Thanks one and all for your quick replies and sound advice.
Perhaps there is one point that I did not explain very well. When our boat rounds up, it does so quite violently to the point that we loose rudder control and we end up pointing almost straight into the wind. Picking up speed again is QUITE SLOW. Although I sail normally on multihulls I have sailed on other monos and although all monos tend to round up, it is only here that the rounding up is so damaging. I do not think the problem is the boat itself since, from what I here the Elan 37 does well in club racing. On this boat I am in general the main trimmer and I can assure you the traveller is continually on the move.
To keep the boat on its feet we find that many times the traveller is all the way down and the main reversing. This surely can only mean drag.
This is why I am asking the question of how much bend is allowable in a mast for this size of boat.
On another point, in all the advice I get, I wonder why nobody ever mentions reefing the main before reducing the
jib. I believe theory tells us that the force on the
jib is acting to push the boat away from the wind and the main the reverse. Therefore when, to reef, we reduce the
jib before we actually reduce the main we are in fact increasing the possibility of rounding up into the wind.
I know that in practice this is not done but why?
Giuletta, I will try to send you a pm to get the formula you mentioned if you don't mind.
regards
xuraax