perfect boat

Catamaran of course but then what?

Mega yacht, high tech everything?
Something more traditional like a Wharram Pahi?
ultra efficient beach cat type?

For me it would be roughly the size of the Tiki 21, minimal accomodations optimized for one person, and easily broken down for storage and transport. Performance close to a modern spin boat of course!

I always likes Cat2Fold. Good performance, good for a few days on the water . Trailerable behind a standard pickup. Good performance.

Any boat you don't have to make the payments on, store, or maintain. Size, number of hulls, and power source are irrelevant.

Hobie 18 minus 100 LBS.

sm

F22 it is then. What colour do you want?

pics?

f-boat.com

http://www.f-boat.com/pages/trimarans/F-22.html

Cool, I just went through this exercise... Here were my criteria for buying a boat. (not in order.)

1. Designed to handle well both 1-up (main alone) and 2-up (main and jib.) (I define this criteria by the speed of the boat being comparable in either configuration. i.e., the Texel ratings are about the same.) I sail alone about half the time and especially when racing, but when my wife is on board, she wants to be a crew member, not a passenger.
2. Has asym-spinniker. I just like the way they look.
3. Light weight, easy to handle on land, possible for one person to rig/derig. I do most of the work on my own.
4. Optimized for a 1-up crew of about 70kg, 2-up crew of about 120kg. We are pretty small people by Western standards.
5. Faster than a Hobie 16. If I want to go slower, I can just use the boats at my local sailing center.
6. Trailerable without breaking down the entire platform. It's bad enough having to take the mast down.
7. Cost less than $10K US including trailer and beach wheels or used boats in that price range are available. I'm not made of money.

What boats fit the above?

Vitamin Sea - J-24 Trimaran Conversion
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hnkMGtm-VwQ
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http://www.boatdesign.net/forums/multihulls/hobie-j24-trimaran-conversion-7206.html
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http://www.boatdesign.net/forums/multihulls/vitamin-sea-j-24-tri-conversion-videos-38807.html

A Gunboat 62 of course.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ErvJft2Osv0

Hey, a man can still dream, right?

(1) - PAID FOR
(2) - practically sails itself...fast
(3) - stores itself
(4) - makes chicks dig me (which makes items #1-3 easy by comparison)

+1

F16, pick your flavor.

Ack, if I wanted a boat that fits number 2 above, I would get a motorboat.

Not just any F16 flavor. It's damn hard to find a Viper or Falcon for less than $10K with trailer and beach wheels. Blades and Taipans fit. The latter is what I ended up buying.

The Nacra 500 comes close (although its a bit too slow 1-up,) and the Topcat K2 is good choice. Both are quite a bit heaver than a Blade or Taipan though. I was keeping an eye out for all four with a preference for the F16 choices.

I also came close to buying a Mystere 5.0xl (though not well suited for 1-up sailing,) but the boat I found was in too bad of condition for the asking price.

The F16 haters can hate all they want, but if they can't find a boat that better fits me, I'm not interested.

I'll take mine in white.

goes together in 15 minutes or less
trapeze boat
90 kg or less

Why do you say that?

Remember how I defined the term for this discussion. The Texel rating for 1-Up with main alone needs to be close to the rating for 2-Up with main and jib. That said, I don't know what the Texel rating is for a 1-Up Mystere 5.0 XL.

Looking back on my notes, I think I misspoke. The Mystere does seem to be a good boat for my purposes. It's on par with the Nacra 5.0 (about the same weight, but a little more sail area.) Like I said, if the one I found had been in better shape I would have bought it.

As to the Mystere 5.0 XL, it's an excellent solo boat. Unfortunately, I sold mine to step up to a 5.5, found that the 5.5 was not my "soul mate" but I could never find another 5.0 XL. Andrew (MN3) now is loving my old 5.5.

I went back to 16 feet and now solo a Nacra 5.0 with spin. The Nacra 5.0 is also an excellent solo platform but I'd much rather have the old Mystere 5.0XL (sniff ). And you're right that the specific M5.0 you saw was a real dog. Also, it was NOT an XL.

Daniel, you will find when you race the MiniMacho why F16 is not popular in the Dunedin fleet....shallow water inside the islands. Swing centerboards and boardless are 95% of our fleet. You'd best practice the inside route before the race or you'll be fixing mashed up boards and board throats. It can be done but you need to learn the local shoals. Out in the Gulf it's fine but even there you'll find unexpected shoals way offshore (South Three Rooker pass). Don't ask me how I know. Also, the beer is on the inside islands.

Perfect boat? Different strokes for different folks.

Dave the M 5.0 he looked at was your old boat. Ali's.

I thought it was that old beater from Craigslist. The guy selling that one had rags for sails and the hulls were mush. Little Jon thought the same. If Ali is willing to sell the old XL I should talk to her. With her getting married to a non-sailor her need for it is zilch. Next she'll have kids and you know what that does to most sailors (me, for example).

The old beater was Stevie's. Call her.

Also we will run (if possible) the Mini Macho so the upwind leg is in the Gulf so the board boats will have a easier time with the inside.

The boat I was referring to was Ali's boat. The main has been sitting in an inch or two of water for probably a year or so. Very moldy. Ali told me the boat cannot be towed out of where it is (in Clearwater) until the axle is fixed on the trailer. The outside port hull bow is quite soft. Both hulls had a couple of inches of standing water in them (and more mold.) Most of the blocks and cleats were sun damaged (the plastic was dry and cracked,) and she told me she wanted $1500 firm. My sailing friend who I consulted suggested it would probably cost $2000+ to get the boat back into useable shape. I was looking for something that would be ready to sail rather than a fixer-upper. I didn't even go look at the beater from Craigslist.

I might be able to convince a friend of mine with an Inter 17 to sail the mini-macho as well. His boards are much longer than mine, but we are both used to sailing in Clearwater Bay so hopefully we can handle the terrain. I guess we will find out when we sail them up to Dunedin on the Saturday before the race. :-)

for me its the lagoon 500

H-17.

That is a capital idea. You could make one out of carbon fiber, but it would be prohibitively expensive. That was an idea I had for a business. You could make licensed carbon fiber copies of existing boats. Name the company Carbon Copies. The problem is I don't know the first thing about how to build boats, and I don't have the capital to start it.

Wouldn't there be a licensing problem?

Several people have just stated what their perfect boat is, but haven't given any reasons why... Personally, I'm more interested in the reasons than the final boat choice. Especially those that chose something like the Lagoon 500. Why would you want one? What need/desire would it fulfill?

Why do you think a (Hobie 18 minus 100 lbs) or (H-17) be better than any other boat?

Prying minds want to know. :-)

For me, storage and "forgettability" are high on the feature list. If you have a boat in the water it's a 24/7 concern. I want one that will break down into the smallest possible package so that it doesn't take up too much space in my side yard (I refer to this area as the boat yard. My wife doesn't go there.)

Once launched it needs to be able to live off shore as well as in mangroves, because those are the places I like to sail.

cost
ease of use
ability to sail to places I like
low maintenance/worry factor
chicks dig me

If I'm dreaming, cost isn't an issue. Count me in for early retirement and a Gunboat 66 with a secondary outside wheel option (why are all these configured to drive from inside the cabin?) and dual davits. There would be a dingy on one and an a-cat on the other. A couple of kayaks would grace the bow and I would have a port that would have groceries and supplies ready for me to pick up based on my internet restocking order.

For me, the Hobie 18 is the perfect boat (at least right now) because I find it to be the ultimate combination of durablity, simplicity, carrying capacity, speed, and overall fun - an extremely versatile boat. Not to mention there is a decent size and competetive racing class in my area.

I don't know of any other cat that I can repeatedly drag across the sand without fear of dammaging the hulls, comfortably blast double trapped in 4+ ft ocean swell with relatively inexperienced crew, easily depower by furling the jib if the wind gets too strong, take three adults out on when it's blowing 20-25 double trapped - ripping across the bay (crews with beer in hand), single hand in light and moderate breeze, rig in 30 minutes or less, not be encumbered by a heap of lines and gizmos, add wings if I want, continue to enjoy after owning for 25+ years, the list goes on...

As for the minus 100 lbs, well that would be my only complaint about the 18 - they are fairly heavy. But that's the price you pay for durability and affordability.

sm

Alright.
If I could have any boat, it would be a modern US aircraft carrier. I want something I can't drive a golf ball to the end of, and I can drive a go kart around on.

Completely self contained as well. As an added bonus it'd probably take me six months with a map to poop in every toilet on board.

Karl

You don't want a carrier. Been there done that and life on board is not that fun. Plus it takes you enough to get crew for a Viper, how you going to single hand the carrier?

This talk is silly. We all know the H-16 is "THE" perfect boat. There's nothing it can't do.

The only thing I don't understand is why does the Tornado get called old but not the perfect boat?

Not sure if Mike is trying to be sarcastic about the Hobie 16; if not, you beat me to it.

If so, I'll be the first to say that the Hobie 16 is the perfect boat. Big enough to be fast, small enough to be nimble, simple enough to teach new crew quickly, yet HARD to sail fast within its super-competitive fleets, which makes it great for racing.

I also like the Hobie Wave, but there is a LOT that I miss about the Hobie 16.

Mike

You're under the assumption I need her to leave anchor.

cost
ease of use
ability to sail to places I like
low maintenance/worry factor
chicks dig me

that's my prindle 16 to the t...bang for buck it's unbeatable, i wouldn't trade for anything. my hobie 16 is collecting dust, i grew up a hobie guy and was restoring mine after the hurricane when i bought the prindle...always thought prindles were goofy looking, not anymore.

I've noticed that several people seem to put "ease of use" high on their list of perfection. For me, "challenging but surmountable" is more the ticket.

I think to get a license, you'd have to have a bunch of lawyers make a deal with their lawyers.

You'd also pretty much have to build the carbon boats on a made to order basis. Maybe make a few demo boats and have a distinctive paint scheme and sail logo so everyone knows it's one of your carbon knock-offs. For example paint the hulls day-glo orange.

You gentleman do not know what a soul mate boat is.

http://www.sailboatlistings.com/cgi...iew_records=1&sb=date&so=descend

Holdyourcourse,

The boat on boatlisting was sold so the URL is no longer good. It was for a 1995 only lake used 4 years Isotope for $3150. Sailors talk about soulmate boats. In our fleet a good friend of mine Howard Alexander has sailed Isotopes since 1970 and has owned 7. Several other Isotopers buy new boats sell the older boats and get beaten by them.

Hold your course.

Ill Take a R21 Reynolds 21!

"not leaving, at anchor" got me thinking. You could always use one of those playthings sitting on the deck if you wanted to go mobile, like Ghostrider.


Carrier take-off

I'd have to list the old NACRA 5.2

The one in my garage that is paid for.