Does anybody actually sail?

[rwoofer]

Not sure you are comparing like with like there. No reflection on the RM but its hardly the same sort of upmarket cruising boat the Southerly is.

But your point is true nevertheless because some cruising boats like Arcona or Elan tend to have much higher sa/d ratios than some others. Bit like some cars have high power to weight ratios (my little Lotus for example has 190bhp in 900kg ) whilst others have low ( family Volvo has 140 bhp for 1500kg). Guess which goes best to windward. But so what - you pay your money and make your choice.

Southerly was very nice indeed, but would rather be able to pay your money and get luxury and performance. One way around on the Southerlys would be to spec a genoa instead of self-tacker, but few seem to go for that.

I forget the name of the cruising couple who featured in the magazines a few years ago (I think one half was Evans Starzinger), but they chose their 48 footer due to the sail area. Past RTW experience had shown them that most designs just didn't have enough of it and therefore dramatically increased motoring time.

 

[lefkasman]

motoring ?

Seemed to be plenty sailing here in the Meganisi channel a few weeks ago...