Steve,

Thanks for the input.

You said:
>> Just like to clarify from which standpoint you raise these questions, your original post which started this thread sounded like you were asking the question from a novice perspective on cat-sailing, yet you seem to have a sound understanding of what design elements make a boat go fast, as well as skipper input required, so a novice you are not !

I am a novice as far as cat sailing is concerned, but have a couple of good solid seasons sailing a 17' planing monohull dinghy. It's a Hunter 170 which is a fast daysailor (centerboard, not keeled), which I singlehand (catrigged, sloop, and sometimes spi). Since it wasn't designed for singlhanding, the controls are not setup to allow you to get to them from the rail or the back of the boat. That, plus the fact that it was really intended to be sailed by 2-3 people, makes it quite challenging to singlehand as the wind picks up. I ended up almost completely re-designing the running rigging on the boat, adding more purchases, re-routing most lines, adding missing controls, adding hiking straps, and even adding a trapeze setup. In a sense, learning to sail a boat such as this which required lots of modification and one which really needs more crew weight does accelerate the learning curve and may have made me a better sailor. However, once I began to experience the thrill of speed due to enhancements and better leveraging my limited weight (and got into windsurfing as well), I quickly realized what I was missing on boats such as modern catamarans which are optimized for speed and singlehanding. I suspect I'll take to catamarans like a duck to water - only hopefully not a lame duck!

You also said:
>> "Lower sheet/control line loads sounds good to me. But so does a less stiff mast (such as that on the Taipan) so you don't need to play the lines nearly as much to compensate for gusting conditions." - This implies you have a good understanding of the difference between the behaviour of spreader-less masts as found on Hobie 16 etc, which are much stiffer than spreader type masts like Taipan etc, which enable the mast to be a lighter & therefore more flexible extrusion.

My boat is a fractional rig with upper and lower shrouds and a moderately stiff mast. I enjoyed tuning the rig and seeing it's effect on boat perfromance and handling. But it was also clear what the limits of a rig like this are in higher wind and gusty conditions, particularly when the directional wind shifts were extreme! It didn't take long, after watching the masts of Lasers and Megabytes to grasp the significance of a self depowering rig. It's interesting that although many popular monohull dinghy classes use these in the US (and worldwide), I'm not sure I've seen any US made catamarns use them.

This brings up some very interestng questions, so I'm going to take this opportunity to start a new thread!

See "Soft mast + heavy boat = ?"...

Jerry