Sean and Joli are actually both right.
Just as Sean mentioned, my cat points to 30 degrees apparent before pinching. While the wind is whipping thru your hair and all seems wonderful with the world, unfortunately, there are other considerations.
First off, as cats are slightly faster, apparent wind moves further forward on a cat, so even though pointing at 30 degrees apparent seems unassailable, in fact we would actually be pointing lower than a mono when comparing courses to true wind direction.
The second consideration is leeway. I know this is dependent on hull design, but I have to believe that cats are slipping sideways a lot more than a full keel mono.
All in all I'm very satisfied with windward performance, but I'm not sure it's fair to say that cats can outpoint a mono. If I steer a couple of points lower, keep my speed up and even with another tack thrown in, I think I can compare favorably to Joli's VMG scenario (or I should say that I know Ireany's boat would).
Of course, OTOH, I wouldn't know what a race course looks like!!
