Frank Maier wrote:

Ole Thom pretty much answered for me. I've raced and cruised on both
masthead and fractional rigs. I guess I answered "masthead", assuming
as my default a full crew of experienced sailors who'd manually deal
with changing conditions on a constant basis. Then you don't need the
fractional rig to "automatically depower" for you.

Conventional wisdom has it that mast head rigs will point higher, and I think
that's true in ideal pointing conditions. But I think the frac rig is more
versatile.



If we're down to the level of the "real" world, then theoretical
factors become less important than human factors, like Ole Thom's
comfort level with his boat as it is. If I were buying for myself
tomorrow, I'd get a Freedom 38, which is not gonna be as "weatherly"
as either a masthead or fractional Bermudan rig; but it meets a whole
lot of other pragmatic criteria.

heh heh the old Fredom 40 cat-ketch is one of my dream boats. They don't point
so high either, but it's a marvelous cruising rig. Sturdy and very easy to
handle.

It's also a very good point that knowing how to get the optimum out of the rig
you have is more important than pining away for some theoretical ideal. There
are too many sailors who study teensy detailed ways of scrooching some small
improvement out of their boat, when their basic sailing methods are notably
below optimal. I remember acting as 'guest skipper' on a very nice European
designed and built racer-cruiser, a boat that should have had good performance
but usually did very poorly in casual races. The usual skipper stood at my
elbow and appeared to be very interested in how I drove the boat and had the
sails trimmed. He usally cranked everything in hard and made the boat heel
'way over, when I skippered we did much better. The next day, I was sailing on
another boat and he went back to doing the same old thing.... and was
complaining about it the rest of the season.

Thom's keel mod is a good idea IMHO because he does not sail in the conditions
the boat was designed for, so it benefitted from increased keel area. For most
sailors, I don't think such a modification would be a good idea.

Fresh Breezes- Doug King