It could have been in one of the more contentious discussions a few few years ago.

However; one of your earlier statements about not looking very seriously is interesting. Especially considering me! Boat shows, research on the net and talking to other long range cruisers as well as the blogs of cruisers. Yeah, I wasn't living in Annapolis were PHY or whatever is but I spoke to most everyone I could and for us the best choice is and was a windvane. Of course by the time our boat picks up speed going down a wave the next one has arrived and in the Green Monsters with the winter trades off of Colombia I never saw anything above 10 kts. .... Thankfully. I kept trying to slow the boat down.

As for Justins comments on he loves sailing fast that's the different strokes for different folks. Our boat is our home. I want it safe, I want comfort. I'm not saying his boat per say isn't safe, just that in my experience the closer you end up getting to the edge of your boats specs the more likely you'll end up breaking something. I'm not a fan of hung keels, not a fan of winged keels, and not a fan of spade rudders. I find the bottom more often then I would like. I'm not a fan of having to watch my speed and except leeway as some of the Catana's need to. I'm not a fan of metal boats, nor electrolysis. But that is me. I'm not a fan of a corkscrew motion or excess noise. I'm mostly getting to be a grump when it comes to sailing in coastal waters where the winds are fluky and the wave trains have little consistency.

I'm not a fan of trying to convince anyone to change. I'm only offering stories from my experiences. As Mark said many have not sailed with both systems. I've not sailed offshore on a Cat (nor am I really intending to) I've not sailed on a J offshore nor a Outbound. Not intending too on those either. Don't wish to do deliveries. Leave those to Jon E. I like full keel, comfortable boats.

I'm reminded of a story by Web Chiles years ago when he was attempting to sail around the world in a Drascombe Luger. He was going across one of the long legs in the Pacific and his trip in the 20 or so foot Drascobe took one day longer then a Swan that left the same time.

Oh, and for Mark download and check out SeisMac: http://seismac.en.softonic.com/mac and Fourwinds is no longer in business. Kiss distributors are ex cruisers and I'm not sure about the manufacture in Trinidad. Looks like an old cruisers; if they look like anything.

Ciao