Is an N20 a good boat for me?

What do you consider "several people" ? The nacra 20 is a great boat and a RACING MACHINE, it does extremely well in the distance races ie, worrell 1000, tybee 500, and the great Texas race. We have a few on our beach but rarely are they used as a cattlemaran. Almost always sailed with just skipper and crew and on ocassions a third. This is a spinnaker rigged boat with dagger boards, remote main downhaul, boom etc. Not what I would consider a "several people boat" but an awesome long distance racer.

Well let me restate my question. I want a boat that I can take racing, and use all of the features that we know the N20 is good for. I would like something that has a more modern design and is faster than my H18.

However, I would also like to have the ability to take a friend or 2, lets say a total weight of 600lbs for a ride every so often. How bad would the boat suck to take a load like that 5-6 miles out to the beach and back? I have read the N20 does really well with heavier crews.

My H18 has a spin and daggers, I may be ignorant but I do not really see the N20 being terribly much harder to operate, although I assume it would be much more responsive to my crew and my own input.

Your 18 has dagger boards?

bacho wrote: My H18 has a spin and daggers, I may be ignorant but I do not really see the N20 being terribly much harder to operate, although I assume it would be much more responsive to my crew and my own input.

golfdad75 wrote: Your 18 has dagger boards?

My Hobie 18 has daggerboards also, I think a lot of them do. 😎

bacho (if that's your real name) 😛

The Nacra 20 can carry a lot of weight and has a very large uncluttered tramp, I think it would be great for your purpose. The only thing is that for racing your 325 lbs is on the light side for the N20 so you may have issues in heavier air, but the boat has a lot of adjustments to depower. Like any move to a more powerful racing machine it will be a learning curve.

My H18 has a spin and daggers, I may be ignorant but I do not really see the N20 being terribly much harder to operate, although I assume it would be much more responsive to my crew and my own input.

i was amazed at how much more complex my mystere 5.5 was to operate compared to my previous cat, a h18

there are some pretty big differences in these boats.

h18's are tanks. you can hit a wall with them and still sail that day. you can hit and island and capsize cause your boards were down.. and sail away... the n20 is not a beach cruiser, it has very long (and expensive) boards that will blow out a trunk or break a board with the same force

the N20 will probably take you a lot longer to rig (esp with spin) than any h18.

there is a lot more hardware on a n20 compaired to the h18, it all needs upkeep and replacement at some time.

but if you are serious.. go test one out 🙂

PS sounds to me like you would do great with a Mystere 5.5 or 6.0 🙂 for 1/2 the cost of a used n20 you could compete with them 🙂

yeah... my H18 also answers to the name of "old ironsides..." 😎 trade paint w/the fancy boats and they get all hot and bothered....

robpatt wrote: yeah... my H18 also answers to the name of "old ironsides..." 😎 trade paint w/the fancy boats and they get all hot and bothered....

I've found that if I want right of way, or for another beachcat to get out of my way, instead of yelling "Starboard!" it's more effective to yell "Hobie 18!". 😆

N20 sounds perfect. I've had three people on mine and it acts better than other boats with the weight. My guess would be it can handle the extra weight better than other beach cats aside from the H21. The clean tramp makes it good for this. It is complicated to set up, and the hulls dent if you're not careful. What an amazingly fast boat though. I say go for it!

I agree that the Nacra 20 is a great boat but it is a little more complicated. Because of the self tacking jib you must always carry the spinnaker pole even if you do not use the chute. Just a few other things to consider if you break something
Rudders $450 each
Dagger boards $800 each
Used carbon fiber mast approx $5000 plus maybe more

HULLFLYER wrote: used as a cattlemaran.

Cattlemaran? First time I've ever heard/read that. Funny!

My Wife and 2 kids were on a friends Inter20 (Not sure if this is exactly the same as the N20 or a completely different beast) and they did great on it. Probably 650-700 lbs or so total. They did capsize once due to an accidental gybe.

The skipper of this boat is usually alone and recently put a smaller main on it because he solos it a lot and then he doesn't have to go around begging for crew when the winds pick up.

Quarath wrote: My Wife and 2 kids were on a friends Inter20 (Not sure if this is exactly the same as the N20 or a completely different beast)

Yes, the Nacra 20 and the Inter 20 are the same thing. Performance Catamaran just stopped using the Inter name on boats to clarify the brand. Over the years of production there have been many small changes, different rudders, spin systems, self tackers, and tramps to name a few.

So far it seems like price is the only negative. As i do my research i see them from $9k to 14k. If i found one for $6500the is that too good of a deal to pass up?

I've noticed many for sale often come with multiple sets of sails, daggers, and rudders. Also might want to take into consideration if it comes with a sweet newish trailer and a new catbox. Some people will borrow a trailer just to get the boat to their club of choice or keep the trailer when selling the boat so they dont have to buy another one.

one that comes with an extra set of sails would be really nice as a new set costs around $3k.

It may have an aluminum mast instead of carbon fiber which would mean a good difference in price.

this type of cat is not intended as a recreational cat so most people who owned it, would have LOTS of spares (for damages during racing).

Aluminum mast. Trailer beach wheels. Not too many spares as its part of a fleet.

bacho wrote: Aluminum mast. Trailer beach wheels. Not too many spares as its part of a fleet.

bacho, do you mean you've found a Nacra 20 for sale with an aluminum mast where there are a bunch of N20's?

What part of the country are you located? The Aluminum mast for the N20 was only introduced in the last couple of years and requires a different main sail than the much thinner (cross section) carbon stick.

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My bad, carbon mast. Itwas painted and looked like AL at a glance.

Im in the southeast. The boat was uaed in a sailing club. The owner has another one he is keeping.

Made a deal on an N20 today, get to pick it up this week. Pretty excited to try it out.

Edited by bacho on Oct 02, 2011 - 01:20 PM.

$6500 for a complete N20 in decent shape is a great price. Consider how much life is left in the sails, and the cost of new ones, in the overall value of the boat.

Dave

davefarmer wrote: $6500 for a complete N20 in decent shape is a great price. Consider how much life is left in the sails, and the cost of new ones, in the overall value of the boat.

Dave

Yea, like Dave said, a great deal if it's all there, even in mostly "used up" condition.

Hey Dave, good to see you on here, you should know the value of boats you've bought more than anyone I know!

The seller and I did a little trading. The boat was gone through and is ready to go. I decided toyou have some repairs made to the sail windows before trying it out. Hopefully I will have it on the water this weekend

bacho wrote: The seller and I did a little trading. The boat was gone through and is ready to go. I decided toyou have some repairs made to the sail windows before trying it out. Hopefully I will have it on the water this weekend

I'd like to see pics of your new boat when you are ready, I'm jealous, the Nacra 20 is the "big boy boat" I dream of.

I took some pictures today. Some of you will probably know this boat.

I'm queer for N20's. What a beautiful boat you got your hands on. You're gonna love it. I think it's the best boat in the world.

Looks like money well spent to me!

does the carbon stick make setting up from scratch a lot easier? (is it that much lighter?)

Thank you for the compliments.

The carbon mast is difficult for me to compare as it's 4feet taller than my hobie 18 mast was. I would describe it as slightly easier to push up than the 28' hobie mast. It's no one handed deal but you do not feel you might give yourself a hernia either.

Finally got it out on the water yesterday for about 5 hours. Wind forecast was 10-20 with gust possible of 28. Took about an hour to rig the boat, much of that was spent trying to add about 6 more feet of retrieval line to my spin halyard which ended up being too short. I was pretty pleased that it only took one hour. Once my crew is trained on rigging I expect it can be much faster.

Finally got it on the water and the wind was dead, I could see it moving on the other side of the lake, so we slowly made our way out to the bigger water. When we finally make it, the wind suddenly gave us a puff from the other direction and capsized us as I had been trapping to adjust the trap wires. I found the N20 being VERY easy to right compared to my H18. It popped right back up and we were on our way again. Just a little cold now. For the next hour the wind was pretty dead. I spied a pair of keel boats across the lake so we slowly worked our way to them. By the time we got there the wind was up to 6-8 and we started moving pretty good. When the wind picked up to create some white caps I really began to love the boat. I found it very responsive to my inputs so I could quickly tell if I was doing the right thing or not. Flying the hull was extremely smooth, it was quite fun. As powerful as the boat is, it never even came close to feeling like too much. It was as smooth as could be, and easily powered down nicely when it came time to return to the ramp.

Take down took about an hour again, much of that was spent pulling the boat up a very long ramp with some beach wheels in dire need of an overhaul.