Sailboats

From an Optimist on the beach to a catamaran in Golfito:

the boats share a mast and not much else. Dinghies are the small end: the Optimist that youth programmes start children in, the ILCA that most people still call a Laser, and two-person boats like the RS Feva. Beach catamarans such as the Hobie Wave and the Hobie 16 are quick, forgiving and dragged up the sand after every sail. Small keelboats like the Santana 22 add a cuddy cabin and stay on a mooring or on one of the boat trailers between outings. Above them come the boats people live on: monohulls from Beneteau, Jeanneau or Catalina, folding trimarans like the Corsair, and catamarans from Lagoon, Leopard and Bali, the same designs that run sunset trips out of Playas del Coco and Tamarindo. Their inflatable tenders are listed with the dinghies.

Catamarans earn their keep at anchor:

two hulls sit flat, give each couple aboard a cabin of their own and draw little enough water to tuck into a shallow bay. A monohull heels, but it sails closer to the wind, handles a short steep sea with less slamming and is cheaper to haul out, because it fits an ordinary travel lift and an ordinary berth. Where you sail matters too: the breeze is steadier off northern Guanacaste than down toward Osa, where days of light air favour a boat with a generous sail plan or an engine you trust. For dinghy sailors, the Optimist and the ILCA are the boats with a racing fleet to join. Catamarans also hold their value far better than single hulls. A cruising catamaran in the mid-forties of feet still asks around $600,000 at ten years old, while a trimaran or monohull cruiser near thirty feet sits around $100,000 or below. Within either group, worn standing rigging and tired sails are a bill the buyer subtracts before making an offer.

Standing rigging gives a used sailboat away:

ask when the wire was last replaced, then look where each shroud enters its fitting. Rust weeping from a swage, or a hairline crack in it, means the rig is due whatever the hull looks like. Water stains inside the cabin below the chainplates point to a slow leak into the structure. Look for a crack along the joint where the keel meets the hull, and rock the rudder to feel for play. Unroll the sails in daylight: cloth that feels like paper and stitching that parts under a fingernail have had years of tropical sun. On a catamaran, run both engines and check both saildrives, then look under the bridgedeck for slamming damage. An ex-charter boat has worked its winches, heads and galley harder than any private owner would. A dinghy or beach cat is simpler. Press along a fibreglass Hobie hull for soft spots where the skin has let go of the core, check the trampoline for sun rot and the rudder castings for cracks, and look at the keel strips, worn thin from being dragged up the beach.

A sailboat that arrived on its own keel:

tell buyers where she lies, on a mooring in Golfito, at the club in Puntarenas or on a trailer at home, and what flag she sails under, with the documentation that goes with it. Give the age of the standing rigging, the sails and the engine hours separately, because those three move the price more than the year she was built. List the sails, the electronics, the autopilot or windvane, and whether the tender and its outboard stay aboard. Photograph the deck, the cabin, the engine and each sail hoisted. Cruising boats here are often sold by owners at the end of a long passage who plan to fly home once she is gone, so a buyer driving down from Santa Ana will want to know how long the boat stays put and whether there is time for a test sail first.