Hello Grahame, Well, we would both agree that light air upwind is not the optimum point of sail when comparing cruising catamarans with their short sails and high wetted surface, to mono hulls. The average cruising cat with fixed keels usually is giving up some upwind performance for a shallow draft that will allow them to cruise where the mono hulls cant. Needless to say if you were racing against a design with dagger boards and finer hulls (Chris White design), the result would have been very different. However on a reach or off wind the cats are usually superior across the board. So if in a cruising environment with a variety of conditions, in a point to point race the cat might have won. If you take into account that a lot of cruisers whether mono or multi hull motor a great deal of the time for convenience, the cat usually out performs there to. I have sold a lot more mono hulls in my career than cats, and over thirty years racing mono hulls as well. When I consult with a client, I tell them for day sailing, and club racing, they probably would be better off with a mono hull, but when talking extended cruising and or live aboard, the cat is hard to beat. "Cats are for Cruising" I think its more about the reality of cruising vs. the more purist or idealistic point of view. When you take into consideration 3/4 of your time cruising is spent at anchor, the case for a cruising cat with its superior stability, larger interior and cockpit space for given length, easier maneuvering with twin engines, and shallow draft, "fits" the reality of cruising better over the long haul in my opinion. Remember when talking performance in a cruising boat the quotient is, "performance = VMG relative to energy expended by the crew" and cats with their "no heeling sailing" require less crew energy. It's been my experience once my clients spend some time on a cruising cat, they rarely go back to mono hull. As far as cost, well I will use the Manta 42 as an example, with over 120 of these built to date, and even with huge inflation of cost over the last five years, at 450k totally ready to go serious cruising with, solar, gen, air, watermaker, full electronics etc. I don't know of any quality mono hulls similarly equipped that would sell for less, and in most cases they would cost a lot more. Pat Reischmann www.hytechmarine.com<http://www.hytechmarine.com/>