Help decide older Leopard 46 or newish leopard48?

[wathey]

Load capacity is really important. When I stated from my experience the 46 is faster it may be attributed to how many people are on board and how much gear they have. A leopard 48 has more load carrying capacity than the 46 but with it fully rigged with every amenity and 4 kids and Labrador (2beds, food bowls etc) our cat maybe nearer it's load max than the 46 we sail with and could be the difference. That being said if you plan to take a lot of crap with you then get the bigger boat. I may catch heck for this next comment but I have heard that the 40 and 44 do not sail as well (on all points of sail) than the 46 and 48. If you further overloaded a smaller cat with the same amount of gear you would take on a 48 then math would impute that a 48 will sail away from a 4 cabin 44 all things remaining equal. Importantly sail performance of these boats is hearsay I have picked up in the cruisers community I am around. My opinion is developed from taking in person to real owners each evening and talking about sailing so it's slightly better than the armchair QBs of the general internet but it you haven't sailed a model it's hard to say unequivocally that it is not as good or better. Likely bc I am only talking to live aboard sailors the 40 and 44 respond poorly to the amount of gear most cruisers have in board relative to their bigger sisters.
Also I left out of my original comment. The one's with the front door all have more room (and windage) than the earlier models that don't. The 48 saloon is only two feet longer than the 46 but at the forward point of the 46 cabin by the window you can only sit. On a 48 there is 6'6" standing headroom at the same point in the boat. Makes it feel bigger than the sq ft would represent on paper.anf greatly changes the amount of interior volume in the living space. Also if you are in an anchorage with only 3kts if breeze there is no question which boat is hosting dinner for the buddy boats. The door matters.