I bough mine for a similar reason.... User friendly. Enjoying both distance (over 80 mile) and bouy races, two things were clear in selecting a boat: 1) Simplicity of design. My crew(s) don't need complicated things to play with, or get hurt on when flying around the course 2) Ease of operation. A heavy helm will kill you when you spent 4 hours on the same tack. I am really happy with the I-20 in these two areas. While it may end up not faster than the Marstrom M-20 or similar (although I think the D-PN for the F-18HT is slower than the I-20), it works for me and my various crewmembers. A happy crew means more opportunity to race!