Hi George,

As I see it there is a lot of difference between unprotected coastal waters and open ocean.

Presumeably unprotected coastal waters are the waters off beaches that aren't in bays and the waters off beaches on the coast that don't have islands or offshore reefs protecting them.

I would think that any beach cat is ok in unprotected coastal waters as long as you pick the day to suit your skill and the boat that you are sailing. You need to be a skillful sailor to take any beach cat out in over 30knots and you can expect to have gear failure if you do it often enough.

Sailing in the open ocean, presumably many miles off shore, seems not to be a very sensible thing to do on any beach cat. There are instances of people sailing beach cats across oceans but these are rare and in the realm of major risk taking.

Best Regards,

Rob.