Gaff sail performance

[Bob]

Lots of good points being made in this thread. I am by no means any
kind of expert on any kind of sailing rig. But when people trot out
that old saw about "gaff rig" not sailing ( pointing, as fast, etc.) as
well as marconi rig, what they are really saying is that all of the gaff
rigged _boats_ with which they are familiar, don't sail as well as the
modern marconi rigged _boats_ with which they are familiar. And this is
certainly true. Most of the gaffers around are older, heavy, full
keeled designs with low aspect, lower tensioned rigs, the heavy gaff
sagging off, etc. Of course this type of boat is not going to sail to
windward as high or as fast as a modern canoe bodied, fin keeled, high
aspect, high tensioned rig with a bar taut headstay. But you are
comparing apples and oranges. Tests conducted comparing different rigs
only on the same hull have shown time and again that there is nothing
magical about the marconi rig. It is no better and often performs
poorly against many traditional rigs, including Lug rigs and the ancient
polynesian crab claw rig, which has been proved to be the best rig from
a performance standpoint. The marconi rig holds its exalted place in
our modern sailing scene because racing measurement rules dictated it.
Read C. A. Marchaj's _Sail Performance_ to learn about the aerodynamics
of various sail planforms.

I'll stop rambling on here, but suffice it to say that a gaff rig sail
with a high peaked gaff, or a vanged gaff, or a short curved gaff
(elliptical headed) mainsail on a modern hull with modern lightweight
but strong spars ( carbon fiber, anyone?) with modern headstay tension
for the genoa will no doubt kick ass on the race course.

---
Bob

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