Frank wrote:

Under sail, general handling while raising and lowering sails,
switching to engine, anchoring, mooring, etc. my experience has been
that a Freedom 36 (or 38) is infinitely easier to singlehand than
any "standard" Marconi-rig sub-30 footer. And yes that includes
singlehanding a tri-radial 'chute, which I wouldn't even try on most
keelboats.

I think that, once again, "it depends." I single hand a 28 foot sloop and
routinely set a conventional tri-radial spinnaker without mishap. I'm no
athlete or "diehard" racer, but I like to keep the boat moving, and that's
what's required. However once you get up near 40 feet, a tri-radial can get
to be a lot of cloth very quickly. In addition the average bloke will
usually decide it's just too much trouble in many cases, and resort to
fossil fuels. Among the cruising people I've known, laziness is often
considered a virtue.

And going to 40 ft., I'll remind y'all that Garry Hoyt singlehanded
his *engineless* prototype Freedom 40 all around the Caribbean,
winning races against full crews, and anchoring and docking in
notoriously crowded harbors ... And the Freedom 44 is essentially the
same setup as the 40. So, AFAIC, we're up to 44 feet and still comfortably
singlehanding. With the right boat.

There are individual cases on both ends that support whatever argument is in
need of support. Michael Ritchie sailed "Jester" all over the place, and
someone or other sailed "Mediteranee" (sp?) to those same places. "Jester"
was about 26 feet, and the other multi-masted monster was ten times her
length. Length alone is not a limiting factor, but for average folks it's a
reasonable indicator.

I think the main factor for practical people is that while length increases
linearly, related items do not. Volume, weight, equipment size, and cost
definitely do not stay within the bounds as length increases. And in my
experience it's usually the smaller boats that leave the mooring regularly,
while the larger boats are waiting either for crew, or for refrigeration
spares and parts.

--
Good luck and good sailing.
s/v Kerry Deare of Barnegat
http://kerrydeare.home.comcast.net/