BrokenHips,

good luck with your new boat (whichever it will be). I'm sure you'll have countless hours of fun with it (as long as stuff doesn't brake regularly).
I would say very serious racer tend to exagerate the weight issue and I'm sure there are some serious racers on this site. regarding your weight - I think you'll be fine with any boat mentioned here, my crew weighs 95kg and 65kg myself, we sail Hobie Dragoons because there are no other boats around here, those are 13ft boats, we are newbies but last year we came in 5th place out of 36 crews, I think our weight is much over what's reccommended for those little cats. I would say your weight is fine for any boat, serious racers (shiny cup type dudes) might say different, but as Rolf pointed out - experience will make a difference, not weight.

I don't think anyone ever mentioned the looks of the boats - probably not important at all to many, but it is to others - lots of satisfaction in having a fast ,great looking cat.
I would also look into the build quality of the boat, not just size, you should also enquire about that. Another thing well discussed here - weight of the cat - my rookie opinion on that is simple - don't worry about performance vs weight - I can tell you one thing for sure- a LIGHTWEIGHT cat will get you on the water more times than a heavier one, simple as that. It takes some motivation to push a 180kg cat down the beach, if one day you would like to go sailing but not that motivated - the 180kg boat may kill the motivation you had.

Enjoy your new cat, post some pics when you sail it.

Regards,