Jerry,




Because in order to have this twist you have too lower the leech tension (mainsheet) and as a result your mainsail become fuller than you want it too.

I can't overstate it enough that the Taipan sails are cut relatively full (luff round) because of the flexible mast. You really have to bend that mast to get the sails to flatten out. Just prebend and downhaul aren't enough, certain not when prebend is set at a good average for all conditions. This is one reasons why the Taipan mast likes the larger squaretop sails. Now you can really use the mainsheet to flatten the mainsail without worrying to much about sailing with the wrong twist.

So yes, Twist in itself will reduce heeling and drive, but the methode used to induce it (lower sheet tension) has an opposite effect (increasing fullness) than full compensates the positive effect of twist. In the end you win nothing or even make things worse. Note, other boat types my have a totally different characteristic. I'm only talking about the Taipan and Superwing wingmasts here.




I never encountered this as a problem.





Not really. You will have to find the right trim but when you do then all things go well. As a matter of fact, if you do it right you will find that the boat accellerates better and sails alot faster. Almost nothing makes you go as slow as when you are fighting to keep the rig under control. Of course we are talking about big wind here. Tuning and trim may well be different in other windstrengths. (and in my experience they are)

How can I explain this best ? Speed is everything. If you loose it then you can get into trouble. I found that lots of twist will bite when you drop of the groove and slow down. The sail will then try to broach the boat. It can get lots of weather helm right at a time where you DON'T want it. Same for a loose outhaul. I actually took a while before I found a setting that I was happy with.

Pretty much when I'm sailing without a spi on a downwind leg I increase twist when I'm looking for drive. In the moment I see the upper tell tale on the leeside stream the boat will power up noticeably.

Does this mean that I never dump the main ? No, when I have too I have too and will do that, but I always found that the effect is less than what I'm looking for and often I make the safe with only the smallest margins and often the boat does a breaching turn on me. I can really feel the fuller mainsail loading up the rudders. So I've learned to keep the sail flat as it can be in such strong winds and be in time with baring off. Because frankly if you are not then you are really too late. Under spinnaker this whole thing as described above vanishes, at least in my experience. Here you just the maintraveller run out and have the spi sail induce some leehelm that in combination with the rudders steers the boat down quickly. Of course by using ONLY the traveller the mainsail stays very flat indeed.

This is one of the reason why I think a spinnaker sail it an absolute requirement on a Formula 16 boat. This just completes the package so well.

If you don't have a traveller that runs smoothly under load, then get one asap.




I didn;t say "no twist" : I said "not too much twist" . A little twist is good, about 200 mm to 300 mm at the very top when using a large square top (less when using a small head) but not more. From the trampoline this amount of twist will look like a little twist. But if you have a choose then choose a flat mainsail over the right amound of twist. You rather have to top of the mainsail stall and loose some speed than have it fully powerup and pushing you over or inducing alot of weather helm.




(again without a spi downwind in heavy winds) Yes I primarily use steering to stay in the groove. I only slack the mainsail when I need to safe the boat (dump the mainsail) in a last ditch effort or when I want more power (increasing twist and draft of the top). When I strongly accellerate and am able to bare off in time than I pull the mainsheet in to flatten the top in reaction to the decrease in angle of atack and the increase in apparent wind.

So I do trim my mainsail continiously on these legs (without a spi) but I ONLY use the rudders to control the boat. I seriously don't think any other control is available in these conditions. If you fail with steerage then your are in trouble and only last resort options are then available to you. You must be aware that F16's are high performance boats with lots of speed and quick accelleration. Just as with sports cars you don't have much time or margin for anything else than get it right first time. Example; If I bare off strongly in these winds when both of us are on the trapeze than I can have both of us waterskying along side the boat at some 1 to 2 mtr distance from the luff hull. At these speeds the boat just arcs into a turn that quickly. Sometimes we do this for fun, but I have lost a crew that way once and one time even lost myself overboard that way.




If I sit inboard then I cramp myself up against the rearbeam and pin myself to the trampoline by resting my rearfoot on the traveller mount and having the other foot stand on the toe strap. When needing extra control I sometimes throw the tiller extension overboard and steer by the crossbar or the little tillers that are on the stocks. Sometime I hook on as well so I can suspend my upper body overboard. This seems sufficient for most of the time although in teh really rought stuff it can be a really wet ride.

When trapezing than you should really be behind the rearbeam with a chickenline or a foot strap.

Trick here is that by sitting inboard you reduce the righting moment and thus the boat will heel noticeable sooner and therefor sooner than the bows are really pushed down. In this situation I steer the boat so that the luff hull is just clear of the water and that keeps me away from a dive. Think of it this way, I'll encounter heeling (and a capsize) sooner than a full head-on dive. Although when overtaking a wave the wrong wave you can still bury the bows all the way. Although it must be said that you will survive pretty well if you stay where you are and not let the boat head-up too far. Right now I'm at a stage where I know exactly how far I can bury the front part of the hulls without any serious decelleration or trouble. It is actually pretty far and I'm enclosed in a cloud of spray as long as you don't allow yourself to be slid forward or go into a broach. And of course if you got heard enough to keep the mainsheet relatively tight. I sometimes let out a little bit of mainsheet, just a little, but I'm not sure wether that is during the dive or right after it, during the recovery phase, to accellerate up to speed again. Of course I'm covered in water spray so I don't really know in what stage of the dive I am. By now I largely steer and trim by feel. And again I wish to underline that flying the spinnaker changes this whole situation and very much to the better.






Most definately. I really prefer the behaviour of the boat under spinnaker over the behaviour without it. No matter how strong the winds, when I racing, I will pull the spi on the downwind legs.

The only exception is a squall coming through so that I decide to abandon the race altogether and limp back to shore in survival mode while sailing really deep.

The first times when pulling the spi singlehandedly in those conditions you will be really nervous and maybe a little bit scared. But quickly you'll appreciate the improved balance and control that you'll have because of the spinnaker. One note though. Make sure that you are really comfortable with singlehanding the spi in medium conditions before you try it in the really rough stuff. Because in the rough you really don't have room for any serious errors. Make sure your snuffer system work well without hangups. Because a hangup in the rough conditions is really something you can do without. Although when you are really comfortable with the spi in medium conditions you will have the skills and peace of mind to sort such a hang-up out when it occures in big winds. At least I was.





Stealth F16 with T-foils is just dandy, no problems at all. The bloody fins works excellent in these conditions.

Blade F16, I haven't sailed that boat nearly enough or in such strong conditions to comment on that. But I expect it too be more relaxed, although less so than one may think. I've learned on my own Taipan F16 that a big difference can be made by handling the rig in the right way. This difference is large enough to fully overpower even the improved modern hullshapes when handling your rig the wrong way in the really strong stuff. This is something that is often forgotten by sailors. A lamborgini diabolo maybe the best the car in the way of road stability but if you do not handle the gaspedal in just the right way then you will most certainly spin-out the very first corner you make and roll the car. These high performance machines just have sufficiently powerfull engines to do that. Every car racer will tell you that pedal control is essential in cornering. F16's and their rigs are exactly the same. If you try to overtake a wave with a rig that is still fully "ON" then you are simply asking to bury your bows and mainbeam.

I'm getting long winded here but I really want to say the following. I'm really coming to the realisation that an F16 must be flown like a very agile little vehicle. You must steer and steer and steer your way around obstacles and challenges presented at different locations. On other vehicles you can just steer to a straight line and crash through such things like superman. F16's must be riden for more elegantly. Far more like an old martial art artist who is never at the place where an attack is directed too. AWho always steps out of the way just in time. I'm really beginning to enjoy this way of sailing her as well. Man, a few times now I've sailed through the lee side of boats like the I-20's to overtake them. You must continiously look forward and plot a path through crashing waves and oncoming gusts and steer to that. And the F16's really do have the sharpness of steerage and accelleration to do just that. Also of decelleration, I can fully stop the boat within one and one and a halve boatlengths simply by jamming her upwind when I'm at full speed. Almost like a surfboard. Then when I want too I can accellerate back to a high speed in about the same distance. This annoys the [censored] out of my fellow sailors on the start line.

For me it really was changing into another state of mind. And together with my crew I'm still changing the way we sail this boat. But one thing is certain. Both skipper and crew are continiously working to sail her and she likes that. I always did like the team effort that underlies the sailing of skiffs and other true high performance monohulls and now I have that feeling on a beach catamaran. I really enjoy that.





Hard to say for me. I don't really expect much difference here between the two makes actually. In the handling of the rig I mean. I do expect the fuller hullshape to help out. But like I said earlier, the wingmast rig is powerful enough to overpower any improvement in the hulls when the rig is handled in the wrong way. It is a high performance boat and 20 knots of wind or more is alot.

In defense of the rig I must really underline that it is really easy to depower if you know which tools use. Often these are handled differently from more conventional rigs. To name one example : mast rotation.

I really should write up my experiences in a trim/tuning article some day. When I have enough spare time that is.

Regards,


Wouter