[quote=smfinley]I think there are maybe more like 3 major categories of people. The true competitive adreneline seekers, then a group that isn't on the edge but likes the performance and speed of the cat, then a cruising beach cat group. The last group typically sails Hobie Getaways for example.
I sail out of Wilmette, IL on Lake Michigan and we have all 3 types here. We have over 100 boats in mast up storage on the beach. One extreme, we had a guy snap his mast last year because they had 3 guys on his boat in 25+ knot winds flying his spinnaker, I think it was an Inter 18. We also have people that don't like "waves" and only go out on lake michigan when it is fairly smooth, or load 9 people including kids on a Getaway and float around the lake.
I would probably fall in the middle category, i love the 10-20kt wind and flying a hull hiked out with crew, but once it gets over 20kts the fun starts to go away for me and I start to have to work and worry more then I want to.
If you are looking to sell your design I would highly recommend some good video showing how simple it is to rig and how it handles on the water with 1 or 2 people on it. It sounds like one target market for you is the solo sailors so you need a video showing how it performs in those conditions. How well does it tack? I usually used the H16 jib to help tack, but with the single sail how does that work?[/quote]
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