Absolution

Has anyone tried the weather routing plugin for OpenCPN? Once you have generated "real" polars for your boat it could be quite useful: http://opencpn.org/ocpn/weather_routing_plugin

Is the mighty Prawn Broker getting some keel surgery?

Meanwhile in Wellington:

Was that an SR26 in a former life?

About 110kg to hold it down. It's a 930 so I'm not sure that there will be that much form stability to overcome.

KM, do you think your skinny noodle rig with no jumpers will be able to handle a pull down to 90 degrees? Maybe you could get someone to calculate the rig load before you do it

First its a fear of black boxes now a fear of science. I should have guessed that you don't believe in the laws of physics, if you did then you'd never ride a motorcycle again. Do you also believe that if someone takes a photo of you that they will steal your soul?

You can get a naval architect to do it. I talked to BBW about it when I was going to do the keel on Apparition. You basically have to hang weights from the boom, swing it out to the side, measure the heel and then he does a bunch of calcs to determine the stability index.

My 2c worth.... I would go for a #2 somewhere around 125-135%, high cut so that it reaches and furls well. You can furl it down to a #3 when it blows. You probably don't need a #1 unless it's really light or you have lots of weight on the rail to make it go. For the cloth get Booboo to quote up a cruising laminate vs regular Dacron. The cruise laminate will hold it's shape well and still be durable. Higher purchase cost but lowest cost per NM.