Can anyone tell the differences between these boats. We currently have an old HC16 with bad sails and was offered a Dart 18 with good sails.
Is the Dart a better boat or would it be a better idea to spend some money on new sails for the HC16.

First of all where do you sail ? at a lake or at Sea.
The Dart 18.

+
Easy to handle.
Single handed or light crew.
No Daggerboards.
Easy to repair.
You can sail it till the frontbeam almost goes unther water and stil get it back into position.
Very Strong.

-
Expensive spare parts (at least in Europe).
Some have lamination problems after 16-17 years.


I hope this helps.

If racing is a possiblity.. the Hobie 16 has active sailors around the USA and strong one design fleets in several areas. The Dart 18 was never actively raced in the US. Now you would be the slow boat in an open fleet.

The Dart 18 is a British cat and is raced more in Canada than the US.
If racing is not important, the Dart 18 is as fast, lighter, more forgiving,especially if you normaly have strong winds, less likely to pitchpole. The standard battens can break if you are not careful. Check that the sides of the hulls are firm from the bows back to the mainbeam. There is a foam block in there and the bond to the hull sides must be sound. The rudders have specialised parts which may be hard to come by. You can always buy parts from www.lasersailing.com
Check out www.dart18.com or www.catamaran.ie

I have had both boats, Tornado's and other boats.

If you are not racing in the hobie circuit, and you have moderate winds, the dart is the best boat in the world. I say this for the following reasons:
1) It is real light and you will be shocked how one persson can handle it on the beach.
2) It has totally linear handling, no surprises with pitchpoles, etc. Stuff it up to the rear cross bar and it will slam on the brakes and pop back up.
3) It is kind of a cross btwn an A cat and a 2 person boat, and works pretty well for both.
4) Ain't nothing on that tramp, no adjustments
5) No boom
6) Quiet!!! No swirly water noises, no humming boards, dead silent.
7) It is 8 feet wide, so trailers a bit less obtrusively.
8) You can sail it in 40 knots of wind, 2 up, and sail past all sort of pitchpoled boats laughing

And the drawbacks:
1) A bit underpowered if you are in a low wind area (actually this is its advantage as the winds pick up)
2) Limited dealers, but everything is mail order these days anyway.
3) Not much of a class

And just a warning, DO NOT confuse this with the Dart 20. It is a hulking lug, and this is one of the boats that I truely hated owning. If you want a 20 of related design, get a tornado or prindle 19.

Oh, and a couple of more things:
1) More than likely you can wright the boat yourself. It has a sealed mast and comes up easily. And there are no boards or any other protrusions to cut you up when the boat comes down on you.
2) Don't worry about specialized parts. Add the boat to your insurance policy for mast and hull damage. The only thing that maybe you would have to buy original are the rudder castings, and blades. Most other stuff is made by RWO and other companies, and can usually just be replaced with harken, shaefer, etc.
3) I sold my boat because I weigh 230 so the boat was a bit loaded when I had a crew on board. I made the mistake of going to a Dart 20 thinking that would be the ticket. But quickly ditched that for a Tornado. Tornado and Dart 18 are both designed by same person.

First: Thanks everybody for lots of information.

We sail at sea in the northern part of Sweden and catamarans are quite rare up here. Our is the only one around here! Nearest i know there is a number of cats is 400km away so competitions is out of the question.

We have now decided to go and check the Dart out next weekend !!!!