so here's the top of Siderno's mast, with the mainsail reefed (hence not reaching all the way to the top) -- and the windex is showing that we're sailing close-hauled to the wind, heading north on starboard tack...
the mast was the single biggest problem with the boat -- it's set up for an in-mast furling main, and although this is a normal main (raised and lowered on sliders, rather than furled up inside the mast), all the mechanisms for the furler cause the mast to weigh two or three times more than a regular mast -- even more so because there was a storm trisail furled inside the mast in case of big winds. so we had something like 1000 pounds *high up* above the boat's center of gravity -- which acted something like a pendulum, causing the boat to sway from side to side far more than usual, and particularly it wanted to swing up into the wind -- which made steering harder, always having to counteract that motion of the boat to spin up.
I think it's safe to say that none of us will ever sail on a boat with in-mast furling again -- incredibly uncomfortable and unweildy.
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