Bringing a boat into the US.

Long story made short. When I bought my boat, I was just out of college and about as poor as one can get.

Anyhow, I've had a real job for a little over a year and have spent this season getting to know the boat and the handling aspects of a catamaran. My 28 year old boat and 33 year old trailer can be troublesome. Now that I've got some money saved up, I have been thinking about upgrading to a much newer boat.

Yeah, I know, right after I just dropped dinero into new sails.

Anyhow. Has anyone bought a boat <new or used> outside of the US and brought it back into the US? What all is involved with it? I imagine it would be a nightmare getting a title for the boat. Any customs issues?

Probably won't happen this season, but I might make the plunge sometime next season. The nacra 500 or a nice 5.0 are somewhat appealing to me and I've seen a couple for sale in Canada.

Ryan, if you really want to improve your skills, you should buy one of the locally popular boats racing. Ohio is dominated by the Mystere 4.3 and the Nacra F17. Michigan is dominated by the F17 with some F18's and a growing A cat group. There are good to near perfect used examples of all of them available without the headache of importing or the penalty for the weak US dollar. This advice may look biased especially with my signiture below, but you can check it against race attendance for OCRA or CRAM.

Mike,

That's some very good advice. I've seen some really good deals on used Mystere 4.3, and the the F17 is way out of my price range.

How does the 4.3 do with a second person on it? I singlehand the 16 about 85% of the time and take the girlfriend out for slow cruises the other 15%.

I had thought about a 4.3 a couple months back, but was afraid that parts would be hard come come by, seeing as they are out of production.

I'm used to being able to bang the 16 around. How durable is the 4.3.

Mystere's are actually still being produced and sold (supposedly)... See the recent posts in the Mystere forums. I dont know about the 4.3's but i hear the 5.5's and 6.0's are.

I just purchased and received parts from them (upper rudder castings). I can't say it was fun, easy, cheap or even correct.. but i got the castings (still waiting for the adjusters that were paid for with them, and they were not anodized as i expected)

Yea Mike now that the 4.3 is gone I am looking for a F17. 4.3 was a good learning boat for snuffer. May have to make a trip up there when I get the money to get a used one.

Doug

Most of the parts of a 4.3 are actually the same as the other bigger brothers... The mast is actually the same section as the 6.0 but just quite a bit shorter! The rudder castings are typical mystere... temperamental but fine once you get them dialed in. I think the boat durability compares quite favorably to the H16 (which I still have one of haning in a barn)... lighter on the hulls but it does have an aluminum strip on the skeg that means you can drag it right on the beach without wearing flat like the 16. Sail development continues especially on the jib... it is quite small and harder to get right than a larger jib but I think Mike Fahle has a new cut that looks pretty good. The class rules allow racing one up, two up, etc. all head to head. I have raced single handed at 190 lbs and with a 60-100 lb child... It does ok with 280 but certainly won't set speed records compared to one up but more than fine for recreational cruising. Downwind is much more fun with the spinnaker... you'll never go back! With the turmoil around Mystere, these boats have held their value pretty well. There are some really good racers that have dropped out of the arms race for better local one design racing and all very helpful with developing sailors.

Tthe first 10 times with the chute i was VERY frustratrated... it took more time to set and douse, and it didnt seem to increase my speed / fun... but now i am getting it and cant wait to play with my new (bigger) chute.