I found a series of events that makes the HOBIE Island clubs less critical. Check out WaterTribe.com
I’d love to work up to the Ultimate Florida Challenge— a 1,200 mile race circumnavigating the state of Florida! (About a 40 mile portage section.)
The have HOBIE Islands as a specifically listed class of boats.
Maybe I buy an island, keep it in Florida and sail there in winter.
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The x-cat is too big to go inside. Thought it might go up on the roof but on the sides, but the hulls are too long.
A reverso WILL fit in the van as is, under the bed. There’s just enough space for it.
Still would rather a minicat than a dinghy if I can get a good sitting solution.
Point 65 is neat and I like the idea, if HOBIE made a tandem like that I would buy it at any price. Alas, I’m a sailor, not a kayaker. The islands are neat because they are small sailing boats with a comfortable sitting position.
Along the same lines is expandacraft. They make point 65 style modular amas, basically. They have a trimaran you can buy but I lost interest when I saw it weighed 400 pounds. I need to be able to pull it into a beach without too much trouble and 400 pounds sounds like too much trouble.
So minicat with a seat, or island on a trailer... but part of me is thinking if I’m gonna have a trailer maybe I should just buy a Corsair. Like a Corsair Cruze 970- it has a shower, and is trailerable (but I would leave it on the hard, and give up random lake sailing.)
PS- I took 5 years before I bought my first sailboat, looked at boats from 40 to 20 feet and all types. In the end when I saw the right boat it was pretty obvious and I was very happy to buy it. I didn’t mean to turn this thread into a boat buying thing, just really wanted to know if the island clubs were active or a dead initiative. Initially was thinking if the island as “disposable”. $5k isn’t much and can be sold for $3k-$4k if it doesn’t work out. Just wanted a way to have a good sailboat with me all the time... but that may not be practical h less I want to tow all the time or I go inflatable.
This is a corsair 760, it's a whole other level. It's about %50 longer but probably 10 times the sail area, and probably 10 times the price. I can afford it, or I can buy an older version of this for about $20k. But if I'm gonna trailer....