If the sailor has the exact same skill level, the winds are the same, the seas the same, and the tides, which is faster; the Hobie, Nacra, or Prindle?
You still left open a whole lot of variables. If the wind is the same, how hard is it blowing? Some boats perform better than others in lighter winds and some in higher. What kind of seas? Flat or chop? Some boats handle chop better than others. The closest thing that you are going to find with an unbiased answer comparing boat for boat is in the Portsmouth tables. The lower the number, the faster the boat. It's not perfect, but it's the best thing we've got.
Don
Having just moved from Hobie 20 to Nacra 6.0 NA, I think the Nacra exhibits a bit more snort, especially when the wind builds. My Miracle never intimidated me, my 6.0 has taught me to respect it's potential.
When the wind was howling, I felt like the comp tip on the Miracle did a great job to depower the rig and calm things down considerably which my wife appreciated. However, the Nacra keeps pouring it on. No complaints from me, but it bothers my wife. It gets to be a rip snortin good time in a howl, but for lighter conditions, they felt very much the same.
...My 2 cents worth...
putting on my asbestos suit for this one!
The H16 and N5.0/500 are portsmouth rated aproximately equally, with a slight extra handicap to the '16. When you consider wind, the table splits the listed wind categories between the two boats.
BUT
When you consider the skill and dedication to racing that is found more commonly among '16 skippers than '5.0 skippers, the argument can be made that the '16 is rated as fast as the '5.0 partly because of skipper skill.
(appologies to you 16 sailors out there - notice I just called all of you on balance better skippers)
Personally, being a worse skipper than most H16 racers, I need the advantage of sailing an 'underrated' boat!!
Now if the hot skippers discover the 5.0, start sailing it, and run my handicap up, I'll be seriously in trouble!
Ed Norris
you missed one boat. the taipan is much quicker than a hobie 20. can't say anything about the nacra 6.0m never sailed against one.
Ed--
You're a brave man! JUST IMAGINE the potential of the N5.0 if some of the talented H16 skippers "jumped ship." (And by the way, how doesn't your righting pole work?)
For 16 footers, here's my observations: In light air, the H16 seems to have an edge. (Or maybe it's my blownout sails? yeh, that's it.) In heavier air the the N5.0 has more potential because it has a much better hull design and can be pushed harder without crashing. It doesn't do cartwheels (frontwards or backwards) like we've all seen (or done) with the H16.
Never sailed an F16HP caliber boat (eg Taipain 4.9) but they're surely in another league of performance, with their high aspect boards, fat head sails, canted hulls, lighter weight, spinnakers (and the know-how to use them), planing hulls (looks like it in the photos, at least) and all those saavy Australian and European brains tuning and sailing 'em....
'Course you'd have to spend more than a thousand bucks to get one of them super fast boats, unlike the N5.0 or H16...
Hi, Eric,
Haven't sea-tested it yet; been beefing up the design at several points; nothing serious, easy workarounds. I'll be feeding back to Murray's and Rick on a couple o' points. Basically, it's a very nice kit - - super light pole, well engineered universal joint, lots of sound thinking went in, as you'd expect, given the designer. My quibbles are quite minor, and conceivably moot. I've righted the boat up on land quite easily; we all know that's no substitute for the real thing.
Ed