I am about to buy a Nacra 5.2 and I am glad to hear all you have to say about it. I singlehand alot and this was a concern as to if my 150# rump could soloright a Nacra. I have sailed on a Hobie16 quite a bit this last year while trying to decide which boat to buy. I really didn't want the H16 because with two adults (<350) it would really want to pitchpole bad. We would usually end up literally sitting on each other at the back beam and dump air. I have heard that the Nacras aren't so prone. In defense of H16s, these boats weren't exactly tuned to their potential.
I have a 5 year old son that loves to go out with me. How well do these boats handle kids? He is pretty helpful. He trims the jib and can probably work the boards for me. I've never sailed a cat with boards before. I'm looking forward to doing a normal tack. I learned to sail on monohulls and I always hated how slow cats tacked. Again, this was probably due to tuning, but we basically had to tack with the sails, the H16 would go into irons if we just tried to pull through like a centerboard boat.