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Mast head/Fractional pros and cons


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Hi Guys, I signed up to this forum a couple of years back, been poking around, I think I have made a couple of posts in the dim and distant past....probably on marine mechanical matters as that is my forte... but now I have a question as the heading states.

I have my own opinions and thoughts on Masthead vs Fractional.... favoring twin spreader masthead for cruising and fractional configurations for racing.... but I am no expert, just somewhat opinionated.... Some forums and publications have them near equal rated in both cruising and racing worlds, hence I an seeking a little more clarity before making a commitment.

I have been googling it and went through ever subject on this forum that comes up when I search "Fractional Rig". Now I would like to throw it out there for comment.... two identical boats 10.5m, fin keel and spade rudder moderate displacement, not light weight flyers or steel Colin Archers varients. In every way they are identical except rig. Both are keel stepped.

1) 7/8 fractional with a single spreader

2) MH with twin spreaders (sloop although it would end up with a removable inner forstay if I was to go cruising offshore)

Could I have your general thoughts on the pros and cons of each and in which circumstances you would choose one over the other?

Looking forward to the comments and following what may be an interesting debate.

And could anyone steer me towards some recommended reading on the matter....?

Thanks

Paul

 

 

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Hi LBD . I think the debate has many parts. Fractional easier to de-power meaning short crewed advantages ( and can still be masthead).  But with code 0s and gennaker  development masthead gives light air capacity with increased luff length. Of course  designers get around this with higher aspect rigs. This adds running backstays etc. Personally I like a high aspect fractional and found running backstays and topmast backstay not that much of a hassle.

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Thanks Scaecrow ... yes it has many parts, I guess the aim of the post is to tease out as many of those parts as possible that I am not yet aware of.

Gennakers and code 0s is a good point to raise.

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Paul, I’d say more importantly the hull shape and balance of the boat are way more important than is it MH or Frac.

tweaky boats that have to be driven over every wave may be fun for a while but get very tiring to sail offshore 

Whereas a balanced boat with a nice motion will take you much further, I’m a big fan of Beale boats for this reason as they are really well balanced or the 33 and 11.6 that I’ve sailed were. Both of these I’ve sailed for hours without touching the helm, why, just because I could. Both would come up slightly when pressed and drop off in the lulls. This makes for a boat that’s easily driven with low loads on the auto pilot, rig, sails and crew. Owned the 11.6 and did over 8000nm racing and cruising NZ waters, probably never would have bought it if we hadn’t sailed the 33 ( both just happen to be fractional rigs )

 

 

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Thanks Jon..  I can appreciate the fractional configuration is a little more "Tweaky" than MH... but I would not say this fractional would need as much constant tweaking as I would expect with a light weight racy configuration trying to eek out every last bit of performance. (but I may be wrong... I only have MH experience)

These boats are both known for being nicely balanced and not unlike the Beale 11.6 in many ways.

What I have been reading is that a fractional can be easier to manage short handed and that they can get along under main only as the mainsail effort is a little further fwd than with a masthead... was that your experience? 

With a MH sloop, one of the criticisms I have, is that when reducing sail, the effort moves fwd and the boat becomes unbalanced hence the advent of the cutter.... What was your experience with vessel handling when reducing sail with the fractional configuration?

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The most important thing 8scto know exactly what you want to do with the boat.

As an aside I don't know why there are so many sloops offered as cruising boats, mh or fractional,  lots of other solutions out there but when was the last time you saw 9ne 9n a production boat.

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29 minutes ago, Black Panther said:

The most important thing 8scto know exactly what you want to do with the boat.

As an aside I don't know why there are so many sloops offered as cruising boats, mh or fractional,  lots of other solutions out there but when was the last time you saw 9ne 9n a production boat.

Mixture of coastal cruising and occasional cub race...

You have a point about new production boats.... Sloops losing favor... I think that the sail handling handling, winch sizes and sheet tensions of a large Genoa may be a factor... but there is also a move towards self tacking head sails that may be a factor.

Then there is the tacking difficulty with a Cutter's inner fore stay being somewhat of a pain.

 

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we have a MH rig and tbh I love the configuration- we sail to where we are going and once we get there the massive boom tent goes up and the main doesn’t go up until home time -We seem to be able to do hull speed on just the Genoa easily- super balanced and heaps of drive. Added bonus is we don’t have to remove the boom tent for most all of the summer cruise and sails up and down is the pull of a string! Mint!

im sure not all mh yachts are so happy on headsails only but the townson doesn’t seem to care

wouldnt want MH if I was not furling- it’s a big sail then is uncontrollable on deck- unlike a main that is fixed at mast and boom

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