Thanks for your insight
I like the lines of the 272, and my wife sometimes talks about getting a boat she can stand up in. We (the two of us plus the dog) recently spent a long weekend aboard at Monterey Harbor for the Cruiser Challenge and that topic came up more than once. The fact that we wouldn't even have gone to Monterey for the weekend in a boat we couldn't trailer didn't seem to register but I was curious as to whether the 272 had the character of a "big small boat" or a "small big boat" and it sounds like it is more of the latter.I share many of your opinions on halyards and reefing being kept at the mast and also prefer a boat with a tiller. I sail often on a Catalina 320 which has a big wheel, to me there is less "feel" and I am frustrated by the barricade the wheel creates, being situated across the cockpit, when one is trying to steer and handle lines at the same time. Like you, I single hand most of the time and really appreciate the manageable size (both underway and getting on and off the dock) of a smaller boat.Incidentally, I don't think Delizia hurt the O'day reputation any at the Cruiser Challenge. The only O'day competing, she finished second in class behind a brand new Catalina 16, ahead of two ComPac 19s, a ComPac SunCat and a whole slew of Potter 19s. The "big boat" class (20-25 ft) was won by a Marshall Sanderling and in the "micro-cruiser" class (up to 15 ft) the first two places where taken by Montgomery 15s.