[quote=icon149]I'm late here but thought I'd chime in for the sake of posterity. I bought a 5.8 a few years ago, and was really very much a novice sailor, had a little experience with a 16ft cat, and was sailing my in laws very old Hobie 14 (not a turbo). I picked up an old 5.8 (1987) that needed a fair amount of work on the running rigging, pulleys and cleats, (i rebuild most of the cleats and replaced a few of the important pulleys) I replaced the standing rigging just to be safe. I don't think I've spent more than a few hundred dollars on getting the boat on the water. It still needs a few hundred more to really be good, and it'll need some work on the hulls to be excellent, but for me, for now, it's just fine to get out on the water. At some point the trampoline will need to be replaced, i keep it covered with a Tarp as much as possible to stretch it's life, and the sales are still serviceable but won't win races.
I sail it single handed most of the time, right up to about 16-18 knots then i chicken out and look for crew or sit it out. With a righting bag from the Colorado bag company i can just get it up on my own in the right conditions... (I'm about 180 lbs, with practice i could probably get better at this but as a rule i try not to get to much practice). The boat is really very forgiving, seriously, 5.8's are a lot of boat and can be had for little money, really Hobie 16 money and you end up with a faster, more forgiving and let's be honest, sexier boat.[/quote]
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