With both being at your weight you may find the Dart a little underpowered when sailing two up. You may find an Inter 20, F18 or a Tornado a better choice but I cannot comment on the sailing 1 up of these, certainly not an option for the Tornado though.

For competitive racing what do you mean club, open or national level? Certainly at Open level the F18 offers good competitive racing whilst the F18 and Tornado offer good racing at National level. All 3 are good for long distance events.

How far are you willing to travel?

Have you tried contacting SNECCA?

SNECCA in process of building new website and sorting programme for next year including the long distance 4" race on the Forth Next year , not forgetting the Flag ship Bi annual event "THE LOCHNESS MONSTER CAT RACE " next edition due 2009 , but don't time fly .

ask any SNECCA questions in between and I'm sure you will get speedy responses .

Furthest down south SNECCA events to date have been at South Shields who have a good cat fleet , competitive too

Hi Daniel,

Living in Harrogate (less than ten miles form where I live), you must be in the worst place in the country for 'Cat Sailing'.  There are no inland clubs within about 90 miles which have big enough waters to sail fast cats. Kielder is probably the nearest, it would probably be better to go to Rutland, Grafham, Bala, etc., to get inland cat sailing with competitive fleets, these clubs are only another 20 miles or so further.

Coastwise, there is a cat fleet, I think mainly Dart 18's, at Royal Yorkshire, Bridlington.  Dee would be another option but it is over 100 miles away. Other Clubs such as Runswick Bay, Filey, etc., have a few cats but there are no large competitive fleets.  It all depends what you want.

My own club (your nearest club with a decent stretch of water - 371 acres) has a few cats - Darts, Hurricanes, etc., but they are mainly used for pleasure sailing and rarely go out, they are rarely raced.  Our water is not big enough for fast cats and my experience is that they do not mix very well with monohulls in handicap racing, which, apart from open meetings, is the backbone of the weekly racing at my club . 

Y.D.S.C. has a very active and competitive Vortex fleet which could be an introduction to small cats if you have not sailed them before (albeit you are a couple of stones or so on the heavy side).  Come to the club and have a look, our Frostbite Series starts on Sunday at 11.30 am and 1.30pm.

Ian   (Yorkshire Dales S.C.)

If you want to sail 1-up and 2-up the Dart 18 is best for you, initially even if you are a bit on the heavy side when 2-up, it is a good learning ground. The others classes suggested are not really an option 1-up. The Dart 18 remains the most active Cat Fleet in the Country by some way. They have a very active TT circuit and do a training weekend in April which usually has about 20 new punters taking part. There are lots of boats available from £500 up as it is a well established class. Have a look at http://www.dart18.com - www.dart18.com . As Ian says the clubs are a little distance from you. The RYYC at Bridlington has a decent size fleet of Dart 18s but if you want inland through the year sailing your best bet is probably Carsington Water just South of Matlock.

Another option you could consider is to buy 2 single handed boats and have one each. In that case it would be worth considering the Sprint 15 (which was previously the Dart 15). This is the second biggest and most active fleet in the country. We have a summer and winter circuit and do 2 weekend training sessions each year (one in the North and another in the South). Next year we hope to do the Northern one at Filey but have yet to fix the date. The fleet is very friendly and it opens up more options of Northern Clubs. There are about 8 boats at Halifax near you and they race regularly and travel so that would be your obvious choice. Carsington is further but has about 25 boats and they are very active - including on the training front. We have our Winter Traveller at Carsington on 8 December.  Beaver near Doncaster is a small lake with about 10 boats but they have been going through a quiet spell. Filey has 8 boats but they do not race often. Any way give http://www.sprint15.com - www.sprint15.com a look and the clubs page is quite helpful.

There is also a very active forum on both web sites if you want to follow up either option.

Cheers

Bob (Sprint 15 Events Secretary)

may be a bit late but im a membe at the ryyc at bridlington we have a very good fleet of dart 18's and as mentioned before a few of us becoming regulars on the tt scene surgesst you come down take a look and have a go we are a friendly club and welcome all visitors get in touch if you need some more advice

regards

duncan

SNECCA - Scottish & North of England Catamaran Class Association

have put up a temp website to announce 2008 fixtures confirmed for 2008 so far and other details

www.snecca.org.uk 

Speaking as Catamaran fleet captain at Carsington http://www.carsingtonsc.co.uk - www.carsingtonsc.co.uk .

We have an active fleet of Dart 18, hobie 16 and F18. Only the dart is really suitbale for one up sailing but we also have an active singlehaned contingent mainly in the form of sprint 15, but also have a few other SH boats.

We also do formal catamaran training tom members using a club topper 16cx which while being a little small for your combined weight would prevent you from investing in a cat until you new you could get on with one..

Your most welcome to come and visit us but also feel free to email me ( mailto:cats@carsingtonsc.co.uk - cats[at]carsingtonsc.co.uk ) should you want to know more.

Yello Streak.