First off I just wanna say welcome to sailing. Force 5's ar ekinda cool, I've been on one, 15 knots seemed to be when the one I was on just started to get fast. Anyhow, lets start with gerneal stuff.

I don't know anyone who reefs the mainb on a beachcat, although I have seen sails with reef points so i guess people do do it. Catamarans have a traveler that runs the entire leagnth of the back beam. This traveler is what the main sheet attaches too, so in heavy air, all you do is travel out.

Any boat can be retro-fitted with a jib furling system, however, the parts are pretty pricy, so if you want this I would say to look for one with the system already in place, (I've seen this mainly on hobies).

Wings are cool, and for the most part they are designed on a boat specific level, but if you are handy and get your eyes on a set, I see no reason why you could not desiegn some yoruself, just make sure you have no proble bouncing on them a little when you are testing them. I really don't see many cons to wings, they are comfortable, they give you more leverage to hike from, and that leeward wing seems to really help keep you from letting the hull fly up too far. But like you said, they are pricy for a manufacture's set.

OK righting the boat is an exceedingly important skill. I really recomend Rick White's book "Catamaran Racing for the 90's" Its really well written and explains alot about boat handling, including how to right the boat. There is a degree of technique involved in this, as wiht everything catamarans. Its completely doable on your own, but it helps to have someone show you, and in leu of a real person, this book does a really good job.

ON HOBIES: Ok, so the thing to watch out for on hobies, especially 16's are those narrow little bannana shape hulls. I would be very reluctant to take a hobie 16 outside a bay or lake into any sort of waves without being in a group of some sort. However, you will find used boats for cheap, and parts are not hard to come by. The Hobie 18 is a little better as far as hull shape, after that I think that the price will start to climb.

PRINDLES: Ok so the prindle 16 and the prindle 18 are pretty darn ugly. However they are a solid design, and more stable than the hobie cats, weight will kinda very from boat to boat, but thats true with all of them. The nice thing about these is that, like the hobie 16 they have no dagger boards.

NACRAS Ok so I love nacra cats, they have a very solid design, they are tough, srable, and fast. They are sometimes a little intimidating to new sailors. I 5.5 might actually be just a little heavy for a single person to right. If starting on a Nacra I wouls recommend a 5.2 or a 5.0. The 5.0 has no dagger boards which is nice for beginners, it is also very stable even in high seas. I was surprised at how well this little boat took waves the first time I sailed one outside the harbor. 5.2 are very nice boats, and they are getting cheaper these days also. It is a little harder to get parts for the nacras and prindles, but almost everythign can be found at www.murrays.com

That covers the tree main brands you asked about, but there are other beachcats out there which are very nice. I don't know alot about them, as this is pretty much the extent of what I have personally been exposed too. I've tried to be objective, like I said I like Nacra, but on the other hand I just bought a prindle 19.

Hope I've helped and represented the boats accurately.