SmallCraftAdvisor.com

hello
I would like to buy my first and last sail boat
I'm looking at the catalina 16.5 or the 18

are these good choices and I am on a budget

thanks if anyone can give good advice

What type of sailing do you plan on doing? Day sails where you rig and launch each time? Weekend cruising? Extended trips? Just you? You and another? Many people?

unless you are 95 this probably won't be your last sailboat! Not to say the Catalina is not a good boat because it is and it will last a lifetime. But, regardless of what boat you have you will soon want another boat. Most of us on the forum have had multiple last boats, some even at the same time!!

Anyway, take heed to Dave's questions. The answer to those will determine what boat you are really looking for. Personally, either Catalina would be a good value but would depend on what you want to do with it. Keep in mind the motto of Small Craft Advisor, Small Boats - Big Adventures.

I have a Catalina 18.

Happy to chat about it if you are still looking. I think the reviews in SCA got it pretty right. They did a full length review, and then it made the ten year anniversary issue.

No doubts that if you plan to tow, rig and launch every times you will sail, the smaller the better!

These 18 footers have a way of feeling a lot bigger fast with all that work!

I can 2nd that.

I don’t recall what the SCA rule of thumb is, something like right around 1300lbs, it’s gets to be too much for a casual day sail. It’s very true of me and my Catalina 18. I know a lot of people say they step the mast single handed - I haven’t figured that one out yet. It’s relatively straight forward for 2.

Last summer I spent a week in a marina with a potter 15 in the slip next to me. I kept looking at that rig and thinking that I could raise the mast with one hand.

Stepping a 18 footer mast single handed is not that hard with practice and a few tricks. I used to do it but I was doing it at the beginning of the season and that was it. It is so much easier with an helper.

You see me taking the mast down by myself in this video.
https://youtu.be/skKSkVi1KII

And on the water no less! I’m impressed.

I can’t even imagine doing it by myself. About halfway up it starts going sideways and it’s pretty hard for me to steady it.

My usual approach is to connect the main sheet block to the forestay, and have my wife pull it up while I muscle it up from the other side.

If not for the lateral stability issue I don’t think it would be too bad. Certainly there are lots of folk older than me that do it by themselves.

I found out by doing it that using one hand only to raise or lower the mast is good for the balance. The lateral stability is greatly enhance. The free hand can control a line that helps for some degrees of the descent ( or ascent)

Me raising the mast on a Sage 17 -





Mast is 22'6" long.