As Mark said part of the difference is that few of us have sailed on as many boats and specifically offshore for any period of time. I'm remeinded of an old saying about the "Perfect Boat", what is she? She's the boat you own.

P finds the acceleration exhilerating. I would find it nauseating! We've all ridden with driver traveling the highway that constantly speed up and slow down. They can't find the sweet spot with the pedal. That movement after a few hours like along the Panama coast might well be fun. In 10 kts of wind going `10.5 kts of boat speed would make the sail empty and then bang again as they fill. Not for me. But expecting that movement and noise for 5 -20 days would wear on my wife and I. And if memory serves me correct I think it wears a bit on Paul's wife as she was talking about a significantly different style cruising boat when we sat in the Lemons. Too I don't remember if she spends 100% of the time with you and the boat as you sail her. My wife does and from what I know Marks wife does too. Also I personally would have to be on the boat to accept that it is not yawing from the waves rolling through. With Panama's weird wave trains I'm thinking your ride was quite exciting. Not my cup of tea with my home. But each of us is different and I don't mean to disparage your view or choice in boat in any way.

With that said, if we were to live in the Carib the rest of our cruising days my wife and I have talked and figure we would end up with a Cat; a condo on the water. The short hops up and down the Eastern Carib and even the short hops up and down the Western Carib would be fine. One of the things I don't like on the Cat is the rolling back and forth across the vertical. There are a couple of other issues I'm not fond of but that would be the worst for us. And all boats are compromises. That said we were coming from the Chesapeake in about 25 kts of wind and spoke with a cat less the 50 miles away. This was approximately 5 days out. Those on the Cat were playing Mexican Train in the cabin sailing along the same conditions. We could never have sat in our salon and played a game!

A friend on a sistership (to our boat) has an auto pilot and he tells me of 200 + amps / day draw. He is now in Thailand and they use the Windvane almost exclusively. But with a lighter boat you may be right (and I'm sure you are) for your amp draw. I would expect it to be more with a larger unit and a larger boat. Mark didn't say what he sees in amps/ day estimated with his unit.

As for Performance Cruiser, that has always been an odd compromise in wording from my humble perspective. Seems that to be a performance cruiser if you are going to be a cruiser you need a certain amount of carrying capacity. Even on Reach a 40' Cat the boat is loaded such that the aft step is just below the water line. I seriously doubt that they have too many spares or supplies. They have what they need to cruise. One out of the box method I like to use to ascertain if a boat designed for "cruising" is by counting how many Jerry Jugs they carry on deck. Zero means cruiser, and from there every jug takes away the cruising ability. If the boat wasn't designed to carry the necessary fuel and water for crusing and an owner has to pack it all up on deck then it IMHO the boat was designed for Performance, not cruising. Again IMHO.

Ciao