Okay, I will now compare the 49-er and the Taipan F16 both of which I sailed and rigged often. Both boats are very comparable in their dimensions.

The F16 has higher rig loads during sailing then the 49-er. In the way of leech and luff tensions on the sail it is not even a comparison. The F16 (luff and leech) loads are many times higher. Especially with the large squaretops.

If you compare the 49-er on its trolly and a more conventional boat like the hobie 16 on the beach without the mainsheet tight then the 49-er wins, sure.

I wrote earlier that we never used more then a simple 4:1 boat breaker on the 49-er.


I'm one annoying know-it-all, I admit to that and I'm not even ashamed of it. But don't mistake that for lack of respect. I do respect the skiffies and their designs, I just don't buy all the claims.

Maybe the 18 foot skiff loads are alot higher then say on a F18; I can't judge that as I've only seen a 18 foot skiff in the flesh twice in my life. But the 49-er loads certainly isn't.




That is funny, I actually have an answer to that comment. It took over a year and 170 kg double trapping under spinnaker on a high broad reach to break the Taipan superwing mast that was fitted with a F18 spinnaker that came to 450 mm of the top of the mast. It broke when the mast rotation inverted and the mainsail leech didn't support the top anymore. We were all a bit surprised that the Taipan superwing mast could take such abuse for such a long time.

It is my experience that skiff spinnaker are flown alot more dead downwind then cat spinnakers, their luffs being alot more loose. So I'm not too sure whether a 3 times greater skiff spi actually loads the mast up more then the lot smaller but tighter luffed + more reaching oriented catamaran spinnakers.

I sailed my share of skiffs and all were notoriously difficult to handle on any high broad reaching or reaching. So we mostly did upwind and very deep downwind.

Wouter