Looking for a sporty daysailer

[MikeWhy]

What would you suggest as a daysailer that can get up on plane, but not so tender as a racing dinghy? I'll admit to not having an interest in smaller boats until (don't laugh) playing around in SailSimulator 5 with it's Valk and Polyvalk. Primary use will be bopping around the bay and near coastal waters (Gulf of Mexico) by day, and maybe an overnighter or weekender or two.

[nolatom]

Albacore?

Home | International Albacore Association

[Sublime]

Or a Melges 24?

[MikeWhy]

Yes, I started with looking at the Melges 24. They seemed a bit rare in the US used market, and so started broadening the search.

I read what little I could find on the Ultimate 20, which looks like a good initial match. The Colgate 26, surprisingly to me, is mentioned as having a planing hull (in Steve Colgate's book; I'm not sure how much of that to believe). There seems to be not much else on the market.

Am I just not looking for the right thing? Are the J/ boats, for example, all planing hulls? Or is it more that 20- to 25 ft boats can't actually get up on plane without overpowering it?

[tommays]

In my racing life there are some Melges 24s and Antrim 27s and yes they will plane and then take a good bit of abuse on the return trip

[KiteRider]

If you can find one; a Mirage 5.5.

The now defunct Florida Mirage, not the Canadian one.

Great little boat with a swing keel and 190 SF of upwind sail.

[MikeWhy]

Come to think of it, the thing in the game that makes the Valk so much fun was the two middle linebackers I assigned to it as crew. In real life, I don't know anyone that large willing to climb out on a trapeze.

And so it was with this in my mind and heart that I heard "20 ft racing yacht" when my wife mentioned, a bit too casually I thought at the time, that she wanted to look into a daysailer. It turns out she meant only that our neighbor was selling her little dinghy.

I do thank all of you for your thoughts and suggestions. I will be back to follow this up, as I didn't even know I had an itch here that needed scratching.

[PCP]

Open 5.70?

Open 5.70 | Open Sailing News

[MikeWhy]

Now you've done it. When I close my eyes, it's her sister, the Pogo2, that I see. (And now the itch has a name.)

[Rangernewell]

Mirage 24....