Everyone's got their opinion about boats, cars, toothbrushes, cola brands, etc.

As far as cats go, Sea Sprays never made much sense to me. But I've never seen such an enthusiastic group of sailors as Sea Spray sailors.

The 18HT should make any redblooded sailor's mouth water. But since I sail mostly solo or with a child, it doesn't made sense for me. We've all got different needs.

A while back Dermot from Ireland who sails an F16HP had some interesting comments about advantages of smaller cats:

"The Shadow has been designed specifically as an easy to control singlehander. Also Yves and Reg did a lot of testing to ensure that it could be easily righted by a light crew. The SCHRS number is 1.06 . Because the cat is under control at all time, a good sailor can sail it very well to it's handicap rating.
I would like to elaborate on this point.
Having raced the F18 Hawk for the last 5 years, I sailed my first event in the Spitfire last weekend, in a mixed fleet of 22 cats, mainly Hurricane 5.9, 2 Hawks + Dart 18s.
The first two days racing was on a short trapezoid course, with a lot of hoisting and lowering of spinnakers. As soon as we slowed to raise or lower the spinnaker, the larger Hurricanes (no spinnakers) powered over the top of us , very frustrating, we finished 3rd overall.
I'll get to the point.
On the 3rd day there was a 20 mile passage race around Belfast Lough in a force four to five with quite large waves roling in from the open sea.
We had a bad start. The first leg was a close reach and we hung on close behind most of the Hurricanes. We passed everyone on the next leg, which was downwind and rounded the final mark in the lead. We had to tack a few times up to a headland where we freed off and close reached home. We tore along that reach and held off all but one Hawk which we had not noticed tacking out into stronger wind earlier. We beat him on handicap and won the race.
What am I getting at?
While I am still reasonably fit, at 54 I am slowing down a bit. If I had been sailing the Hawk in those strong conditions, I would not have been able to drive it as hard as I did the Spitfire and would have been lucky to finish halfway up the fleet.
Sail the cat that suits you. When you sail well and under control, it is amazing how high your finishing position will be against others who are on faster cats, but not sailing as well as you.
I hope that some of you understand what I am getting at.
It is very easy to be persuaded to buy an unsuitable cat just because others have them, and you do not want to be left behind.
People over here are finally realising that you do not have to sail a heavy 18 or 20 ft cat to sail fast."

So, sail what makes sense for you.