First make absolutly sure you can right the boat under worst conditions. Buy or build a righting bar if needed. There are a lot of methods that will let a 5.2 by yourself. But, when you have 15 secs to right the boat or go under a dock, brute force works.

That said, there is no reason a 5.2 uni will not work for what you want. A a properly setup 5.2 with the jib removed, is a sloop with no jib, it is not setup right. The mast rake and the diamond wires are wrong for example. The only thing you can be compared to is a 5.5 uni and you have a boom, that helps.

First rake the mast vertical. If the bow dives, rake it back a little. Next rerig the lines so you can get to everything from the wire. Look at a 5.5 uni and 18 sq's with booms. You don't need to do everything at once. If you don't know what it does, you probably don't need to tweak it from the wire. The big problem will be the outhaul. The best I have seen is the Mastrom A's.


The next step is to figure out how to make the boat go fast. This is the fun part.

IF you really get into this, have sail made for a 5.2 uni. That will make a huge difference.

Remember, if in doubt don't fiddle with something, sail the boat.