Beginner Boat Suggestions

[Sail Ozzy]

What boat do you recommend? Here are my desires...

20-24 feet
Affordable
Keeps value
Relatively easy maintenance
Cabin with shelter, but nothing fancy necessary
Something my girlfriend will like
Racing potential
Easy to sail
Can handle some bad weather
Fun sailing community of fellow owners a bonus

I am deciding between the J 22 and the Catalina 22 and I am open to other ideas.

[Bash]

Santana 22. Much better chance of your girlfriend loving it.

BTW. Welcome to the forum.

BTW #2: If you tell us more in your profile, you'll get better info. There is a large one-design sailing fleet of Santana 22s here in California. If you're in Maine, I really can't advise. They apparently take their boats out of the water in the winter up there, which means you might want something more trailerable.

[ozskipper]

Not being a smartA$$ but make sure you use beginner weather too. 5-15 knots max. Then you wont scare that girl too much.

Try and get on a few before you buy. If you get to the local yacht clubs and ask who the owners of similar boats, they will be more than happy to show you over thier boat. I cant think of any owner that isnt a proud owner willing to tell you all the reasons you should have a sistership to their own. Of course with this will come a lot of insight on performance, maintainance and known design problems.

Cheers

Oz

[WillJacocks]

I am with oxskipper here, don't let yourself get caught out in storm situation until you get a fair amount of time on the boat. Lots of 22' available, most are trailerable. South Coast 22 (if you can find a good one) is a very good boat, handles very well. Can be set up for racing and is trailerable. My dad had one so I can speak from experience. Got caught out in a storm once, but on Lake Maurepaus when one blows through not much you can do with the wave action. I simply tossed the anchor, lowered the sails and battened down the hatches and took a nap. Was a real blow down too. LOL

[captainKJ]

If i had my choice of boats this one would probably be it,,,

R.N.R. Yacht Charters: Stad Amsterdam

[Sail Ozzy]

Bash,

Good idea on updating my profile. I plan to move to LA after school to be near family, so if there are lots of Santana 22 owners there, that is a big plus.

What about the Santana 22 would my girlfriend like?

[Bash]

Originally Posted by Sail Ozzy

What about the Santana 22 would my girlfriend like?

The boat is a lot less tender than the more trailerable boats. Which means it will heel less in a puff.

One thing to be aware of is that many of these boats have been raced, and most of the racers will have removed the heads (toilets.) When we had a Santana 22, the portipotti went into the boat whenever Wonderblond overnighted in it. But it was never as private as other boats could have been. So, you might want to figure out what your girlfriend wants in terms of a head. I'm not certain why, but women seem to be more particular about such things than men.

If I were going to be sailing SoCal, I'd be looking for something a bit more light, because the breezes down there are a bit wimpy. You might get lucky and find a Santa Cruz 27 for cheap, or a Catalina 27, or maybe a More 24. All three of those boats are ubiquitous in SoCal. If you're willing to put in a little work, you can pick up something in any of those boats for peanuts.

[nautical62]

Is this just for day sailing or do you plan to spend some nights onboard?

Do you need to be able to easily and quickly trailer the boat?

If you will be spending a lot of time on board, and don't need to trailer it, get something a bit bigger than a 22 and hopefully with an enclosed head and real marine toilet. Girls tend to not like portapotties behind a curtain.

If you will be trailering it to lots fo different locations for short sails, stay with something smaller that's easier to rig, launch and retrieve.

[Curmudgeon]

Rhodes 22
J-24

[Vasco]

Shark

[sneuman]

If you're looking at Catalinas, also look at the Catalina 27 - very popular, lots out there.

[Triton318]

I owned one and sailed it on the Chesapeake for several years. You can often find really good deals on them. They're pretty well-made boats. They are raced quite a bit. They'll handle a lot of wind. I think a Cal 25 would make a great first boat!

Cal 25 Class Association