Capt. Rob wrote:


We did hull speed with just main yesterday.
sliding past a lot of boats on a close reach, including a large
Nonsuch which Jeff insists is a quick boat.

This is such a ludicrous fabrication its laughable. If there was enough
wind for a 35s5 to do hull speed under main alone (that's only 232 sq
ft) then a Nonsuch 36 with 742 sq ft and a hull speed a half knot higher
would have had no trouble walking away from it. Of course, it might
have been a smaller NS, or it could have been reefed, or maybe it was
anchored, but most likely booby just made the whole thing up.

I would certainly admit the the 35s5 is a faster boat than the NS36, but
the difference is only a few minutes on a 10 mile course. Given that
the Nonsuch is a very comfortable cruising boat that is extremely easy
to singlehand, that's not much of a difference. And on a close reach
with a breeze, the Nonsuch design holds its own against a lot of other
boats. I never had any trouble keeping up or even passing most 32-34
footers in my Nonsuch 30 on a close reach.