"The mast has dents in it, but I'm sure it works"

Oh my God.

haha!

Wow. Some dents can be buffed out, but not those!

The rest of the boat actually looks pretty good, if kept dry...I'm sure a cheap used mast can be found somewhere along with sails, might not be that bad a buy.

Looks like the rare special edition "increased Rake" mast.

The two crush points are similarly spaced to the tramp frame.
Could have been dropped during step-down with poor mast ball capture.
There's enough bend in that mast to get any mainsail flat- really flat.

samc99us wrote: Wow. Some dents can be buffed out, but not those!

The rest of the boat actually looks pretty good, if kept dry...I'm sure a cheap used mast can be found somewhere along with sails, might not be that bad a buy.

The prices on older boats in the CA market has dropped considerably. I am typically at a hotel down in LA every week and have developed friendships there over the years. I have a friend there looking to get into catamaran sailing and has been contemplating buying a Hobie 16 that he and I looked at 3 weeks so so ago. It's a 1983, and apparently has always been covered. The mast is in the garage. All the black anodizing looks practically new and the sails are in remarkably great condition.

The owner would take $500.

What I have found lately is that I see what I feel are "really good deals" on catamarans on Craigslist and Facebook. But then I see those same "really good deals" still listed months later.

Yikes!!!