>>Disagree about the traveller. I feel that letting a bit of main off allows twist in and ensures that the sail is driving early and allows re-attachement of the airflow quickly. If you can get the traveller to exactly the right spot it might be quicker, but in any waves, the whole rig / boom is going to shake around more with traveller out thus loosing air flow/attachment.


Well, I don't know yet. The reason behind working the traveller is not to have early power but to keep up the rate of turning all through the tack. Also my sailcombo is rather sensitive to mainsheet trim. I will do alot to not have to stuff up the setting I optimized on the preceding upwind leg. Also I can easily get my traveller back in the old position while I find it takes alot more time to sheet back to the exact right amount of mainsheet tension. Especially when sailing with a jib the repositioning of the traveller is very easy. Here my car is always centered on a upwind beat. You can't pull it past centre can you ?

I do admit that I'm in the experimental stages regarding the traveller use when looking at catrigged sailing. However I do think that the mainsail slows down the turn away from the wind after teh bows have crossed through it. Letting out the traveller without flapping the mainsail should allow the boat to turn away from the wind quicker and farther. Then bringing it back in and heading back up a little bit will power up the boat very quickly and have you speed away without losing time on mainsheet trim. Besides if my mainsheet tension is still on than the battens in my main prevent flapping. In my setup the mastrotation is independent of the traveller position so when I let the traveller out I also reduce the draft in the sail significantly thus reducing drag. The same manouvre allows the battens to pop over.

So I'm not looking at quick reattachement but rather a quick unhindered turn through the wind and all the way to the next course, preferably even overturning the tack. Thus keeping the exact same trim as before the tack but now hanging off the other side. I accept that I may loose something by powering up later and pointing lower but I also understand that I gain alot of time by not having to find my optimal trim again and I'm in the trapeze and away quickly as well.

Right now on my F16 I find that I'm using the traveller more and more. Just because the sheetload on it is very moderate and because it often gives such good responses. My traveller car runs really smooth. But again I think my mastrotation setup plays a role in all of this. I'm also experimenting with working the traveller during the large gusts upwind. I try to have my rig deal with the little gusts automatically or by steering through them. It is in handling the big gusts that I'm trying to see if working the traveller is better. Here I'm sure my mast rotation setup helps alot. I can really see the top of my mast bend off to lee when leech of my mainsail is brought more in line with the fore-aft axis of my mast. The bending away of the top takes the top of the mainsail with it. So instead of controlling the heel by twisting off the squaretop using sheet tension I'm now experimenting with controlling the bending off of the whole top of my mast and sail combo using the direction in which the leech is pulling. I think one can only do this in an effective way on flexible wingmasts which hardly any current catamaran design uses. I already found that underrotating the wingmast is not a problem; there doesn't seem to be a drag or turbulence penality as is the case with a tear drop shape masts. It is a really remarkable rig.

I do realize that all this may well not work on the Hobie 17 that bolivar is using. BUT I found that the H17 has a serious issue with completing the turn and coming out of the tack. I figured that by having the main weathervane off over its full length, not just the top, may help this design coming out of the tack. Afterall the bottom of the mainsail isn't resisting the turn anymore. Just an idea.

Wouter