My " Introduce Yourself" posts were morphing into boat shopping discussions, so, I thought this would be a more appropriate place to continue that thread. Biggest thing I've sailed is a Hobie 16. Now, I'm looking to get a proper dry sailing vessel with some of the comforts of home. On advice of a friend who owns a 130" scooner, I am looking at 1980's era Catalina 30's. I've decided that I will stick to older boats whose bulders are still in business (I contacted Catalina about hull numbers and their engineering dept. responded immediately.) so far I have looked at two, a settee model and not sure of the other, I didn't like one because it had an outboard and trim adjusters on the stern. The other just stank of deisel in the cabin. Today, I am looking at a 1980 C30 with a gas Atomic 4 and tomorrow a 1986 C30 with a Universal 21. The 86 is listed for less than the 1980 boat. I'm not sure of what to make of the inverse price relationship. The 1986 owner admits to a small Catalina smile and a need for bottom paint this year. The other guy is just evasive, or worse, just doesn't know, about such things as mast compression and keel separation. He is first up today, so I'll let you all know how that goes. Carry on.