Sarah, have you contacted Anne-Marlene at Marstrøm? She usually responds quite promptly.. annemarlene@marstrom.com (but I suspect she is away on summer-vacation now)

I usually order some Tornado parts from Marstrøm once or twice a year, and dont have much trouble. The last time they hastily packaged and sent my order by express mail on a short notice, as we had a regatta to attend.

Going wider than a standard M18 (8 foot 2 or 2.5m) does not gain you much; 8 foot 2 to 9 foot only adds about 8% righting moment and creates a whole load of extra problems as Wouter says above.

I would suggest an M18; or but an A class and add a kite as per Hakan

Sarah,

I sailed my Inter 17R for 4 years and then bought my A2. I think you will have plenty of fun on a stock A2. This boat is excellent on all points of sail! I have found that I am learning a great deal more about setting the downhaul and mast rotation and sheet tension than in the last 25 years of catamaran racing on Hobie 16, 18 Square, Nacra 5.5 Uni and Inter 17R. In the A2, you can feel the differences in the adjustments with very small changes. I wish I had known then what I am learning now! On the other hand, I can't imagine going back to those boats after sailing the A2.

What I don't miss about having the spinnaker is the setup and takedown time for the boat. If you decide to add a spinnaker later, so be it. A couple of guys in our club added spinnakers to their N5.5 Unis and they noticed a deterioration in upwind performance (added drag), The effect on the A2 would be more dramatic, I think because the sail area of the A2 is less and the upwind performance on the stock A2 is unbelievable! You might decide you don't need it, because A2 is quick downwind and challenging without the spinnaker.