I just finished a trip of about 2700nm heading S from VA to
Grenada on my SF in addition to a lot of other trips we've done including things like rounding Hatteras and
Gulf Stream crossings. I think I have a pretty good grasp of how it
sails in almost all conditions. This boat sails super well.
And while I'm OK at trimming sails, I am not a master of sail trim. When my friend the
racer gets on the boat, he can regularly coax an extra half a
knot or more (maybe even a full knot) out of my boat. The following examples were all done without the benefit of my
racing friend's skills.
When properly trimmed, the boat really moves. As one example, leaving San Salvador and heading E into an AWA of between 40 and 60 and AWS of about 20kts, we held 7-8+ kts for about 15 hrs. It was definitely "sporty," but, the boat really handled well with waves at about 50degrees (varying throughout). Our friends in another cat were 9nm back in the evening (they needed
fuel as they had to use an
engine to hold the AWA). By midday the next day, they were 49nm back.
The ability to sail fast at that angle made a huge difference in the wear and tear on my wife and me (and our Shelty). BTW - we were loaded for a marathon sail - lots of
food,
water,
fuel, tools., etc.
On reaches is where it really loves to be. Heading from Iles de Saintes we were behind a Lagoon 42(?) at 60-70AWA. We averaged 8kts. They were at 4.8kts.
When you have it dialed in, the boat will really move on almost any reach between 45 and 130 degrees. The speed drops abruptly at 30-35 degrees.
Downwind, it really needs a downwind sail. It comes with an Asym. We added an Oxley Bora. It's not quite as fast as the Asym or the Oxley Levante, but it is super easy to manage and handles easily. Makes long passages a lot less tiring.
Now, it's not an
Outremer or a Gunboat. For example, we left Charleston about 3 nm ahead of a 59 or 60' Gunboat, and it left us in the dust, averaging about 1.5kts more in moderate reaching conditions. It was out of sight in about 6hrs.
Along this trip we have sailed alongside or near to a lot of other boats. Near
Martinique we sailed alongside a Balance and pretty much sailed in tandem. (I'd guess that they could have trimmed it a bit and outrun us.) We fell behind an
Outremer a couple of times. And we pretty regularly passed the
Charter Leopards and Lagoons.
On that same trip, we sailed in tandem with another SF from Hatteras to Charleston and we both held 7plus in about 11kts onshore. Once again, pretty loaded up with weight.
Last week, just after finishing the VA to
Grenada slog including the marathon upwind from the
Exumas to St Maarten, I told my friends I was super happy to have a relatively quick, super
seaworthy boat that handled the seas well and took a few poundings without complaint.
As for other SF boats, my friend left my
dock in Stuart this year and was anchored in
Nassau (225nm) 26hrs later, for an average speed of 8.65kts. (This was not a sail for the faint hearted as he was running with a big
weather front with 23-33kt winds).
As for the demo boat mentioned above, the only one I know of that had those issues was one where the buyer had strong (overwhelmingly) opinions about a lot of things, including cutting the
mast to
ICW height and adding a bunch of heavy add-ons (e.g., hydraulic
lift; extra
fuel tank in the forepeak, big
compressor, oversized engines, extra full size
refrigerator, etc.).