I am getting ready to make the sail for the same Taipan 4.9 project for the carbon mast. I have a Hydra with the old school high angle, heavy duty boom. It has the big batton at the very bottom of the sail and I love it. I seem to really do a great job of down wind trim with that sucker. Can someone who has sailed the older Tornadoes or similar and then gone to the no batton loose foot tell me the difference? Would I be crazy to put a batton at the bottom fo the new sail?

I sailed a Tornado with the bottom batten in the foot for a little while. We then got a new mainsail (still pinhead) with a new batten layout, and did not notice any difference in performance. I think the idea was that the foot batten should help position and control draft in the very foot of the sail. But when sailmakers began making tri-radial sails, the foot batten disappeared. I think this was not only becouse of the cut, but they found that you did not need this batten as shape was just as good or better without it. Especially so downwind without the spi.

Perhaps Rick knows more of the story and reasoning behind it. Or you could try posting the question to the oldtimers on the TornadoCat list http://groups.yahoo.com/group/TornadoCat/

It's complicated and I have heard several stories and don't know the whole story but on Non-Spin Tornado's you did not need the bottom batten and you could do a better job of controlling the foot of the sail with the outhaul.

If you are going to this type sail you might want to use the old Tornado linked controls where you set the inhaul, and releasing the outhaul also releases the mast rotation.

Carl