I live on a remote part of the pacific coast of mexico, where 80% of the time I will be sailing in 8-14 knts of sea breeze. I want to introduce and teach “sailing” to some of the local kids, it will be like something from Mars to them.
A well built boat which a 210 lb person can single hand in the lighte/moderate conditions, but will be powered up right when we are 2 crew @ 350lb in 17-20knts.
I know the Hobbie 18 is a real tough boat, but I’m looking for better performance.
I was considering one of the 18’ class boats, nacra, tiger, capricorn ???
Which is built stronger and better ?

What is the beach like? Soft sand or rocky? The Hobie 18 is a great boat for that but if you want "better performance" well, that means lighter, so no matter what you get, the hulls won't be as tough as the Hobie 18 or 16.

This only matters if there are rocks around. You will want beach wheels anyway, just to move it about.

What's your budget? Do you want new or used?

There is a classified section right here but most of the boats are pretty far from Mexico. How far south of San Diego are you and how far do you want to drive to pick it up?

thanks for the interest.
got a budget of $8000. to include trailer, cat trax, and all
will be a beach landing in a somewhat protected cove.
i have done a lot of performance sailing on large monohulls, so want to go for the speed.

imho all the 18ft boats are too big and heavy to solo safely in the ocean

what about a 3 sailed, 220lb, 14 foot tri

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jxSK1-8Ik0Y

Nacra 500 sport

You could easily buy 3 very good boats with that budget, For what you have in mind, I would not limit myself to just 1 boat.

I have looked here, links from here and craigs list, where else can you find used cats ?

http://www.thebeachcats.com/
ebay.com

most cats will do very nicely in 8-12 knots of wind... you will love the speed compared to a mono hull

You dont need a high tech/high performance boat to teach kids, and their safety should be a BIG part of the choice if that is one of the main goals...

So if you will have lots of kids on the boat, strong, sturdy, maybe boomless should be a part of your considerations (in my opinion)

more so than performance. You could also start with one cat and in a few years upgrade to a rocket!

get a fleet of rotomolded boats for durability (wave, getaway). Some of the older ones could be purchased pretty reasonably (mabye even get two). Since the kids have never sailed multis before, they'll love the speed even if it's not as fast as the latest T boat or F-18

Thanks for all the ideas and input. I want to stay on the track of finding the best compromise between performance and durability.
For me, the Hobie 18 would be too much of a compromise, as it’s too heavy for the prevailing conditions.
What about the NACRA 5.8
I have been a competitive monohull sailor all my life, so got to have something that performs.

From the classifieds.

2003 Tiger -- w/ trailer in good shape always covered, SNU, New Boom, 2 chutes, Heavy Duty trailer with large Catbox & separate sail tube $8000 714-791-9437 SO.CA. (CA)(Nov)

when are we going to get there !!!!!!!

I have had good experience with a Prindle 16. They may be out of production, I am not sure, there are many still around. I weigh 200# and sail single or with family and friends as well. Manf'd in 1976, mine is still going strong. Just about everything but the hulls and mast have been replaced over time, but it is still a good sailing boat
dan