Harry,

I hadn't been back here in awhile. That was a near Sailing Anarchy level of "your full of it" reply that I cannot completely ignore. I realize the issue has been largely put to bed by others in my absence, but after brief and careless consideration have decided to engage the discussion.

I think your basic premise that high tech automatically means high maintenance, difficult to sail or frail is.... to put it most directly, wrong. If this were the case wouldn't we all still be sailing monohulls made of timber with square sails?

Adding technology to a boat can have numerous impacts, including ease of use and improved durability as well as performance. Yes, I know Acats are light and focused on performance, but besides being capable of sailing well in a wide range of breeze, the "high tech" lets me pull it up the beach when I'm tired and right it quickly when I need too (such as before drifting into the Pirates Cove Marina fairway after a showboating/hull flying failure).

Other than a carbon mast that failed due to a stainless bolt coming loose I have not had anything fail or wear out on an ACat that I wouldn't expect to wear out on any cat/boat (tramp lacing, trap lines, a single block on the mainsheet). Today we have two sanctioned and one budding fleet of cats at WRSC. The N20 does a great job for double handed racing in almost any condition and will do duty as a family cruiser on the river. The Acat is (IMHO) simply the most fun you can have racing a single handed boat of any kind. Ed and his F16 cohorts have found a boat that offers some aspects of both.

I don't think you meant to sound like a close minded establishment monohull sailor, but you sorta did.