Performance to weather
That's the big difference. And it has nothing to do with the ballast - the designers have worked out the 300 extra pounds to make that a wash. The big difference is a longer, more efficient wing working under water to reduce leeway. 4 to 5 degrees is probably right.For us, cruising means _not_ having a schedule that makes us sail dead into the wind. So most of our legs are reaches, or motoring if there is little or no wind.But we have had a few times when 5 to 10 degrees of improved pointing would have made for a lot nicer leg crossing the lake. (Last summer, for instance on the way from Erie to Port Stanley, we "missed" Port Stanley by only 12 miles! Slogging into the wind is not the strength of our shoal draft h27.But I do think shoal draft makes us a little faster when the wind is abaft the beam. The wing is mostly drag at that point.DavidLady Lillie