Hi Folks-

I've been away from catamarans for a while. I spent many good years on a Nacra 5.2 on Texas lakes and moved on to a Taipan 4.9 and had a lot of fun racing it in Texas.

I moved away from beach cats and bought a Beneteau 235.

I went cruising in Mexico for a while on a Lancer 36 and wrote a book.

Now I've washed up in Lake City, Florida and wish to purchase and maybe race a beach cat again.

I was looking around at places to sail and see Ocean Pond and took a road trip to Cedar Key. Both super shallow. So the Mystere 4.3 caught my eye.

Maybe a nice P-16 is good. Thoughts from anybody in Lake City?

Question: In the local racing events around Florida is there an open class (Portsmouth), or should I focus on an F16?

Seems the racing scene is now dominated by the F16 boats. I don't mind travelling the weekend to be involved with other catsailors and racing.

Thanks in advance for any local insight!

David Swingle

F16 and F18 are the two most active classes, and with the F16 you can compete single-handed.
There is very little Portsmouth racing. I run the Tradewinds Regatta, and the biggest classes are the two Fs and H16 and Wave. Hardly any Open Class boats
Rick

Take up pistol shooting like I have. There is A LOT more activity and competition every weekend!

No trailer, smaller-faster car, life is good.

YMMV,
Bob

What the...!?

Don't listen to Bob he spends far too much time in the basement.

We are far more diverse and fun group of people, not me really but the other people, I'm kind of a dick. Check out the A-cat, you can get a classic pretty cheaply and for a 165 pound boat it will give you a solid workout! If you go the A-cat route join the class the fleet will bend over backwards to help you out and get you involved.

I'm not a fan of the "classic" moniker. You people have no creativity.

"Retro" sound better?

Who are you calling "you people"?

Not really..but there's certainly some other moniker that doesn't make my boat sound like it's worthless from a performance standpoint. The pre-foiler boats are still regularly beating a lot of foilers.

See?...now there's a start. "Prefoiler", "non-foiler", or "semi-foiler".

Whoever came up with that name and whoever condones its use without objection!

You're clearly going to be trouble.

It's what I do best!

children. All of us....

I've got a Viper I'd like to sell if you're interested.

I bought an ad, a while ago. I don't think it's up anymore.

How about "displacer"? That sounds like a fat lady, though....

The A-Class catamaran has had 52 boats compete in Florida this winter alone across 5 regattas so far in the Keys, Miami, St Pete, and Sarasota. Next event is the weekend after next in Panama City and could be a good time to check things out. The event is called Caterwaul: http://www.stabyc.com/Waterfront/Racing/2016-Racing.aspx

We have fleets in the Miami area, Orlando area, Tampa / St Pete / Gulfport, Space Coast, and some more scattered. Here is a video of a little racing this winter from Key Largo: https://vimeo.com/154763007

Have the F18s and F16s really been more active than this in Florida? If so, that is great to hear about all the catamaran activity and can only be good for the sport as a whole.

You can buy an A-Class here: http://usaca.info/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&id=7&Itemid=20

Lots of choices for any budget from foiling to classic, starting around $5K. We do now score non-foiling boats as classics with a breakout for them so that they are racing like boats as well as overall.

Hope you find a boat and fleet to race with no matter the choice.

Hi Displacer-

Thanks for speaking on point! I sure appreciate Rick White's posts always! Curious Rick? Do you still sail your T4.9 down in the Keys? Have you been happy with the boat after a few years? Are you racing with crew?