The big chute is 460 sq ft. Thankfully I put that on Tami's powerboat to watch the racing. We went with the medium size chute, which the leech runs in column with the mast. We also have a teenetiny chute off an I20 (damn those spi's are cute) which we use for funsies. Most of the the time we went upwind with out the genoa (furled), and down wind with the genoa (unfurled)but popped the chute a few times. It was Deboarah's second time on a cat, or a trapezze for that matter, so we took caution in decisions about popping the chute. Yet she was gunning around the course and even learned to pee in the trap harness while on the wire. All in all good time, learned quite a bit, and scared the bejeeze of some finn sailors at the top mark.