Best Recreational Beach Cat?
- Thread starter Bored Stiff
- Start date
Waiex191
Member
I actually have a Supercat 17 that a buddy gave me for free. Been working on the airplane too much to mess with it yet. I had to drive my $200 Buick from Illinois to Florida to get it. Looking forward to sailing it someday.
basketcase
Fuck you second amendment
what part of Illinois? my 17 is in New Mexico, but im in Michigan.....
basketcase
Fuck you second amendment
It doesn't quite point like a tourist, but it gets up there.
basketcase
Fuck you second amendment
Stick the bow down a bit and its magic.
The hulls are only round towards the stern. As you approach the bow, the hulls are quite deep and the cross section is more like a teardrop. To go to weather, you need to put the weight as far foward as you can, all the way to the beam, if possible. All the Supercats have the same hull shape, but most of the 19's and all of the 20's have boards. The 15 and 17 are boardless. If you stay on the back of the boat, they don't point well without the boards.
basketcase
Fuck you second amendment
They are out there.
Had a Getaway with spinnaker blow us out of the water running down wind on our Prindle 16. Both boats were two up but also carrying camping gear including water.
Bored Stiff
Member
- Thread starter
- #32
Many thanks for all the replies - it’s really interesting to get so many opinions. Anyone have any experience with European designs; Topcat, Dart, SL etc?.
I am a fairly new sailor and we also picked up a Supercat 17 last fall. We regularly cruise around 3 or 4 up and while not the speediest in that configuration it's pretty comfortable. Hulls have lots of volume for it. Only downside is whoever is sitting forward on the lee side has to dodge the jib sheets.
Seems like a pretty great simple powerful boat.
Right now chasing some weather helm issues but might have it narrowed down.
Seems like a pretty great simple powerful boat.
Right now chasing some weather helm issues but might have it narrowed down.
Waiex191
Member
Head on over to thebeachcats.com, lots of experience there.
It is true that all the supercats have similar hull shapes. The decks are all elliptical. The 17 came out after the 20 and was supposed to be an improvement over the Gcats and other boardless cats. There is quite a bit of V in the 17 bottom. The designer talked about shared lift between the rudders, V and the bows. So, the boat is sailed very bow down to windward. I raced supercats for the factory when they first got bought by Boston Whaler and did well against other similar sized cats.
The 19 is a scaled up 17 and the 15 is a scaled down 17.
They were pretty excited about that 17 when they designed it, but were rushed by the corporation and put out the first 20 or so boats completely flawed. I warned them not to do it, but the corporation insisted on meeting the deadline. The first boats all got recalled, and of course that didn't help sales.
They later fired me for missing work on a weekend (to put out those shitty first 17s on time). I was at a race with the company van and boat, getting my expenses covered by the very company that fired me for not being at the factory. The corporate world takes over a small biz and runs it into the ground.
Before that episode, they sent me to VA for a race to show off the new 17, and i found that the main sail of the boat was sewn together with flat seams-no broad seaming, no shape what so ever sewn in. Turns out there was a whole run of sails accidentally made like that. The race was a drifter, so the sail shape was ok for that and we won the race.
Another time i was giving a lady a ride on a 17 on Lake Magnonia at the request of the bosses. On a good reach( no traps) we stuffed the bows hard and drove the boat down to main beam. The boat stopped abruptly, she went flying and damaged her knee. There isn't much to hold onto on those boats because everything is round. Crews were always sliding off, even though i didn't really have that problem on other cats.
Ventucky Red
Super Anarchist
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Dart is a slick boat. We have a Dart 18 local evangelist and giving them the once over twice, they are very simple rigged well-constructed boats that like the ruff stuff.
madboutcats
Anarchist
There are lots of options but first question I have is do you want to put the mast up on your own, launch and retrieve it mostly on your own and take extra people at times or mostly with help? That eliminates or includes a lot of boats depending on your answer. The newer cats generally speaking are a lot higher hull volume than the older cats so have better carrying capacity with less weight. You can always cut smaller sails or put reefing in the sail for older boats like the Hobie 16 if you want to undercanvas
Setup properly, a Nacra 5.2 was/is faster and more forgiving than any of the boats listed above. I used to beat a Supercat20 on a regular basis. Yes is has boards but set up right they are easy to lift and put down. Used to sail myself and my two dogs, they loved watching the water go by and they were good at tacking. I have sailed a Dart 18, is was fun but extremely heavy feeling for the size boat.
I must agree that for simple, straight up fun you'll have a hard time beating a Nacra 5.2. In fact, almost any Nacra is fast, dependable and damn near perfect. I sold my last one, a 5.5, for a couple grand. No better bang for buck in the sailing world. The new Nacras all look great too but I really don't see how you can go wrong if you find a solid older boat, fix her up with rigging, sails, tramp if needed and begin the thrashing. Hobie 18s and 21s also great as is just about any Prindle. But the Nacra is probly the best pure sailing machine.
