Hi Sail7Seas,

You raise some interesting points about the potential for headstay sag and I'd like to hear other's experience and opinion on this matter. Some sag may not be a bad thing in gusts if it opened the jib leech slightly depowering it as well in gusts. It does seem clear that there are very successful and admired cats out there such as the Taipan which do sail sloop with a less stiff mast and don't seem to have a problem with this. Since it is the top of the mast that deflects the most and the headstay attachment point is well below this, it's not clear to me that the forestay would sag much on a rig with a properly designed flexible mast. Also, even if it could sag, I would think that headstay sag would be controlled adequately on a flexible mast via diamond wires tension and spreader rake while still retaining gust response.

Jerry