who knows about sailing and sailboats?

[lu_hawk]

I just finished taking a basic course, I will probably take the next more advanced course in a few weeks. I live right on a marina so I would like to buy a sailboat as it is something I think I will really enjoy and i would get a lot of use out of it. We used J-24's in our class, a new one runs $40k which is doable but I would prefer to spend a little less. The MacGregor 26 runs for $20k base price and seems OK, I am sure it is not as high quality as the J-24 but to be honest I don't know how to determine the quality of a boat and I also don't need state of the art equipment as I am a beginner and just want to get my feet wet. Can anybody recommend anything else? Is buying used a good option? Any good sites for reviews, all the sites I have found so far seem biased.