>>>If these sails work out, I might get a set for myself. The trampoline can get very small with 2 people on board with the boat rigged with a spinnaker and jib. A self tacking jib would certainly help clean up some of the lines on the tramp.


Welcome to the club, actually outside Australia there is now a trend to go for a different jib setup. First boat with all F16 sails has been ordered and will be delivered in a 5 weeks time. One Taipan crew nearby is seriously considering to go for F16 sails (especially the jib), The third is building himself but is expected to go for a little luxury too. My boat always was F16 of course. I know Kirt has been looking at modifying the jib setup and a crew in Thailand came with the same suggestion. And not even all aussie sailors will shed a tear when removing the blocks from the trampoline. This aspect has not received much attention but we are certainly not alone in this consideration and some have already decided to take the plunch.

I will have to make hast myself with the jib if I want to enter my one-off F16 at my clubs big distance race this comming august. I'm still a pair of rudders and a jib and spi short of being operational.

I think I will opt for the selftacker. I have a little budget left and it will make super slooping extra fun (singlehanded sailing without spi but with jib)

Like Eric indicates, I will lengthen my jib luff with about a foot and 4 inches. I have yet to decide wether I will go for a fully battened jib or just with leech battens.

My mainsail is already on F16 specs and has been testsailed already by the sailmaker and other enthousiasts on Taipans.
The comments are very positive. I think my mainsail has been passed around a bit before it was being put into its container towards me. My sail was experimental and it was recut a little as a result of the tests but it now does all what we were hoping for. The people involved are very content with it. I decided to go with an australian sailmaker because I thought it to be important let a sailmaker experiment on my sail who really knows the Taipan mast and Taipan low drag boat design. I think a little over a year has passed since the first contacts and it being finished.

I eventually choose to go with Ian Markovitch of Redhead sails. I'm very content with thsi decision. Ian and I spoke with eachother several times and he was very open in discussing my laymans ideas and explain his take on things. As I had done some analysing with Phillip Brander before hand, I found that we were both pretty much on the same track.

It was decided that my mainsail would get a larger squaretop and a more straight leech. My squaretop is a good double the size of the normal Taipan squaretop. I've done away with the flap on the foot of the mainsail and therefor shorten the luff a little. Together we decided to make the luff 8 mtr. long and this meant an area of 14,85 s.m. However, it was apparent from the test that on a standard Taipan mast that the luff should be a little bit shorter. Otherwise it limits the down travellength a little.

The larger squaretop did exactly that the three of us were hoping for. It spills the wind in gusts very well. A comment from a testsail was that the boat lifted noticable less and felt as if it only wanted to accelerate forward. This feel was also found to be present in oscillating light wind conditions, which is something that was not expected. But we are very happy with that just the same. It also seems to hang on to the wind better in lulls.

The only thing we hoped for that didn't materialize was top speed. In nice constant wind both rigs have equal top speeds. The new sail is by no means slowers but it also wasn't noticable faster. Even in stabil light winds both mains were equal. The extra area up high didn't seem to matter. All changed however when the winds had lulls and gusts in it. The squaretop induced accelleration proved to be an edge. In light winds it made more gains during increases in windspeed and lost less in lulls. In heavier conditions the boat threw the test pilot (seasoned Taipan sailor) of his footing. His comment was that he had to reverse his normal sailing attitude to compensate for the accelleration during the gusts.

Due to Ians sailmaker skills the quick reaction of the top was just right. Phill was seriously impressed and that equals big points in my book.

I know that neither of them will post comments along these lines themselfs so therefor I have made this post even though I have yet to sail this baby myself.

I think it is save to say that a F16 mainsail can be expected to work out.

Early on we decided to design the sail to be optimal for a crew of 150 kg's and use an extra pair of stiffer top battens to flatten out the top for singlehanding at 80 kg's.

I'm very happy with the total price of the mainsail, full set of battens and 3 extra battens for singlehanding.

Now I will have to see what Ians thoughts are on selftacking jibs.

Wouter