My family has a Sunfish on Squam Lake (made famous by the movie "On Golden Pond") in New Hampshire, and we've been sailing it in the summers for 20 years. It is pretty fun to sail in say 8 - 12 MPH wind (my wife won't sail on the Sunfish above 12 MPH out of a fear of capsizing the boat), but you can't really get too far with it in an hour or so of sailing, and it is hard to sail with more than two people on the boat. And, frankly, it feels pretty slow (I've sailed other boats, not on lakes, up to J/24s).
I was reasonably happy with the Sunfish until I saw a catamaran blasting along the lake at seemingly insane speeds (definitely a Nacra from the emblem, maybe
this Nacra 5.7, though I was unable to get close enough to be certain).
Since then I've been doing research to try to find a catamaran to replace our Sunfish that is a) more thrilling / fast, b) comfortable / safe to sail for people who've already been sailing for many years on a Sunfish, and c) easy to rig (we leaving the rigging on the Sunfish, on a mooring ball, for the month or so it is in the water per year).
From my research (including this forum), it sounds like the Wave might be a good fit, but I have a few questions that would help me understand the tradeoffs vs what we have now:
1) How does the Wave perform vs. Sunfish in lighter wind, like 5 - 7 MPH?
2) How does the Wave perform vs. Sunfish in the wind that is currently our sweet spot, 8 - 12 MPH?
3) It sounds like the Wave wave is more stable at higher wind speeds than the Sunfish, if we are comfortable in 10 - 12 MPH on the Sunfish, what would the equivalent be on the Wave?
4) Can we leave the Wave rigged on the water, presumably with some sail ties, without the rigging thrashing about and scratching up the boat? We only recently figured out how to secure the rudder to the boom to secure the rigging on our Sunfish, and it is a game-changer in terms of time to get sailing.
Any answers, suggestions, advice greatly appreciated! Main thing we want to is to have even move fun like this - my daughter sailing our Sunfish on Squam: