I have been sailing a 5.2 solo as well the last three years and I really love the boat! I got a second hand roller furler off this list which works well. There are a couple of small jib leech battens that stick out a bit but they don't bother me at all.

I bury the bows for fun sometimes, like Erice, the control is just incredible! I will even head down from a beam reach or even higher to scare the pants off my incidental crew from time to time. Do it right and they get green water in their face for about two seconds (don't do this when on the wire BTW). I usually warn them by saying something like "Here's one thing you are used to doing on your mono, which is not such a good idea on a cat...Hang on!"

The boat is easy to control, even in big waves and F7 with full main and jib. F7 is the current limit to my Nacra 5.2 experience, but I'm confident she will never let me down. I can always roll up the jib and bending the mast takes out a lot of the drive, especially in combination with a little traveler slack.

I weigh 95Kg That's 200# or thereabouts and I can right the boat solo even with almost no wind. It was darn difficult to pull the boat over in no wind! But I had to find out. I will stand on the end of the dagger board and it takes about three seconds to come up from that moment. I did have to loosen all sheets and point the mast and bows at 45 degrees into the (general direction of the) wind.

I have no hesitation recommending the 5.2, but you may like the H16 better if there's a racing fleet of them nearby.

Whatever you get, make sure you can right it solo! Otherwise rig a righting pole or a righting bag (you can order them both from this site.)