Joe,




Take one thing in serious consideration. None of the (spinnakerless) A's will hold their rating in an open class windward-leeward racing fleet with predominantly capable crews on spinnaker boats.

Many will now interupt with cries of Ashby, Lars Guck and Ogletree providing proof to the contrary but YOU won't be able to reproduce these results. Simply because it is not the boat that propels these people to such results but their exceptional sailing skills.

Now the A-cat is indeed widely accepted as pure sailing joy and the A-cat racing fleet (if present) is a well respected entity. But if you don't have such a fleet nearby then you really must value the joy of sailing an A in sufficiently large quantities to justify getting one. Because in your situation there simply won't be another reason that favours the A over the spinnaker (formula) boats.

Add to this that over the last decade the spinnaker boats, mostly the formula ones, have noticeably improved their setups and feel, thus making the lead the A's used to have in this area smaller and smaller. This trend has not ended yet in my personal opinion.





Forget this limitation. Once you start sailing with a spinnaker you'll be quickly learning to use it in 10 to 20 knots as well. At least that is what I did and many other I know. At first it will seem daunting but you'll quickly learn that it'll actually make the boat better behaved and faster around the course in any condition.

The only exception to this rule is the really light winds were you can't fill the spinnaker properly. Here having the spi on board is a disadvantage as you can't use it. In any other wind you'll be faster with it deployed on the downwind legs. Trust me, I tried it all over the last 5 years. And I'm talking about singlehanding here (solo sailing) as you would with the A+spi.

Wouter