Sorry for resurrecting an oldish thread.
Hi Rolf,
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The luff of a sail without battens collapses in case of small entry angles. A full sail needs greater entry angle than a flat sail. Hence the smallest possible angle of apparent wind depends on the draft of the gennaker. It is rather geometry than L/D.
and right now 1:0 for Germany:England (U21 championship, soccer)
So are you qualified for the next worlds yet? Norway is probably not going to qualify for this event
To the point, here is a nice article about Ben Halls wing:
http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/news/09/0810/What I found relevant to our discussion was this:
The wing is quite powerful in light conditions and very fast. I learned quickly that I can sail high and fast upwind, but initial downwind speed was off the pace. Then I loaned the boat to Glen Ashby before the pre Worlds. Glen trimmed the sail with less camber downwind, and the resulting increase in speed was encouraging.
So flatter was faster even with a solid wing. I am so fond of the "less drag" thinking based on my experiences that I want to say that this is why they increased the speed with the new setting, but of course geometry is still geometry.
