Nate -
most builders of multihulls are monohull sailors and are used to having a boat that spins on a dime so they can have tacking duels upwind. Thus the inclination to slam the rudder over hard and then wonder why a 2-3 lb boat doesn’t go through the eye of the wind like a monohull with a lead keel 8-10 lb. boat.
If you have sailed a uni-rig cat, you know that violent movement of rudders can easily work as brakes - especially at the start line to keep from being over early. You also know to steer into a large arc to maintain boat speed and not stall rudders. As you steer through, there is a point when you can release the mainsheet to allow sails to flop to other (leeward ) side, and slowly in-haul the mainsheets to keep from being a wind-vane.
As for quiet forums - like big boats, we multihull sailors are in a definite minority. Until we get 20 members with multihulls registered, AMYA keeps us in the Open Class, and offers a little bit of space in publications. No one wants to spend $$$$ for a boat they can’t race, and again, lack of mulltihulls in local clubs doesn’t help either.
I turned my class promotion efforts in 2005 toward just getting boats on the water. Once seen and sailed against, the speed will sell itself. It’s just getting them on the water and keeping them right-side-up that needs effort. There are a few in the weeds waiting for a few more and then they will make their move and join in. The original Nightmare was in Phoenix and had a reputation of being fast even against some hot local builder’s M Class boats. It then was sold (baby was coming) and moved to Hawaii, where once again, it was beating up on 10R boats to the point no one else wanted to sail it because of it’s speed. It then moved to Australia and I’ve lost track of it.
If you look, many plans seen to favor hulls that have long flat keels whereas a bit more rocker would aid in tacking. Many designs are based on the ORMA 60’s and they are ocean racers and aren’t designed for round-the-cans racing.
In my opinion this is why they are more difficult to tack - but then, like tacking - multihulls prefer a straight line speed and few tacks, since we can cover more “ground” (water?) in a straight line while monohulls are tacking and trying to re-establish their boat speed.
If I built another prototype trimaran, I probably would opt for my mast and boards just a bit further back, and perhaps a much smaller jib (maybe 50%) instead of 3/4 or 7/8 size. It would give me a bit more weather helm, but also put a few more inches for forward buoyancy out front.