Just wondering who is doing any rig development?

Care to enlighten us on what you or others are doing in rig/sails?

Have you seen Ben Hall's wing yet? That's about the only real rig development I've seen lately.

Hi, Yes I have.. but its not applicable to the F16.. I was thinking of sail shapes, battens, masts, rigging..

I dont know if it is development, but we will re-rig and downsize three old Tornado masts of different make to fit on our F16s later this spring. I have some ideas about sails as well, but that is for later.

Given a suitable budget it would be interesting to experiment with laminates and weight placement in a carbon rig. Assuming you need to add weight to the mast to make the tip weight requirements deciding where to put that weight could have a big effect on the dynamic response of your mast tip. Stewart, if you're interested track down Damien Smith (I think he's still in Perth) he did a lot of research on this topic for his uni thesis and is a bit of a boffin.

I know the European importer of Blade F16's is doing development and has done so for two years now. Mainly in the area of sails, (carbon) mast and hulls (platform stiffness). Often in cooperation with Landenberger sails.

I'm sure Greg Goodall spend some time on developping the new Viper F16 / Taipan 4.9 mainsail.

I would also call Matt efforts in coordination with Glaser Sails for the Alter Cup development. I found the Glaser sails to be a significant step up from the earlier Redhead and Ullman sails.

The Stealth marine Carbon mast have become increasingly lighter over the later year and practically have to carry tip weights now.

Yes I would say that there is some modest rig development on the F16's, although we do indeed still benefit alot from developments made in the A-cat, F18 and Tornado classes.

Wouter

I've just had a new spi made by Grant Piggott (GP Sails) and the Luff is 375mm (14+ inches) longer than my old Landy spi, it is also flatter. Scooby's new GP kite will also be delivered soon and the luff is approx 50mm (2 inches) longer than his existing Landy.
Now I'll just have to see the advantages at EurOcat.

How is it designed to fly? Tight or slack luff (or, how is your mast rake and pole height with your new spi)?

mark,

You will need to move your pole down some!

Mine is almost flat along the hulls!

My pole will only have to lowered by 60mm. I have plenty of halyard to take up from the spi head to mast gate. I'll take some photos soon.

Hi, sorry my hdd decided to pack it in!! been struggling to rebuild what I could..

Had coffee with Damien last week so yes he is still in Perth... Should catch up with Luggy soon (when my liver recovers from the Force game aftermath).. Think the F16 will be right up his alley!! Ex kitty champ and all.. Im also working on getting Bruce Proctor to park his bum on the boat.. He keeps refusing.. So Im planning to bribe with a carton of beer..

Meanwhile Im slowly rekindling my enthusiasm to mucking about with glue and fibre and stuff..

Here are a couple of photo's of my new spi

The old landy is underneath the new GP Spi
As you can see the most dramatic difference is up at the head, longer luff and bigger shoulders.
I wont bore you with anymore photo's till its on the boat and I'm still trying to figure out how to decrease the size of the attachment. SORRY

You might want to sew some straps in the head and other grommets to keep them from pulling out. Where is the line in the luff ?

Mark,

Any chance you could re-size that image? It's maaaaahooosive!

It's a bit late now.......but thanks to Rolf I'll try

Diennard
Additional straps aren't required when you race a pedigree Cat <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

Mark,
I deleted that huge picture that you put into the post, because it makes the whole thread really hard to read. Maybe you can try again with it smaller. However, if you just use the "attachment" feature (instead of putting it into the post itself), it tells you when the image is too big.

Thanks for that Mary, I didn't realise the scale would be 1:1

Last Sunday was the first outing for new GP Spi. I had previously arranged for John Pierce to carry out a Training Weekend for 4 F18's and 1 Tornado. 1 F18 dropped out so I took their place. The Wind was up and down all day dependant on clouds, sunshine and occasional squalls (a very typical April day for these parts). Firstly the flatter mainsail was brilliant and I was really on the pace often 1st or 2nd to the windward mark. On the long tuning beats the F18's weren't getting away even when they were twin wiring in 15mph of wind speed and downwind even the Tornado was struggling to keep up and I was easily leaving the 18's in my wake prior to the Pitch-pole
Now I can't wait to get to Carnac and give it a blast against the other F16's. That is if I get to see them amongst the other 350+ competitors <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif" alt="" /> <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif" alt="" />