Hi,

I have been thinking about rigs again, and have gotten myself confused on the conventional wisdom. From my reading, the marconi rig is the most efficient to windward, but the junk and gaff rigs seem to have some advantages off the wind and with ease of handling. 

To go with that, it is also commonly said that multihulls get their best speed to windward by falling off a few degrees and tacking through wider angles and making up for the extra distance with extra boat speed.

Combining those two ideas, it would seem that the best rig for a multihull might not be the best rig for a monohull. Particularly with the use of carbon fiber to reduce the weight aloft in a gaff rig.

The dyna rig also seems interesting, except for the lack of weathercocking. I have an idea, of a dynarig where the battens cross "behind" the mast (to the windward side), so that there is a slot and the sail can cant fore and aft, so that the largest part of the sail is "aft" of the mast. The same idea would work for a junk rig, I suppose.

Anyway, my main question, apart from opinions on the above ideas, is how I learn more about what is behind the conventional wisdom for each rig type. Are there any "scientific" comparisons of different rigs, which show lift based on attack angle for each type of rig? 

I may cross post this to a general multihull list also, but I really like to get the opinions of people that I feel I know, by virtue of having read their posts for so long.

- Gardner

York, PA