Hello Andreas,

Here is my reply, All in good fun of course.




Well what would you call a 18500 Euro A-cat or a 35.000 euro M20 ?

Seems to me that the carbon uni-rigs are actually leading the arms race.

Also a full selftacking jib kit costs (ex. dealor profit) 1000 euro's, largely independent of its size. What I'm saying is; take any boat you want and then add a 1000 euro jib setup (possibly with a bridle foil setup) and get a faster and more alround boat. This can not be regarded as an arms race like making everything from carbon.


But sadly you make the same mistake again.



But what if this restricted total amount of sailarea is larger then what can realistically put into a single mainsail ? Will it then be faster to just get a smaller mainsail and simply forget about the remaining square meters ? Or will it be faster to used the excess cloth in a jib ?

Basically, my argument focusses not so much on having "no rules" or having "restricting rules" but rather on to what extend these rules activily favour one setup over another. Apparently, simply changing a single number can switch the favouring from one setup to another.


Lets take the 18HT class and raise its total allowed upwind sail area to 30 sq. meters. And of course we also take out the class rule that jibs are not allowed. Would we then still see uni-rigs in this class or would we see only sloop rigs ? Afterall, the game is about having the fastest boat, not about having the "most efficient" setup boat. While related, efficiency and "being fast" are not always the same. Sure the uni-rig 18HT with only a 20 - 23 sq. mtr. main will make the most efficient use of this (smaller) amount of area, but it will also be slower then the sloop 18HT that puts all of the allowed area to use.

So my thesis is : On what grounds are uni-rigs considered more efficient or, as sometimes claimed, superior ?

My conclusion is that they are when the class rules are written in such a way that they actively favour such a setup over the sloop rig.

The uni-rigs concept would only be superior in the large when it would still be faster then all other setup no matter what numbers are used in the class rules.

This situation is not academic. Think of landyachts. Here the uni-rig will always be faster because the very small angles of attack will prevent the EFFECTIVE use of jib no matter what the class rules say. Sailboats are still moving too slow and have angle of attacks of about 25 degrees when landyachts operate at about 10-15 degrees. This is the difference of doing 15 knots on a 45 degree upwind beat in 15 knots of wind or doing 25+ knots. The difference of 7-10 degrees is all that the jib needs to become effective. It is not certain beach cats will ever get up to the landyacht speeds and start favouring uni-rigs in the large.


So, you may not have thought this but while I absolutely favour sloop rigs on sailboats, I also favour uni-rigs on my landyachts.

Wouter