Which Hobie Cat for first experience single handed

Hi everybody, this is my first post in this beautiful forum.
I live in Italy, 47 years old 71kg, i have experience sailing with Y a crew but i never owned a boat and i was never involved in rigging and mooring.
Now i decided, with a very low budget, to buy my first boat and it should be an Hobie cat.
I read and heard many contradictory opinions, so i ask you now, which model is best for the use i intend to do.
I'm looking for a model of the '90 for about 2,000€, i sail relaxed easy, not racing, singlehanded, sometime with my girlfriend that has no sailing skills.
I will keep the boat on a beach, and i will need to push the boat over 30 meters sand.
It was suggested me the 15, 16 or 18.
From what i read so far, the 15 is the real beginning boat, light, easy to turn rightside up, easy to rig and without boom.
I read that the 16 doesn't sail well windward, doesn't tack well, but still is possible to turn it rightside up alone
The 18 should be the fastest, more stable but in case of capsize that would require help from somebody else to turn it right.
So my absolute favorite is the hc18, can i start sailing it in a conservative way, reefing all the time, at the beginning, and after gathering experience, slowly slowly try to use the full mainsail? Or it's too risky to capsize and sailing singlehanded a 18 require years of serious sailing experience?
If it is impossible to sail relaxed an hc 18 so i will choose a smaller one, 15 or 16.
Thank you very much,
Eiasu

I cannot speak for the larger cats as my experience is limited to my Hobie Wave. It is my 5th sailboat but my first multi hull. More experienced cat sailors will tell you that it is slow etc., but coming from mono-hulls it is 2-3 times faster than my mono hulls were. The part of the Gulf of Mexico where I sail rarely has wind without waves so when I get 20mph of wind I get at least 3 to 4 foot waves. I love the wave bashing but rarely get over 13 mph of speed because of them. I single hand most of the time but also take my wife and sometimes granddaughter. It is ideally a one or two person boat. I trailer my boat. I can pull it off the trailer, rig it, pull it onto the CatTrax, drag it 100 meters and beach launch it in 15 minutes. When I windsurfed it took this long to rig my sailboard.

I would consider adding the jib but only for the numerous low wind days around here (<10mph) not just to go faster.

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2012 Hobie Wave "Latitude"
Shell Point Florida

At 71 kg (156 Lb) you will be very light to solo a H18 and the boat will likely start becoming overpowered around 10mph windspeed. You mentioned reefing the mainsail, but the H18 does not have provisions for reefing the main (although the jib is able to be furled). You would need to create a custom system for reefing the mainsail including adding the reef points to the sail and some method for locking the head of the sail at the lower height.

You will also need to consider the difficulty with rigging and moving the boat solo. You said you would need to “push” the boat over 30 meters of sand. The H18 weighs 400 Lbs, so moving it that distance will not be easy, especially if you don’t have a set of beach wheels.

sm

Thank you very much, it sounds all very clear and reasonable. I understand it. Even if i would get the fat beach wheels i would be worried to not be able to relax and enjoying sail.
Sounds like the H18 it's not the right choice, do you think it would be better with the H17, is it much dfferent?
The difficoulty of moving and rigging it's not such a big deal, because there is always somebody ready to help, i am more concerned with the easyness (or difficuoly) to sail single handed and to not be overpowered as soon as the wind is 12mph, i am not planning to go out and be able to sail single handed in a storm but at least to enjoy light-moderare winds
Thak you all again,
Ciao

The 17 is much better suited to single-handing (I have both a 17 and an 18). Optimum total crew weight on a 17 is around 180 Lbs whereas on the 18 it is closer to 300 Lbs. Both boats will handle reasonably well outside of these weights, but overall the 17 is just better for solo sailing. It is about 70 Lbs lighter and easier to depower.

The downside to the 17 is when you want to sail with more than one person, it will begin to get a bit sluggish. But you are fairly light, so this should be less of an issue. I wouldn’t want to go much over 300 Lbs.

sm

Thank you very much for your clarifications, now i narrowed my search, still I've to see which boats qre available here, in the middle Mediterranean there aren't many beach cats available, hope to find soon the right one
Cheers
Eiasu