Hold on. A wider beam lowers mast compression for the same sail driving force, because the shroud is anchored further out and therefore pulls less "down" for the same "across". Imagine an infinitely wide boat. The shroud would come at the mast horizontally, and there would be no mast compression. Beam windage would be a bitch though.Maybe you could go upwind at the speed of light though? Jake, you could then check your results for RTI before you left, and make your decision to go!