ABC:

Whow, Taipan 4.9's.. I want one of those for solo sailing and sailing with our little girl. Got the plans from AHPC a month ago, but to busy sailing these days.

It sounds like you sail the Taipan just like the Tornado without a kite.
I would not hesitate to use the downhaul if we was overpowered without the kite.
With the kite, i guess downhauling the main does not affect the sailplan in the same way and the compression in the mast would be positively huge ?

I'm following the Australian Taipan butt. via your website and discussion group. It sounds like you have a great class going on a really good boat!

The Tornado discussion forum on the ITA website has had issues since day one. On the new web site, which is under construction, they are still referring to the old forum.. I sure hope they get to fix it before they release the new site. I guess these tecnical issues are why there has been so few postings..


Alive:
What kind of Marstrom mast do you use. The 'new' one with thicker walls in the extrusion, or the standard one ? We have got the standard mast, and also a really stiff IYE mast from the 80's.

Thanks for the advice with regards to the kite and trapeezeing. With the crew standing on the rudder, wont that disrupt your helming ? Or has he got most of his weight on the front foot ?

As we are running things by now, the crew trapezes just behind the skipper, on skippers trapeeze. I will introduce him to your concept today

Btw. your website seems to have gone away. The domain seems to have been deleted from all name servers. Better check it out with your ISP before someone comes and 'squats' on it.