Admirality 30 vs. mini 650

After sailing on my first mini 650, I have been thinking about giving up my racer/cruiser and going for an all out racer. I want to participate in both W/L buoy races and distance races sailing single handed. The distance races being the 15 to 300 miles long on lake Michigan.... so the boat needs to be category 3 offshore capable. The mini is great for distance stuff, but sucks around the cans...

So I was thinking about taking the Admirality 30 as a starting point and making a single handed distance racer out of her... but the changes shouldn't compromise her ability to compete on W/L courses. What would you guys propose changing?

Or, Would I be better off starting with a Cheetah 30 vs. the Admirality 30?

 

Your two uses are at odds with one another. This is going to be difficult to solve.

As you say, a mini is not going to be very much fun in mixed fleet buoy racing. It also isn't going to be much fun if your long races end up with a good amount of beating.

I have sailed a bit on a Cheetah 30 and can tell you it really suffers if it doesn't have enough beef on the rail uphill. The other issue is the build quality. I wouldn't go offshore any farther than I could swim back. They have a tendency to lose keels. If you do get one you might want to talk to Alan Andrews who has a redesigned keel for the last one that broke off out here.

From what I have seen the Admiralty 30 wouldn't do either task well. It doesn't seem to do well around the cans and it isn't going to be CAT3 in the current form (I don't think).