[Tartan34C]

For the life of me I can’t think of any advantages to a fractional rig. It’s more complicated because of diamonds or running backstays, forces you to have a smaller spinnaker with more chance of fouling the chute in the rigging. More chafe problems for a large Genoa. Introduces a large twisting moment in the rig when you reef the main. Makes the distribution of sail area very unequal and the center of effort may jump forward if you reduce sail enough and don’t have a trysail available. The rig was designed as a way to cheat the then current racing rule and had no intrinsic value outside of racing.

Now having said all that several of my boats have been rigged that way including the 22 footer I sailed to England during my first solo trans-Atlantic. She was so well balanced that I didn’t need to take a self-steering gear but instead did the entire trip by balancing the sailplan and letting the boat sail herself. In this particular case the hull and rig were designed to interact perfectly and she was a beautiful boat to both see and sail.

What have you heard about the rig that appeals to you? I think the Dog got it right when the pointed you towards the Alberg 30. A very nice boat and capable of going anywhere you want. Some of the other boats he mentioned are double enders and I don’t care for the style. Most of then drag a good part of the ocean with them, are slow and somewhat unsafe *** in extreme conditions. I know this flies in the face of popular thought but most double enders are not designed like the original sailing lifeboats and lack their good qualities but do copy their shortcomings.
All the best,
Robert Gainer

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Edited to add this note, Unsafe is too strong a word but I can’t think of a better one.

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