Hi All,

I thought I would put my 1 or 2 cents worth in as I was commenting about this on Saturday while looking over the Arrow fleet at Portarlington.

The Arrows have gone to a newer section mast to support their square head sails and kept the same jib. I should say going to, as there was a mix of old and new sections with guys having plans to upgrade first sail then mast. I understood that the fittings were simply taken from one and put on the other, making the cost more about the section and time than a complete rig. The winningest (!) Arrow had a square main, new mast and more than probably a sailor onboard that may have been able to win using bedsheets and a broomstick.

I have spoken to a couple of the Mossie sailors over the last year or so about the square top main idea. As I understand it, one of our top sailors had one made a couple of years ago and tested it out. It was shelved as the consensus was that while it showed an improvement in upwind speed, it was not as fast downwind. total achieved gain for the change was zero.

Now with the advent of spinnaker boats, we have that missing speed downwind - Should the newly (about to be) adopted Mk3 boats be granted a square top main to go with the spinnaker?

The Mk3 already has a different handicap, why limit it to a single change?

Those sailing with it have shown that cost comes in third place to enjoyment and speed, so adoption within the natural turnover of sails could run at about 3 -5 years for most.

Some downsides would be 2 separate sections to be held by the association, and 2 complete rigs to be carried with the spinnaker boats. I am sure there are many others, none insurmountable.

Cheers

Trevor