Most of you are skeptical about F18HT cats.
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<br>Someone wrote on the Old Forum: " A cat only 8' wide with no jib and a 204 sqft main seems a little underpowered and too narrow".
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<br>I understand this opinion.
<br>We all are accostomed to the heavy and overpowered boats produced so far by the biggest boatyards, so that we consider a non-sense a 18' cat with less than 21 sqm of sail upwind (AND NO JIB!!!).
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<br>Anyway yr "UNDERPOWERED" F18HT is faster than any other 20 footer both upwind and downwind up to Force 3-4. In Force 5 + perhaps only 10' wide cats (like the Tornado) have a slight edge. The INTER 20, HOBIE FOX, NACRA 6.0 etc. are slower in all conditions than F18HT cats.
<br>The reason:
<br>LESS WEIGHT (110-130 lbs), LESS POWER (204 sqft against 225-245 sqft), MORE EFFICIENCY (UNIRIG vs SLOOP - higher aspect sailplan/32' vs 29.5' tall mast)
<br>Maurizio <br><br>