I'm not really sure actually. That is when limiting the comparison to F16 and A-cats.

I know for certain that on the downwind legs the F16 will have you trapezing first under spinnaker; as a matter of fact you hardly ever do the wildthing on the F16's, there is always enough power to keep you on the luff hull. Of course when the winds are too light to fill the spi properly then no catamaran will pull 97 kg on the trapeze on downwind legs.

On the upwind however I'm not too sure which of the two will put a man on the wire first (when singlehanding). The A-cat has a taller mast 9 mtr compared to 8.5 mtr but then again the F16 has more sailarea 15 sq. mtr. to 13.7 sq. mtr. These two aspect seem to balance one another quite well. Of course the A-cat is both lighter and narrower as well so maybe the A-cat goes to the trapeze sooner on the upwind legs. Having said this, the F16 comes standard with a double hander mainsail that can be trimmed for singlehanding by making it flatter. So in effect the standard F16 mainsails are cut to pull 120-150 kg on the wire in about 10 knots of wind. This means that a singlehander will be pulled to the trapeze alot sooner, even when the guy is 97 kg's. On the other hand both classes allow the owner to order a mainsail to suit his weight and style of sailing so in effect each boat can be made to pull a 97 kg sailor to the wire at exactly the same moment. So can do this even at quite low windspeeds even, when you are willing to accept that in the stronger winds you'll get hit more.

So I guess it all dependents on what kind of hardware you fly on either boat.

I personally use my doublehander mainsail, cut for 150 kg combined crew weight, both for singlehanded sailing and racing. I notice that I need to depower it pretty soon; I'm 85 kg. Up till now I haven't been able to see on the water when the A-cat could fly and I couldn't. Most often there was too much wind and we were both out; in addition the sailor on the A-cat in my club races is not really of the same sailing skills and he is considerably behind me in the races. Not his fault however. I'm 33 and he is 76 years of age. I have alot of respect that he is still sailing cats at that age. In other races where I shared the same course with A's of skill I was double handing.

Wouter