It's been a while since I posted on the forum, but since no one else seems willing to respond to your guarantee, Darryl, I guess it falls to me.

Let me start by thanking you publically for your off-line suppport and advice in the early phases of my project. It was very much appreciated. I also hope you're right about the t-foil rudders eliminating pitchpoling because I am in the process of modifying my Nacra 5.0 based F16 to take advantage of your ideas.

While my Nacra does have a fully F16 compliant main and is reasonably fast, there's no getting around the fact it weights close to a 45+ kilograms more than the Taipans, Blades, et al. To make things even worse, the boat has skegs and not daggerboards which means giving away a lot of upwind performance.

To minimize if not eliminate those factors I'm in the process of making the stock Nacra rudders longer (76+ centimeters vs the 60.96 stock). Per your advise, this should add my upwind performance.

I am always going to fit the rudders with rather large t-foil sections swept back at 45 degrees. These should allow me to sail my boat bow down with less chance of pitchpoling.

Frankly, I will probably need all the help I can get.

That's because I have ordered a flat, roller furling reaching spinnaker from Rick White. His sailmaker suggests that I should be able to fly my headsail on everything from a close reach to downwind. And while I will be giving up a bit of straight downwind performance to the pure spinnakers, I'm hoping the advantage of having a sail I can use on everything but upwind will be a trade off. <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif" alt="" />

I am also convinced, having watched Doc (Eric Paulson) pitchpole his Taipan snuffing his spinakker on a day sail as well as earlier posts on the forum that roller furling is a better option. I believe it will make for easier deployment of the sail. I think the windage of the sail furled is a good trade off, especially when you consider I hope to fly it both downwind and on the reaches.

Of course, the problem with the flat reaching spinnakers is they do tend to depress the leeward bows. That's where the t-foils come in. Assuming you a right, Darryl, about the new longer t-foil rudders eliminating pitchpoling and improving upwind performance, my new setup should give me a boat that's okay on a beat and will carry more sail than a C Cat all the rest time. <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> Heck, I may need the extra weight of the 5.0 just to help me hold it down.

I know my thinking here goes a bit against the grain but as somebody said, you got to love formula racing. Hopefully, all will be finished by Huntington Lake and I'll be able to test my theories against Doc (Eric Paulson) and the guys.

I'll post photos of the rudders when they're done if anyone is interested.

Good sailing to all,

John Metzig
Nacra F16