.... 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.


Wayne.B wrote:
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.


That's what I'm sayin'
Better control over the luff of the jib as well as the main
leach; there's a reason why most of the hot-shot racers have
gone to big-roach frac rigs and a dedicated crew "trimming"
the backstay (and runners & checks, if any).

The longer luff and bigger spinnaker generally tend to favor
masthead rigs for racing, but I think that's because they
don't factor in the greater controllability of the frac rig
& make SA enough bigger. For example, in the J-29s nobody
wants the frac rigs, even though they're much more fun to
sail (IMHO) because they have a slightly smaller spinnaker.
And (again IMHO) if they were raced in heavy air the frac
rigs would rule.

Fresh Breezes- Doug King