My dad and I went out sailing our Taipan 5.7 yesterday, and the wind was ON, averaging around 20 knots, probably in the high 20s in the gusts. The Taipan has a very powerful rig (as most of you know), and so we put a lot of downhaull on to tame the beast already before we went out. As we did this, we saw that the top part of the mast (from the spreaders and above) bended, not only backwards towards the stern of the boat as wanted, but also to the sides of the boat. Which side it bended depended on which side the battens were, that is, if the battens (all of them) were bending the way they do on a port tack and thus giving the sail profile, the mast would bend towards port as well. Is this normal? And if not, how do one fix this problem?
And while we are at it, big wind sailing in boats like the Taipan 5.7, how do you do it? Are there any magic tricks besides flattening the sail as much as possible AND having big enough balls?