I've chartered both. The Dufour and the 46 in the BVI both had self-tacking jibs and they did not perform all that great - but, obviously, much easier to tack and less work demanded of the crew.
All the boats I've gotten in St. Martin have had full Genny's and they were much more fun to sail - but gave my wife and I a workout when tacking in a stiff breeze.
It's close but I'm leaning towards the convenience of self-tacking and just sucking up the hit to performance (but I'm getting older and "easier" is winning out in other things as well).
I don't know if this applies to St. Martin boats but the water maker on the Dufour is a nice extra - especially in St. Martin where water sources are much tougher to come by.
We had quite a few other problems with the Dufour but it was brand new and a lot of kinks were getting worked out. Most were minor and either didn't really matter or quickly fixed. The only real big thing was that there was no bow thrusters. It didn't matter at all to us because I have a crack foredeck crew but if you depend on them, you might want to check whether they are working - it was a design flaw (air con blowing wet air on the circuit boards of the thrusters).
I have a write up in the forum if you want a more in-depth review.
.
