Thanks for the information.
I sail inland in the Saint John River systems, the Bay of Fundy and coastal
New Brunswick, Maine and Nova Scotia.
On the coast the wind is more regular than inland. On the Kennebecassis
River and Grand Lake the wind can be steady than all of a sudden your boat
is listing at 30 degrees plus. Sometime the direction and velocity of the
wind vary a lot during a day. At time black clouds and wind coming downhill
produce an irregular behavior. As you said the geometric center of the boat
has to be correct. I suspect that the Catalina 30 equipped with the tall
mast have the same keel (5'3") configuration as the regular mast. Most of
the Catalina 30 equipped with the tall mast (2 feet more) have the regular
keel. Other tall rigs have the shortest wing keel.



"rhys" wrote in message
...
On Sat, 03 Sep 2005 22:35:19 GMT, "Denis Marier"
wrote:

I wonder if it does make a difference to have a Catalina 30 with a tall
or
regular mast.
Is the tall mast suited for coastal cruising?

Sure, it makes a difference in sail area, center of effort and how
much grunting happens at launch time G.

All things being equal, a taller rig with an accompanying slight
change in ballast will allow better light air performance (which could
mean lake or coastal depending on your location), and will put more
sail (marginally) in that air which doesn't want to come down to deck
level, which I associate with sailing close to warmed land/cities in
the summer months.

If you intend to race, the taller rig is definitely desirable. If you
intend to cruise, not so much.

R.