On Mon, 05 Jun 2006 07:12:01 -0400, DSK wrote:

.... I once
had the pleasure (or misfortune) to work with Ben Hall designing a new
rig for my old Cal-34. I wanted to increase sail area by turning it
into a fractional rig, same fore triangle, larger mainsail.


That's a great idea. Did you go ahead with it? While I have
sailed a lot of mast head rigs, I've always liked fracs more.

Yes, it was very successful. Performance to windward and in light air
was greatly improved. Another unexpected benefit was that we rarely
needed to reef the main because the additional sail control afforded
by the frac rig allowed us to flatten it a great deal when needed.