There are many good solo sailing choices out there. Personaly I owned several 20 ft spi boats before I bought an A class Cat. Best decision I ever made. All this BS about needing a spinnaker to be happy is just that. I would be willing to bet you that wildthinging downwind in 20 knots on an A cat will peg your fun meter at 11. I would agree that the T4.9 is a good boat,I 17R was OK but heavy they were fun to sail, but for solo work an A cat is as good as it gets. Try one. If you don't love it, don't buy it. I tried one and then hung a for sale sign on all 3 of the other catamarans I owned.

There is a reason why, Charlie Ogletree,John Lovell, Pete Melvin, Ben Hall, Lars Guk, Phil Kinder, Pete Johnstone,Jay and Pease Glaser, Jan and Meade Gougeon, Bob Hodges, etc all race these boats.
Go Light
Go Fast
Go A cat

P.S. I am well aware that there are other catamarans that are faster then my A cat. I owned a couple of them. I was happy to get rid of them.

Eric Anderson