on the Taipan/Blade superwing rig, I was under the impression the boat is usually rigged with a mast rotation limiter but no rotation inducers.
Correct.
So, when going upwind you would pull in the limiter the desired amount and just release it for downwind.
Correct.
Mary indicates that downwind the mast doesn't want to rotate as far as 90 degrees.
I don't have that problem. My mast goes pretty much to 70-85 degrees when the limiter is released. But then I don't slacken the outhaul from its upwind setting. Under spinnaker this is not needed at all; and loosening it will indeed only hamper mastrotation. I don't have any devices that induce mast rotation on my boat. I planned to have one but decided to just see how it went during the first season. In that time I didn't felt a need to have an inducer and so I just forgot about it.
Pretty much I will sail with whatever mast rotation results from having uncleated the limiter. On my boat this is also very low friction, I'm not to sure about how low friction the limiter setup on the standard Taipan is. I also believe the foot on my F16 mainsail is shorter then on the standard Taipan 4.9's like the one Mary is commenting about. I think the big difference is wether the outhaul is released when going downwind or not. An experienced spi sailor can be recognized by totally ignoring the outhaul once it has been set to suit the (upwind) conditions of the day. Nearly all racers use this single setting from start to finish if the boat is balanced upwind.
Wouter
