for winder conditions. Now an 82-83' should have the "old style rudder system" on it if it does you'll want to replace that with the new style system introduced in 87-88'?(I believe).

Both boats are technically members of "The Dead Boat Sociaty" as we like to call it as niether is currently in-production. But there are alot more H-18s around and the class has been fairly stable for the last several years.

If you wish to pleasure cruise w/friends install a set of Magnum Wings on the H-18!!!

Note to Mary: could you find the link to the "Sunkist Commercial" and post that here that was on a thread in Jan?

Watch the Sunkist video from 84'!!! WOOF, WOOF, WOOF!!!!

Please, someone get me a Sunkist while I rig my H-18mag ... Lets go jump some waves!!!! call us AIRBORN

Anyway, you will enjoy the ride ... welcome to the world of catamarans ... you are now offically an Ex-Monomoraner!!!

Sail Flat, Sail Fast
HarryMurphey
H-18mag/#9458, Fleet54/Div11
P-19mx w/spin /#86, Crac