At the bottom of the hill where I live in West Maui is an area known as Prindle Beach. Apparently is was the place to both keep and sail cats on Maui. When we bought the house almost six years ago there were a few cats still there but most appeared to be abandoned.

The people who owned homes or lots along the beach eventually had the boats removed. I heard one story where a cat owner was going to leave his boat overnight and was confronted by a homeowner who told him he’d have the boat cut up and dragged off. The homey seemed to be unaware of the concept of public beaches.

Currently there are few beach cats on Maui. There’s one guy from the other side (jollyrogers on this board) who sails both sides of the island. A part time neighbor has a Nacra that I’ve never seen leave his driveway. The owner of Shangri-La, a 50-foot charter cat has an I20 for sale as he never has time to use it. There are probably a few more.

My wife saw someone try to launch a Getaway at the local ramp. He tried to step the mast in the water a couple of times and finally gave up. I wish I had been there to help him out and get him involved in expanding cat sailing.

The local dealer is, primarily, a powerboat joint that has a few Waves that the hotels buy for rentals. I contacted them first about buying an H20 and was told they wanted $20,000 plus $4,000 for shipping. And that was IF they decided that they would allow me to buy a boat from them. I worked with my mainland dealer who has a much more realistic concept of pricing and how to work with customers.

On top of all the dying beach cat news, the Lahaina marine and fishing store closed down last month. West Marine via the Internet is my primary source for stuff now.

Bottom line, it appears that beach cat sailing has effectively died on Maui. It’s really too bad as there’s a huge channel out there with nearly year ‘round consistent trade winds of 10 to 25 mph and 80 degree water.