Hi Sunny,

Keith's advice is the best I've heard so far. Try different boats and see what you like. I'll offer my story and observations:

My first boat was an H16, but I don't think that is the best first boat around. I'd rather suggest a Prindle 16, a Wave, or a Mystere 4.3, and here's why: H16 is overpowered and under-bow-volumed. H16's not a hard boat to sail, but it is a hard boat to sail well. The Prindle can be found used cheap and is a better beginner platform with its greater bow volume. At your light weight you can carry crew with you or go singlehand on it, for it's not as over-canvassed as the H16. You can still race, there's plenty of open class racing about, but that's prolly not your main usage anyway, right?

A lightweight girl (ca. 130lb) can singlehand right an H16, it's more of a technique than brute force. I've seen it done by an excellent girl sailor named Missy Allen. She righted her H16 in a squall something like 5 times, because the wind was blowing such that the boat would go on over before she could get aboard. Righting generally is not easy, but once you get the hang, it's technique as much as anything.

The Wave is fun, and yes there's pure-D 'racing' but if you decide you like cat sailing, you may feel that you want more boat sooner. Course you could say the same thing about the P16, but it would take a bit longer.

Now that little Mystere... well, it's gotta chute, there is some class racing going on, and it's quite the versatile little craft. While you're learning you could run it without the chute and then as your skill develops you can hang the laundry. Little as you are, you can singlehand it and be competitive, quite competitive in fact.

Like I said, my first boat was an H16 and it was ok, but then I discovered other boats and now I have an 18 Square NACRA catamaran. Actually, you could do worse for beginner boats than the Sq because they're broad-beamed and relatively simple, but really it's not meant to be a starter boat.

TRY BEFORE YOU BUY, that's the best advice there is.

sea ya
tami