[notfarnow]

Originally Posted by oldE

Don't get too hung up on the 'perfect boat', as that can change from person to person and from time to time.
Just get on the water.

Bingo! Get something simple and inexpensive, and easy to deal with off-season. Get a feel for sailing, THEN work on your requirements for a longer term boat. Biggest mistake is to try NOW to gauge what you'll want in a boat long-term. You may learn that you HATE overnighting... then again you may find you LOVE week-long trips. You may learn you want modest accomodations, but something you can race in. Who knows? Best way you'll ever learn THAT is by following this excellent advice:

Originally Posted by JeremyD

This is probably some of the best advise - I also recommend that people go find a yacht club and post a "willing to crew" ad on the board - great way to get "introduced"

Most clubs have weekly evening races, and there are ALWAYS boats that need/want more crew. It's a great way to learn from people who have been sailing for years, and also a great way to get on LOTS of different boats. I learned more in 2 years of crewing than I did from my sailing lessons or 8+ years of puttering around on my own. Crewing is a great, great way to go.

Originally Posted by porsche4life

If I had more time/money. I would be on this like white on rice...

14' Finn Sailboat / Sail Boat

I had a Finn for a couple years, replaced it with a 420. Fun, fast boats but I found they tired me out pretty quick. They are SO light that they bounce around A LOT, and react VERY fast to wind, waves. Fun, but a bit too frantic for tootin' around.

My Hobie 16 is similar in some ways (quick, agile), but I find it much more pleasant to sail for 2-3 hours than the Finn or 420. In those boats, I was always being banged, bruised and tossed around. In the Hobie, being up on one pontoon is like riding on air suspension. Much, much more comfortable and VERY fast (right until you pitchpole it)

Having said that, I am always surprised to hear something like this:

Originally Posted by azasadny

I had a 16' Hobie Cat as a beginner and that was a good choice for me...

Hobie cat - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

You must be a better sailor than me! I found catamarans hard to get used to, tricky to maneuver (especially downwind) and LOTS of trouble when things went wrong... not very forgiving. Righting a capsized a Hobie is a hellova lot more trouble than a lazer. Great boats, but I always thought it would be like trying to learn to ride a bike on a unicycle.

Originally Posted by Snapper33

Great news! Another sailor! My family are lifelong sailors. My wife and I started in Hobies in San Diego, moved up to Chrysler 22 on L. Michigan and then to O'Day 26 on L. Michigan and moved her to Puget Sound.

Ha! I just went from a Chrysler 22 to a Hobie 16! I loved my Chrysler... a great weekender and easily the "biggest" of the 22's I tried. Just wasn't using it anymore, and the Hobie 16 is a simpler boat for me to deal with.

Looking at one of these now too: (18' McVay Minuet)