Morgan Ohlson wrote:
Naturally, but CE fall when dividing the total area on two sails. The
minimum CE is when M/F = 1

... I think....

No, you could make the foot much longer than the luff... if you
wanted... and that would have a marginally lower CE. It would look
rather strange though.



If a Gaff sloop is compared to a Bermuda Sloop they will have almost the
same low CE if the Bermuda have M/F = 1 (Gaff generally considered to
have a very low CE)

Yes, but some gaff sails have a higher aspect ratio than that.


/.../

OTOH, high aspect ratio rigs have a
number of drawbacks for small boats... they require a bit more fancy
engineering,


???

In order to gain any benefits from the higher aspect ratio, the sail has
to be more carefully designed & made, the mast has to be longer & shaped
for less turbulence over the forward part of the sail, etc etc. A high
aspect ratio sail is a (relatively) high tech tool. You did not see high
aspect ratio sails back in the old days because they did not have the
engineering nore the materials to make them stand and get the benefit.


a somewhat more complex & more stressed rig,


Taller mast???
CG rais???

Yes but there will also be more compression on the mast, more tension on
the shrouds, greater loads on all parts of the rig. Greater loads on the
hull too including heeling moment.


What wou write is definitely right, but your quick jumps doesn't make sense.

OK, that's why I'm back trying to explain a little better. I am not a
good explainer, sorry.

No rig can be optimized for all occations anyway. What can be done is to
avoid silly arrangements with the rig choosen.

Yes, that is very true.


A Bermuda Sloop, and basicly all sloops should have a M/F ~1 since
everything else fast incease other backsides.

That depends on your goals. A lot of very practical sloops seem to to
have a luff/foot of about 1.5 ~ 1.8 sometimes more. Of course there are
those with shorter rigs & longer booms, many of them sail well too. It's
a question of getting the right sail area, the right foils, and putting
them in the right place on the hull.




Making a small jib you could just as well use a Bermuda Cat (no jib).

Not necessarily. A small jib is helpful in several ways, including going
to windward, handling the boat in a chop, and helping the boat maneuver.


Explain how a very small jib will improve on a decreased Cat. (same total
area and both correctly balanced to CLA)

Why insist on keeping area constant? Are you designing your boat to a
rating rule? It's true that as the jib gets smaller relative to the
mainsail, the overall rig efficiency... in most conditions... tends to
go down. So you make the whole rig a little bigger.

My point is that jib can help very much under some conditions (for
example, helping the flow across the lee side of the lower portion of a
low aspect mainsail), it's handy for maneuvering, it looks nice, and it
helps stave off boredom. It does add to the cost though.



FWIW I don't like self tacking jibs except on racing boats where you're
likely to be very busy with other more important tasks. Self tacking
adds rigging & clutter that a cruiser would probably be better off
without. Plus, no self tacking sheeting arrangement sheets the sail
effectively for a wide range of courses, for example you can have it set
up for going cloe-hauled (the most common arrangement) and it's all but
useless on a reach... when a racing boat would be setting a spinnaker
anyway, but you probably wouldn't be.


"going cloe-hauled (the most common arrangement)" ? sorry, don't
understand.

If you set up the self-tacking jib so that it can be trimmed to be most
effective when close hauled, it will not be anywhere near as effective
on other points of sail. This doesn't seem to bother some people.


A self tacking boom arrangement attract me most. Someone called it "old
Petrus boom".

Never heard of that. Anyway, I hope this helps.

DSK