Well, my experience in the BVI, which had pretty steady 15-20 kts wind, on
an Athena 38, was that it pointed pretty much just as well as the big
Beneteaus. This was no high performance boat with decent, but no where near
perfect sails. The upwind speed was not better, but on the other hand, I was
comparing a 38 ft boat to monos that were much longer. The smaller charter
monos could not keep up... those in the 35-40 ft range. On that boat,
tacking really was pretty simple, never stalled in 10 days. And, if you just
cracked off the wind just a few degrees, you basically trashed the other
boats.

--
"j" ganz @@
www.sailnow.com

"Capt. Rob" wrote in message
oups.com...
They also make a lot of sense for people who like cats. The multis out
here,
especially the tris, are sailed by people under 50.


Agreed, the tris are very cool. But upwind ability is big downfall of
cats. It's like having a fast car where the steering wheel stops
turning when you try to make a left. A performance cruiser like my 35s5
or an even faster C&C 34XL will have as much as 15-20 degrees of added
directional ability/pointing. I can sail 10 degrees closer to the wind
than Jeff's boat at 7 knots...where his boat literally needs it's
engines. That's nothing to sneeze at. (Actually the polars for my boat
show 6.5 knots at 35 degrees, but owners do better with the newer sails
of course, claiming hull speed even closer to the wind)
I love those F boats though! Dying to try one in some heavy air.

RB
35s5
NY