by SimonW » Mon May 20, 2013 12:09 pm
Well, I have now sailed both, so thought it might be worth adding my brief conclusions to this thread for anyone asking the question in the future.
Shrimper pros
One less sail
Slightly easier entrance to cabin
A bit more headroom in the cabin?
Much larger class so more events and racing (albeit only really in Poole, Rock or Falmouth)
Inboard if you want it and have 40k to spend..
Larger cockpit storage lockers which can take an engine or liferaft
Shrimper cons
One less sail, so slower in light airs
Much less accommodation and imho - compromised layout
Cockpit large, but smaller footwell and less comfortable to sail
Less fine bow sections so slams more in chop, wash etc
Outboard version offset and difficult to manoeuvre
Less stable/heels more easily
Less balanced under sail.
Drys out on more of an angle due to hull shape.
General
Whilst I have sailed both (the shrimpers more), I didn't do so on the same day, but would make the following general conclusions. The cape cutter has a more comfortable and useable cockpit due to its layout. The outboard layout on the Cape cutter is much better and the boat is much easier to manoeuvre. The rear of the shrimper cockpit is lockers or outboard and the front is the engine box, so very small footwell.
The accommodation is obviously better in the Cape cutter. Build quality is subjective, I wouldn't put one ahead of the other. The Shrimper has more wood inside and extra mouldings, so is perhaps perceived as more finished than the cape cutter, but structurally they are both good. I think Bob could add some of the bulkhead style panelling that Ru88ell has done and perhaps the side shelves that Dennis did and that would have a real impact for not much more effort and weight.
Coming back to sailing I think there is more difference than one might expect. The Cape cutter is noticeably stiffer, part of which will be the use of lead plus the added form stability of the hull shape, which combined with finer bow sections means a faster boat with a smoother more comfortable motion. Its surprising how quickly a shrimper heels in comparison. The Cape Cutter with three sails is very balanced on the wind with virtually no weather helm, whereas the Shrimper loads up more. In performance terms the Cape Cutter feels a bit quicker pretty much everywhere.
The only true comparison I have seen would be the round the lsland race when the Cape Cutters are faster, but not perhaps, by as much as I would have thought. Based on my sails, I would have thought this performance difference to be more and was trying to work out why this would be.
My conclusion comes down to conditions. The only recent comparable races have been windy and once the Cape Cutter loses the ability to fly the Yankee, the sail area of the staysail and the main are the almost the same as the shrimper (actually 17.90sqm CC19 to 18.02sqm Shrimper) so performance gets closer. Obviously we need a lightish round the island to prove that theory, but in a certain windspeed the boats will be closer than in perhaps sub 15knots where the CC19 should be a fair bit quicker.
Overall I found the Cape Cutter a nicer boat to sail as well as being faster but thats just my opinion.
I reuse one of the carbon filters from my caravan, it is also sited in the cupboard. One year in caravan followed by one year in boat. 
)
