I think that Brian (pshyco15) summed it up pretty well in his post except, that he left out a boat or two; particularly the one that Dave mentioned, the Mystere 6.0.

Please indulge my off topic note to Brian here since he mentioned something in his post about Dotan rudders.

I have heard that the Dotans are not very sturdy or reliable. I see that you have them on your boat and are going to replace them because you are not satisfied with them.

I have heard it said before that Dotan is a failure on a Gcat. Perhaps it was you saying it or maybe even another Gcat sailor. Either way, I find it very interesting that Gcat's brand new boat is using them, the Dotans. I am intrigued!

It seems that if you were having trouble with them, then so would the factory. My point here is that either the factory is making a bad choice (and I will have to give them the benefit of the doubt here and assume that the system that they have chosen is good) or perhaps Gcat and Dotan have ironed out any wrinkles in the system. If this is the case, maybe you will find your solution to your performance issues with your Dotans in this arena.

Why don't you contact the Gcat and Dotan factories and find out what they did to take care of the weaknesses? I hope you do and I hope you find the solution! I also hope that I will hear about the results of your inquiry.

[color:"green"] I digress to the topic of this thread: [/color] sailing/camping.
Just for background, consider that I am a sailing/camper. I use a Mystere 6.0 and always (except once) take a crew along when doing this sort of sailing. I single hand most of my sailing time, but for camping I have crew.

If I were trying to manhandle a M6.0 around the surf and beaches, solo, I'd be screwed. They are extremely heavy boats. I have not weighed any of my boats, but my Nacra 6.0 (for sale) feels as if it is at least a hundred pounds lighter than the Mystere 6.0.

Still, I love my boat for many reasons. But I won't allow my own choice and preference jade my opinion here in trying to help you choose.

I must agree with Brian that the Prindle 18, 18.2, and 19 are probably the best choices for what you have laid out as your requirements. Particularly the 18, since you should be able to get one at such a low price, that you will have money left over to use on customizing it to use for camping.

If you are going to be in some very serious swells and chop, then the Mystere 6.0 is better in resisting nose dives. That is what makes it my choice, the superior forward hull buoyancy.

I think the key thing in Brian's post is that you should shy away from dagger boards if you are cruising, camping, and dealing with shoals, sandbars, or other obstacles such as underwater plants and huge fish.

There have been some really good remarks made on this forum about camping gear and how to carry it. Here are a couple of really interesting threads to take a look at:
Stowing stuff on board
and
Trampoline storage modification ideas?

I was disappointed to see those two threads go quiet. I enjoyed them.

GARY