[R33]

A friend recently bought a Beneteau 33.7 and I have raced with,and against him several times. The LI Sound rating is 119, and to date, including about 10 races in a variety of conditions, the boat has little to no chance of sailing to that number. We have done no better than 5th in any given race.He is an excellent sailor, and I consider myself reasonably good.This past weekend in 12 kts true we did a little tune up. He was 8-10 boats behind our Ranger 33 after 2 miles of windward sailing, and many times that distance after reaching back to our start. His boat has new 3dl sails, and the latest gear. Our boat is a 1973, reasonably good Kevlar 153, dacron main, and rates 159.He has lost to the Catalina 32, C&C 29, Beneteau 35s5 etc. etc. The boat can not stand up in 15 true and rounds up continously in the gusts.I suspect my buddy is very disappointed, and for what its worth, I would NEVER consider this boat for racing! Jim