This maybe off on a slight tangent, and it may be a stupid question, but I am just curious: When you have a self-tacking jib, would it be more efficient if it was fully-battened?
F18 is planning to allow fully battened jibs by 2007 (giving you folks PLENTY of time to plan ahead...again, no arms race!). It will be interesting to see what it will offer but I'm not sure what it will do for performance and tunability. On one hand I think the all fabric jib gives you more feedback - but I've never sailed with a fully battened jib so I'm not sure.
