Mary said:

"Offshore coastal sailing on the Great Lakes in a breeze often requires you to contend with a steep, vicious chop that can beat a boat to death, and you don't have the sloping sand beaches you find along the Atlantic coast. A boat that is bigger, longer, heavier -- to punch through the chop -- is usually better."

Anothger adequate feature for vicious chops is a wave piercing bow. I agree that a bigger boat is more comfortable - the bigger, the better, but then you need a BIG cruising cat with amas at least 3 ft high for true offshore sailing.

Spare energy (yours) is important. This makes ease of handling very important, so good engineering is required.

The best available engineering (in my opinion) is Bill Robert's ARC line. If I had to sail offshore in a small cat I would choose either the ARC 21 ot the 22.

Best regards,