I’m a 51 years young 180 lb athletic guy living in Merrick wanting to get into beach cats and trying to decide which used cat to buy. Any advise about saling on Long Island would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you in advance for your help.
Phil

Welcome!! We're always trying to get more cat sailors in the Long Island Catamaran Sailors Assn. My first recommendation would be a Nacra 500 (formerly 5.0) or Hobie FX one. If you wanted to save money I'd suggest that you pick up a Prindle 16 pretty cheap to learn on. There are several sailors in the club experienced in the nuances of all of these boats. In addition there are a lot of skilled cat sailors out here that would be more than happy to take you out on their boats and bring you up to speed. I hope you stay in touch. Greg

Thanks Greg for the advice, I was planning on joining the Long Island Catamaran Sailors Assn. Looking at Mystere 4.3, Nacra 5.5 uni just last night I was thinking about the Nacra 500 and there is a used Nacra 570 available. Would you know if the 570 cat is to big for single-handing and if I could right it by myself?
And if I want to race in the LI area does it matter what cat I buy? Once again thanks for all the great advice.
Phil

The Narca 570 has 33 square feet more sail area and 20 lbs more weight than the 500 according to Performance Cats. Part of the rightability of a cat is technique. The amopunt of sail area should be more of a concern if you are single handing a boat. A roller furler on the jib is a good thing to have in case you need to reduce sail. Our cat club has a wide variety of boats. Anyone can race anything. The Mystere 4.3 looks like a nice little pocket rocket. A spinnaker may be challenging for a novice but the learning curve will be steep. We're always trying to get fresh blood in the club so you'll find a lot of guys willing to help you out.