I have a Marstrom A-Class. It has the same hulls as a M18. There should be no problem with a second person. The Marstrom hulls are big compared to other A's.

The Marstrom A-Class performs well with 110 Kg men with a reputation for breaking boats(http://www.marstrom.com/images/Batar/AClass/0332.jpg). As long as you keep the combined skipper and crew weight to ~150Kg you should not have any trouble.

If you get an M18, you need to tell Goran Marstrom how you will be sailing or racing it most of the time. If you will be racing as a 2 person boat they can make the mast stiffer. If you are going to be sailing or racing mostly solo, the more flexible mast depowers better.

You seem to favor spinnaker boats but the uni-rigs are a lot easier to sail solo and they are plenty fast enough to scare you On a Marstrom A-Class you will be trapping at 9-10Kts and fully powered up (Wild Thing'ing downwind) at 13 kts. Sailed by someone who knows what they are doing, the A's will stay up with or ahead of the 20ft spinnaker boats. The wider M18 will be a little more forgiving.


For a spinnaker boat the M18 would be a good choice.

The only problems I know of are:

No mast step ( I am working on that)

The boats can get scary on a reach, when the wind is over 15 kts. They don't go any faster, the bow just goes deeper.

If you need anything else let me know.

Carl