To those who have responded to my questions, I really want to thank-you all for your excellent, detailed, and thought-provoking replies! I am really impressed with the catamaran commumnity if you guys are representative... On the one hand, you've succeeded in answering/resolving many of my issues; on the other hand you've raised at least as many new issues as you've solved! I guess I wouldn't love this sport if it was easy...

Your tolerance permitting, a few more add-on issues:

1) Fisrt, my experience was not on a skiff (wish it was!) but rather on a fast 17' daysailer which does plane (Hunter 170); I've heavily modified it to make it much more performance oriented and allow it to handle higher winds but it's nowhere near as fast as a catamaran. I've sailed it singlehandedly as a sloop in 15-18 kts (its a handfull!) and as a uni with spi in 10-15 kts. I would hope the fact that my time was not on a skiff would still not be an issue in jumping to a modern catamaran design.

2) Second, I'd appreciate some clarification on a few issues:

a) In one of the replies it was described that in higher winds the FX1 "hops" over the waves whereas an I17 "plows" through them; have others seen this difference and what are it's implications (ie, is one faster than the other and is a boat that hops over the waves a more bumpy/jarring ride? I had thought that the FX1 had wavepeircing hulls that would perform similarly to the I17 and F16's. Do the F16's act more like an FX1 or I17 in hopping vs plowing waves?

b) Regarding turtling of cats: I've seen H16's turtle and I thought they have a wing mast with sufficient bouyancy. Is there a big difference in the turtling likelihood of H16's and the more modern boats? It's not clear which boats have masts which are well sealed or have foam in them. I wasn't really that concerned about turtling in "fun" winds such as 15 kts; the problem I was concerned about is that sometimes you go out in these fun winds and later find yourself in 30-35 kts! Even if I were to head home pronto at that point it would be easy to be overpowered and that's so much wind on a big tramp I have a concern that a catararn might not "spin itself around" (mast to windward) before the force on the tramp can plow the bouyand mast below the waves. Am I being overly concerned?

3) Finally, you guys have given me tons of food for thought regarding options and broadened the choices I need to learn about; since reading your posts I've begun the process of learning about some of the additional options. It's clearly going to be a tough call since all the choices (one-design FX1, Inter17, Nacra, H17) and F16HP's look so good. In fact, it looks like it's not going to be easy to see let alone sail many of these boats. It may help to get input on a few issues that were not addressed:

a) Thoughts on the tradeoffs between the hottest new technology/design (ie, Stealth/Blade) vs designs that have been around long enough to be proven but are still modern (ie, I17, Nacras, Taipan 4.9)? When is a design too new for non-racers to buy (ie, Stealth/Blade vs Taipan)? When is a "modern" design too old to be a boat with lasting competitiveness?

b) If I were primarily interested in racing, focusing on speed alone might make sense. But since (at this point at least) that's the secondary objective, issues related to 1) bulletproofness, 2) intelligent ergonomics in the layout of controls (ie, non-cluttered/foul prone; well suited for single vs double handing; accessible from the tramp edge and/or wire), and 3) quality of the ride/responsiveness in various (aka rough) conditions are very important to me. Which of these boats excell in these areas and which suffer?

c) The strength of the manufacturer (likelihood to stay in business and prosper) and it's dealer(s) will impact everything from resale value to availability of parts and service. Since I live in the US, I'd appreciate advice on whether it's wise to limit my choices to boats made by larger established companies with US dealers? Have others had problems dealing with smaller manufacturers, non-US manufacturers, or geographically remote dealers?

Thanks again for everyones great input,

Jerry