Sailboats

Optimist, ILCA, Sunfish and Hobie 16:

these are the dinghy classes Guatemalan sailors actually race, so they are the ones worth buying if anyone in the family means to compete. The Optimist is the single-handed pram children learn in and race until their mid-teens, and many move straight on to the ILCA. The ILCA is the Laser under a new name, so a hull badged Laser is the same boat, and that one hull takes three rigs, ILCA 4, 6 and 7, with different sail sizes and lower mast sections: a sailor grows through the class by changing rig, not boat. The Sunfish is a flat, forgiving board boat with a lateen sail that suits adults starting out, and the Hobie 16 is a beach catamaran for two, with a trapeze and no daggerboards, launched off the sand and usually moved on a boat trailer. A dinghy from a class nobody races locally sails just as well but is far harder to sell on, and a rotomoulded plastic school boat shrugs off knocks but will not keep up with a fibreglass race hull.

Cruising yachts in Río Dulce, monohull or catamaran:

a catamaran gives a level deck, room for a family and two engines, while a monohull costs far less for its length, points higher and is cheaper to haul out and berth. The monohulls that come up for sale in the river are mostly older boats, often from the 1970s and 1980s, of around 37 to 43 feet, and they are asked at roughly US$30,000 to 70,000. A production catamaran from the 2000s runs to several times that, and only an older, smaller British-built cat comes near monohull money. Charter and liveaboard demand keep catamaran prices firm, while an older monohull is valued mostly on its engine, standing rigging and sails, the three most expensive things to replace.

Judging a dinghy by its deck and a cruiser by its rigging:

on an ILCA, press the deck around the mast step and the cockpit floor. A soft or crackling spot means the core has let go, and water that gets in makes the hull heavy, so open the inspection port and look. On a Hobie, press along both hulls for soft patches and check the bottoms, which wear thin from being dragged up beaches. An Optimist sold for racing should still carry its builder’s plaque and measurement certificate. Hold any sail up to the light: one that has gone soft and stretched has lost its shape, however clean it looks. On a cruiser, ask when the standing rigging was last replaced, look for rust weeping from the wire terminals and leaks around the chainplates, and feel for soft deck near stanchions and fittings. Start the diesel from cold and see the boat out of the water, keel joint included, before agreeing a price. If it has sat closed up in the river for months, open the lockers and work the seacocks by hand. Antifouling, epoxy and gelcoat for whatever you find are under boat maintenance.

Sail numbers, inventories and the question of the trolley:

dinghies change hands when a child moves up a class, cruisers when an owner stops sailing or flies home. For a dinghy, give the class, builder, year and sail number, say whether it raced or was a school boat, and say which sails, foils, spars and covers go with it. Photograph the deck, the bottom and the foils. For a cruiser, write out the full inventory with engine hours, the age of the sails and rigging and the date of the last haul-out, have the boat’s papers ready, and expect a serious buyer to want it hauled and sailed before paying. Whoever comes for an Optimist will want to know whether the launching trolley is included, because the hull rides home in a pickup bed with the tailgate down and the spars lashed on top, and a family driving down from Antigua needs to bring the right vehicle.