that can be easily trailerered and rigged ... should perform well in light wind ... built and equipped with the best materials available and modestly priced.' We would argue with the word 'roomy' and perhaps the word 'cruiser,' but the rest sounds plausible; we see her as a pure racer. She is named the '5.5' presumably in meters, but that's eighteen feet, which is neither the waterline length nor the LOD nor the LOA. Go figure. Best features: The swing keel on the '5.5' seems to us to be more manageable than the lifting keels on both her comp[etitor]s [the Hotfoot 20 and the Holder 20]. She features a galley and sink in a cabin with more elbow room —but with headroom of only three feet, who would want to stay below to cook? Her fittings (Harken, Barient, North) are all top-of-the-line, and she comes as standard with internal halyards, boom vang, 3:1 outhaul, cunningham, jiffy reefing, and a perforated toerail. Worst features: With performance numbers so close to her comp[etitor]s, we question why her PHRF would be 240 versus 168 and 183 for the other two comp[etitor]s. That could be considered as a 'plus' to some. but for those who don't want their race course buddies to shun them, maybe it should be counted as a 'minus.'"
