Your expert opinions wanted on some tuning issue on my boat.
Talking about a Taipan F16 with a medium size squaretop F16 mainsail. The main is cut to be a part of a 2-up sloop rig with about 140 kg as a crew. I'm using the same mainsail for singlehanded racing. The main seems to work fine on the downwind legs and reaching legs. No F18 can easily overtake me and often I run at the same speed or faster.
My issue is to be found on the upwind leg. I feel that there should be more in it on this course. Current situation is :
-1- when sailing 1-up I seem to be able to match speed and pointing ability of the leading F18's on the upwind course, I can just pinch a little higher then them but the boat slows down really quickly if I overdo it.
-2- When sailing 2-up I seem to be able to achieve the same or slightly less VMG on the upwind leg when I steer just a couple degrees lower than the lead F18's and lets the boat run freely. I always put this down to a inherent characteristic of the Taipan design; most comments seem to suggest that I likes to run a little lower and achieve good VMG through speed. However the point that gets me is the fact that when singlehanding without the jib I do not seems to point much higher, only about 5 degrees or so.
What do you resident experts think ?
Is this the result of using a main optimized for 2-up sloop rigged sailing and something that can only be solved by getting an optimized main for 1-up sailing ?
Can I somehow alter my rig settings (prebend / spreader rake etc) to improve on this ?
Did Taipan 4.9's show a similar behaviour when singlehanding ?
Other suggestions ?
Right now it all feels to me like I open up my leech to much when I downhaul the sail to get a boat that doesn't lift too much and as a result I loose pointing ability. If I loosen the downhaul I feel more able to point high (not sure if I really do) but the boat is definately more flighty.
Maybe I'm missing the fuller bottom halve of the sail that uni-rig mainsails seem to have and which is cut out of sloop mains ?
Any suggestions are welcome.
Basically I'm doing alright again the F18's but I just want to be able to finish 50 mtr ahead of them instead of them overtaking me 50 mtr before the (upwind) finish. I don't need much extra pointing, just enough to be able to outpoint them by a few degrees without loosing much speed.
Wouter
