Fractional or Masthead rig ?

I have a masthead and I have just recently dug another 5 degrees upwind out of nowhere by accepting my main is deep and therefore producing too much drag as well as the draft being too far aft, I have therefore chosen to reef earlier than normal.
Reefing and pulling the boom to centreline gets rid of the weatherhelm and improves the pointing.
The problem for me was reaching the top mark and then shaking out the reef downwind then reefing again at the bottom mark - my crew were not so happy about so much work.
Made a massive difference though.

A new sail in either will improve your pointing as long its draft is not too deep.
Assumes masthead rig. In the masthead rig the speed upwind is not so much from the main so you lose less speed than you would expect. But gain a lot of height.

I'm not racing anyone currently with partial battens in a 10m boat or bigger.
Does beg the question why is no one else doing it ?
But perhaps its just my circle of boats ??

Would love to hear what the theoretical advantage is of partial battens ?

Sunseeker :
The yacht is 1994 Robertson 950 which David Lyons designed fractional rig.

I agree with your comments about reefing early I find I get better speed with 1 reef in place in 15kts of wind

But gentlemen do not sail to windward..???

If you want better upwind performance, then definetely get battens on the main.

Poods

Poodle said...
But gentlemen do not sail to windward..???

That is right and that is why there are not many gentlemen on the water.

They end up on lee shores.

All that Galatea has said ...
You can always put chafe strips on batten pockets...

Of course a radial dacron sail will be better than a cross cut sail, offering better performance life span and similar age life if you use the correct fabrics for the application you require.
I would avoid the Challenge Warp drive for several reasons, mostly the fact that while it is strong in the warp... It has little fill yarns giving the fabric little stability in this direction and making the fabric very suspect to UV degradation (just what you need in the QLD climate)
But I am sure Taskers and FES know their products and would have explained this to you any way.
Drop me a line if you would like any further info....