I am going to start getting serious about saving up for a boat. Searching around I stumbled across the Nacra 5.0. Looks like a cool boat, lots of them made and they seem to be fairly available for not a ton of $$. No dagger boards so they could be used in the shallow NC sound waters. This will be my first boat

Boat will be used for rec sailing on the lakes and out in the sounds, with my (200 lbs) and my wife (125 lbs)

Anyone here have experience with them?

they seem to be the best of the major builders boats in that size, go for it and get sailing or someone else will beat you to it

Go and buy it. Great boat, durable, forgiving design, can carry more weight than the Hobie 16. One of the best 16 foot recreational cats out there. I had one and loved it.

+1 - great boat. Pick up the cheap end-pole snuffer from someone who's gone to a mid-pole and you'll increase the fun factor.

Is this the one you are looking at? http://raleigh.craigslist.org/boa/1199632300.html
Looks pretty nice, would be great to see another 5.0 on lake Jordan. Definitely great for the sound, I've brought mine there several times.

If you need help rigging, I usually sail out of crosswinds, and if its windy there is often a cat or two at vista point.

You'll love it! Terrific boat.

Thanks for the info, sounds like an awesome boat! It will unfortunatly be next year before I actually make a purchase though, but it's never to soon to start looking/researching.

"It will unfortunatly be next year before I actually make a purchase though"

Good luck staying sane in the mean time! Hope you get the chance to go sailing this year, even if it is on someone else's' boat!

... those were days ...
NACRA 5.0 was the boat I started cat-sailing with. Very forgiving, very responsive, very rigid. Much more fun than a Hobie 16 or 17. For our conditions, the short waves of the Baltic Sea, 16ft proved to be too short, but on a lake it should be perfect.

Luckily I've been able to do a ton of big boat crewing this year, I've been out sailing every-other weekend for the past 3-4 months. I a member of the Pamlico Sail Club and have been crewing on a C&C35 for their spring series, went up and did the Black Seal Cup in the Chesapeake and am racing the Ocracoke Regatta here in a couple weeks. Then later their fall series etc

I was also lucky enough to hitch a ride back in March for the Pee Dee race down in SC. Only one cat race so far this year, but lots of time on the water.

Still going crazy though wanting a boat of my own

I personally would probably suggest to most new cat sailors they wait a while to add a spinnaker... they require a good amount of hardware (that can add clutter) and a good amount of handling skills and in my opinion are counter intuitive ... i would tell most people to MASTER the skills of cat sailing before you add a spin...

If you learned right out of the gate to fly a kite it would NOT be counter intuitive,because it's all you'd know. Makes more sense to me, but I have a tendency to jump in to sports with intermediate or advanced gear.

Have you bought the 5.0 yet? If not, get off the computer and go tow it home.