Nahhhh. My wife single-hands our TY37. Once set up and with all the
controls to the cockpit its relatively easy, especially with a boomed
(and vanged) staysail. The only difficulty with a bigger heavier boat
is the size/weight of the sails and if you have to strip them off
entirely for some reason .... .
My personal limit is 400 sq. ft. per sail @ 9 oz/sq. ft. I cant handle
anything larger than that .... balancing on pitching deck holding on
to the sail with one hand plus teeth, etc.

The larger the boat the easier it is to sail (but if and only if - you
know how to 'precisely' sail already). But ..... I entirely agree
that the smaller tippy the boat the faster the learning curve. Perhaps
she should consider to buy a resaleable keelboat 'beater', gain
expertise on the beater, sell it, then buy the 'cruiser'. Nothin'
accelerates the learning curve faster than sailing **often** and
purposely in **all** kinds of weather.
:-)

In article , JAXAshby
wrote:

Rich, a Tayana 37 or a Valiant 40 might be a tad big for a woman to
singlehand.
A Southern Cross 31(same same as Aries 32 or Weatherly 32 or Roughwater 33)
or
a Luders 33 or a Westsail 28 or a Southern Cross 28, or a Bristol
27/30(?)/32/35, or a Seawind 33 or a Cape Dory 30 or 33, or a Baba 30, etc.

Consider upgrading and refitting a Robert Perry design: Tayana37,
Valiant 40, etc. These older designs (although heavyweight by todays
standards) have dominated passagemaking and voyaging for the past 30+
years.