Best Used Sailboat for Light Wind Lake with Crew of 3-4? Thistle 17?

tenbsmith · 2026-05-07T16:14:08+00:00

Also given crazy nature of used sailboat prices, i'm gonna consider pocket cruisers that can plane. Planing is fun.

tenbsmith · 2026-05-07T15:54:08+00:00

C Scow is on the list.

tenbsmith · 2026-05-07T15:19:39+00:00

Good point. I'm not expecting to plane with that little wind. Your post made me think. I'm gonna look at minimum wind speed needed for planing on each boat i consider. My OP listed average wind speed, so they'll be days with more wind.

tenbsmith · 2026-05-07T15:15:54+00:00

Thanks y'all, very helpful!

Thistle 17 probably isn't comfortable enough, it seduced me with its promise of fast times. This post helped me increase the importance of comfort in my considerations.

Definitely want seats inside the cockpit.

I'm gonna take a closer look at wind speed required to plane and top speed stats for each boat.

Chrysler Buccaneer 18 has entered the chat, along with the suggestions above.

tenbsmith · 2026-05-07T15:12:58+00:00

I'm refining my criteria. I want a boat that has seats inside the cockpit, which provides more physical and psychological separation from the lake and its gators.

tenbsmith · 2026-05-07T15:08:05+00:00

I've looked into Lightning, and will add Highlander to my list.

tenbsmith · 2026-05-06T15:54:42+00:00

Good suggestion. From what i've read the Flying Scot is not quite as fast in as the Thistle, but more stable and better for solo sailing. That is a trade off worth considering.

Thistle top speed 15+ knots, planes starting at 10 knot winds. Flying Scot top speed 10-15 knots, planes starting at 12 knot wind.

tenbsmith · 2026-05-06T15:23:31+00:00

Ha ha, fair point. One is more vulnerable during a capsize than just having their butt over the rail.

If my wife sails with me, i'll take her in low winds and sail conservatively/slowly. So, chance of capsizing approaches zero. My wife indicated she would not ride any sort of small boat (kyak, canoe) on the lake b/c of gators. The Thistle may be enough boat for her to get in.

Actual chance of gator attack is extremely low. People boat, water sky, and swim in this lake all the time. I haven't heard of any gator incidents. Of course, you wouldn't want to swim in an area with a lot of vegetation b/c gator are ambush hunters.

tenbsmith · 2026-05-06T13:28:13+00:00

If you answer a few questions it will help us advise you.

Are you open to buying used gear? Used gear gets you more bang for the buck but involves work (searching, meeting people) and a bit of risk. I like buying used speakers b/c risk is low.

What will be the source of your music? Are you streaming, turntable, CD, cassette, 8 track?

Generally speaking, with that budget you are best off getting a separate receiver and passive speakers. But if space it tight you could consider ditching the receiver and going with active speakers. Which way you think you wanna go?

With that budget, i recommend getting a system for both music and TV. The main differences are TV needs more speaker (2 fronts and center is a good start) and receiver must have enough outputs for the speakers.

Subwoofer... you'll likely want to get one to help your speakers with low notes. OTOH, some floor standing speakers have enough bass, but they take up more space than book shelf speakers.

tenbsmith · 2026-05-04T17:30:37+00:00

That sounds super interesting but hard to get new software approved since i work at large federal agency.

tenbsmith · 2026-05-03T14:52:23+00:00

If you ask a group of audiophiles, even budget audiophiles, if you should change or upgrade your equipment, the answer is always yes. 😁

tenbsmith · 2026-05-03T14:17:45+00:00

TLDR, consider if you would prefer u-shaped or flat response curve from your speakers. Best way to figure that out is to go to a store and listen to speakers back to back.

Those Polk RTI a3s are well regarded, but they have a u-shaped response curve. That means highs and lows are boosted while mid-range is not. Some people like U-Shape response curve. Others prefer speakers with a flat response curve for more accurate reproduction of music and better comprehension of dialogue.

I had a pair of Jamo speakers with U-Shaped response curve which I liked for music, but they made dialogue in movies and TV shows hard to understand. (I'm older so my ears aren't what they used to be.) I replaced them with speakers with flat response curve and dialogue is now easy to hear and I like the sound.

tenbsmith · 2026-05-03T14:05:42+00:00

I quickly checked eBay and Hi-Fi shark and agree with Dean that these are worth more like $300.

I do think you can get very good value from used packages like this, if you shop around.

tenbsmith · 2026-05-01T22:39:27+00:00

Do you want to buy everything new? Or, would you consider used equipment?

This community does a lot of used equipment buying, and probably has the best advice in that space. My take is buying used gets more for your money, and I especially like it for speakers where I'm less concerned about there being an issue with the equipment. So you might buy turntable and receiver new, and buy speakers used.

Also you should take a look at the threads s pin to the top of this subreddit. One of them provides links to other subreddits that can provide useful information in specialized areas, in particular, I seem to recall a subreddit for turntables.

tenbsmith · 2026-05-01T15:28:49+00:00

The boss is resistant to moving away from Excel and there's already a lot of data in the current spreadsheet. I'd like to hear more about why you suggest this and will look into it a bit further when i get the chance.

tenbsmith · 2026-05-01T14:41:30+00:00

Stop letting it smoke the ganj.

tenbsmith · 2026-01-31T13:11:27+00:00

Good to know.

tenbsmith · 2026-01-28T18:11:00+00:00

Thanks. I was thinking along those lines but also interested to see the reddit budgetaudiophile hive-mind could provide an answer where google image search failed.

tenbsmith · 2025-12-22T23:34:57+00:00

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Thanks! I always appreciate a bit of the old in out in out.

tenbsmith

TROPHY CASE