...the Hooter can sail upwind in light air, while the spinnaker cannot. The Hooter offers another dimension to sailing. If the wind is light enough to hold the boat down, you simply unfurl and sheet it. You go much faster and often higher than sailing bare in front.
Check out the Formula 14 forum, as there was a race between three Hobie 14 Maxis (hooter equipped H14s) and even more Mystere 4.3s (spinnaker equipped) on Lake Hartwell (GA) at last years Spring Fever Regatta. As usual for this race, light conditions prevailed. The hooter equipped H14s were able to use their headsail the entire time, upwind and down, and really stuck it to the Mystere 4.3 guys. The H14Ms were almost pacing the 20' boats upwind, as their upwind sail areas were about the same
In greater wind, things would have been much different upwind as the Mysteres have jibs while the H14Ms currently do not.
Off the wind, the Hooter on a light-weight boat has proven to be as fast and often faster than a full spinnaker. Note the newer designs of spinnakers are getting away from the fullness and big shoulders. That is because they have learned that all that stuff was useful for monohulls that sailed deep, but not so good for high speed, high tech cats.
What he means is: the spinnakers are beginning to resemble the hooters in shape, though they are still too full to be used upwind.
One more problem with the snuffers is there is a lot friction bringing the sail in and taking it out. That requires gallons of McLube, which is very expensive. And it wears the sail out in a short time.
It's mostly the halyard/retrival line that rubs against the sail and tears it up. You'll get long lines of pinholes that will quickly grow. After every race or long day of sailing you'll have to lay the spinnaker out and patch all these holes with sail-repair tape until eventually the sail is finally shot. It happens much quicker than you'd think.
In snuffing a sail you need to do it while beginning your turn upwind and the last portion while you are going upwind. How is a single-hander going to do that? Not very easy, I am afraid.
On the other hand, I have been able to go into the leeward mark's 2-length zone with full power, furl the Hooter just before the jibe(using a 1:2 furler line [note: not a 2:1.., this means you can furl much faster]) and make a great slam dunk mark rounding.
Can't do that by yourself with snuffer.
Cheers,
Rick
To a recreational sailor, I'd recomend the hooter over the spinnaker every time. It will be easier to use, more versitle, and cost less due to less wear-and-tear on the sail. Since you're not racing, you probably won't care if a spinnaker is a little faster than a hooter (which hasn't been proven one way or the other yet). Another, less obvious benefit is that furling/unfurling the hooter will be much easier on your small crews than hoisting/dousing the spinnaker.
I'm currently designing a Formula 14 catamaran, and hope to build it next year (likely during the summer). This will be my racing boat, and it will be hooter equipped!
