I'm not saying boards are better than cats, merely saying that both are superb in very different ways and it's a bit rough when you look at merely one criteria (speed around a course in medium winds with no allowance for size) and then use that to say the cat is more efficient.
To that I fully agree.
By the way, you mentioned a long coastal race. Last weekend in the 110 or 150 mile Coastal Classic in NZ, a board and a Tornado Sport sailed as unnofficial entrants. The boardsailer had a support boat and switched gear at one stage IIRC and beat the Tornado home. Apparently it was mainly an upwind race. Still not comparable (since the board switched rigs) but interesting.
I remember the Tornado crew reefed their main in the middle of the race, so in effect they changed their rig as well.
But that is the fun of the cat / surfer comparison right. Surfer win some and cat sailors win some and that keeps both of us on our toes.
Wouter
