One of the added pleasures of sailing is sailing with or against other sailors in similar boats. Probably the best entry leve. boats available for this would be, assuming you don't want to build from plans, the Thunder Tiger Victoria or the Victor Model Products V32, which both have a large following in the US with plenty of online support. If you are attracted to the building aspect, the RG65 class http://groups.yahoo.com/group/RG65SailboatsUS/ is another option worth looking at.