Best Sailboat under '15 Help

[adwjr]

I am going to buy my nephew a boat this summer what beginner sailboat / cat would you guys recommend? I grew up on sunfish but I've lost touch with some of the newer models.

Best,

Thanks

[George Raffa]

The BigFish : Fun, Fast, Favorite!
I would find a Sunfish and fix it up. As you know they are hard to
beat! If you want the "new" Sun Fish take a look at the link.

[svHyLyte]

If you can find one, I suggest a Lido 14. Great boats and good for learning. Another great boat is the Cape Dory 14, but somewhat harder to find.

Cheers,

s/v HyLyte

[Ex-Calif]

How old is your nephew?

I have sailed Lasers, Picos, optis, and hobie's. My brother has a Force 5. What I like about it is that it has a touch of freeboard and the boom is a little higher. I am not as maneuverable as i would like to be.

It stays pretty dry unless we push hard and if one person is really light we have done 3 up in it.

The Pico is also a very good choice.

If you are rich and like performance a Laser 3000 or Baja would be pretty cool...

[cal40john]

How old? How much money? How heavy, kid and boat? What kind of sailing do you think he is interested in? Capsizing and swimming part of the fun, or need a more stable boat to stay out of the water?
I've been taking my kids out on small boats since they were very young. I have a Hobie 20 that we take out in lighter winds. We (they can't sail alone on our club boats) have also been out on our club's Picos, Lasers, FJs, Laser >>s, Bravos, El Toros and maybe a couple of others. When they took sailing lessons, they were in Optimists, Hunter 140s and Hobie Waves on their own. My kids dislike the Optis, but if the interest is in racing, that pretty much is the only option, except that in some areas the BIC O'pen is trying to make inroads. They did like the Hobie Wave, but it's probably since I polluted their minds on our Hobie 20. I couldn't get them to take more lessons because of the Optis, so for less money than I shelled out for lessons I got them a Hobie 14. So far they've spent more time swimming under it than sailing, but at least they're going out and having fun.

Hobie Wave is probably the better choice over the 14, but I didn't want to spend that much money. They've really had to work hard to learn to tack the 14, it's a real bear to learn and I've had to add a righting pole so they could right it.

So you also might need to find out if he is a speed freak, or relaxed or what.

John


Trying to go sailing on their 14, but can't seem to stay on the boat long enough to get away from the dock.

The kids are minimizing wetted surface on a Friday night club race 2 years ago on the 20.