Hi Darryl

In the mid-90s the Mosquito hull shapes changed quite a bit with the hulls being built a lot fuller than the old boats and the bows in particular being filled out a lot. The end result was that the new boats floated a lot higher out of the water than the old ones and can drive the bows in a lot more before you have to back off.

Having said that, the tendency for the bow to go down is what limits the maximum speed of the Mosquito. As you said, we have to back off eventually or it will just go down, but without the spinnaker this doesn't really happen until the boat is almost getting blown off the water by the trampoline. With the spinnaker up the extra speed means we do hit the limit a bit earlier and in a 20 knot breeze sometimes have to flog the spinnaker in the gusts.

Our spinnakers are not like skiff spinnakers. They are made to sail very tight to the breeze (the main is pinned right in on the downwind legs with all telltales streaming) and they don't give the sort of lift that the skiffs get, so we don't really get the bows out.

Tim