You really have to ask for it but then indeed, you get any sails put on it that you want. Personally, I would sooner NOT by the boat if it wasn't fitted with the newer optimized (F16) sails then buy it as a standard Taipan 4.9. The difference, as Carbonatecat wrote, is just that much. Mostly however in the feel. A standard Taipan rig is still fast in the right hands, but in my opinion it just takes more skill to get the maximum out of it.

I personally dislike the standard Taipan jib setup and much prefer the selftacking jib setup (= F16 but also supplied by AHPC). It is actually the most important "special request" after adding a spi that I advice, followed by the more optimized mainsail.





Speed. Like I said, the biggest difference between the standard Taipan mainsail and the new (F16 based) mainsail with larger squaretops is the feel of the rigs. The last are easier to get going, in my personal experience. The larger square-top makes twisting of the sail easier which allows the top of the rig to keep driving better when going downwind. The whole rig is also alot more lively in its feel. Sheeting actions result in very noticeable difference in speed and feel. I think this to be an advantage, however the other side of the coin is that the wrong trim will hurt you more. But then again, you really feel it is the wrong trim as well, so you know about it.

Others mention that the larger squaretop depowers more automatically then the old rig. Making continious sheeting less necessary when you have found the proper general trim for the conditions. It is also said that the boat accellerates more and heels less as a result. I personally did not sail with the standard rig often enough to really confirm this comparison. I can only confirm that the rig indeeds wants to go and hardly heel when trimmed right even in significant gusts.

In all out speed, I feel that the old standard rig (without a spi) is not much slower in straight line speed in stable wind conditions. I do feel that when the conditions become more challenging that the newer shape sails are favoured. But don't expect a huge speed increase. When sailing downwind with the spi I don't expect much speed difference between the old and new mainsails. Mostly because the spi is provide by far the bulk of the drive on this course anyway and we assume these to be the same. I do think that the newer mainsails have one advantage here though. The improved self depowering behaviour of the newer mainsails allows you to set and forget the mainsail much more than the old main when singlehanding with the spinnaker up. Also you can better maintain mainsail the leech tension on the mainsail thus supporting the mast under spi load while the large squaretop still maintains some level of depowering in the gusts.

In my personal opinion the newer (F16) suit of sails (and selftacker system) are better in every respect than the old standard setup, however in some aspect the difference is bigger then in others. Most of the really noticeable difference is in the feel and ease of trimming. I think that all out speed (in stable conditions) is one of the area's with the smallest difference. Of course automatic depowering and ease of trim can really add speed in unstable conditions.


That is my opinion.

Wouter