People do seem to hang on to their Woods cats. We had a Strider, our 1st cruiser. It was a dagger board version, quite fast, and a great sea boat. It’s probably Mira, Flika or Banshee that the OP could consider.
They're not exactly mainstream.
i tried googling, but i couldn't find out what it is...
That certainly seems like good advice for the exact reasons westernman says. However, if you charter a cat you will be on a charter style cat, which I assume is the sort of “production boat that falls apart after a few years” which you say you don’t want in the OP. If your wife likes such an experience (and a bold guess would be that her desire for a cat is more aligned with than than a Wharam) you might be getting one whether you want it or not. Of course it’s possible that she doesn’t enjoy the motion or finds the more frequent upwind motoring etc irritating in real life - in which case a trip to boat show might find something monohull that still delivery the cat type comfort - a Moody DS perhaps?
There was a community of them in the lagoon at Culatra a few years back, described to me as a load of aging, pony tailed, dope smoking German hippies. They all lived on permanently beached Wharrams. Scruffy ones! They were highly peed off when the authorities descended in force and forced them to move! There was a steel cable put across the entrance. One of the outraged ones refused to move until that was done!
@Chiara’s slave might disagree with you here?
He uses his tri mainly for racing and the odd cruise. Tri's generally have a lot less room than cats as the accommodation is normally only in the main hull.