Only just stumbled upon this thread so I thought I would put in my 2 cents worth.
Worst ride. Black dog cat.(5m)..In a light chop yes it would glide along quite nicely, add some swell and it would drop off the plane and drop its arse like a dog with worms then bury a hull into the back of a wave and toss the crew all over the place.
Bloody horrible in the rough.
Best; White pointer 850.
Was lucky enough to spend a bit of time in one this summer.... Jesus what a beast. Full Zipwake system and auto pilot... you could just lop along at 25kts in some real snotty stuff and the boat just shunted everything out of the way. but for $350k you'd expect it to.
By comparison my little surtees 610 goes ok....
They are a lite hull so as soon as it gets messy locking the water in makes a huge difference.
We thought we were going great guns smashing back from little barrier last winter in what was a 1.5m sou east swell when Darren Sheilds just cruised past us doing over 30kts in His 8m HT. We could keep up... but it wasn't particularly comfortable for the lads..Darrens boat barely even noticed the conditions.
Just no substitute for a bit extra length and girth aye.
Apparently.