[quote=erice]
back-winding the jib basically stops any cat dead in the water as all the speeds gets bled off as the bows go sideways through the water, so it is very slow. but as no special techniques are used, (you basically just pull the rudder from pretty much any heading angle), it is probably the most widely used catamaran tacking technique
however if you've got crew and are racing then you shouldn't have to back-wind the jib, even on a h16. but the helm needs to get the heading, speed and waves all right for the wind and the crew needs to release, pull through and reset the jib at just the right time. can be extra hard with that battened jib on the h16 too
even though my nacra5.2 has big centerboards to tack around, as i usually sail solo i've got to much to do already without timing the jib release and reset. the older nacras have big overlapping jibs too which are harder to get around the mast cleanly than the smaller, more modern blade jibs
i think of the h16 as the vw, mini or 911 porsche of the sailing world, it is an old, wildly successful design that somehow really caught people's imagination but the engineering involved was such a compromise in so many ways that it's basic design ended up being an evolutionary dead end
like the 911, the h16 is one of the easiest performance boats to sail but one of the hardest to sail really well. which makes it incredibly rewarding too
body positioning is very important on the h16 and a fast h16crew is constantly moving forward and back, in and out to keep the boat in it's constantly moving sweet spot
the h14 didn't have a jib for simplicity/cost reasons, neither does the wave, but for both boats the factory provides expensive jib upgrades as the continual complaint from owners is that the damn things keep getting stuck into wind<!-- editby --><em>edited by: erice, Oct 13, 2009 - 06:41 PM</em><!-- end editby --> [/quote]
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