harrier dinghy

Pfft just let your outhaul out more then?
On boards there is a gain to having your boom on a shorter extension to keep it stiffer.
PLus like you say, there is a bit of aero elasticity working for you in this case a la square top

From a practical 'experience' point of view of sailing a mix of fully battened v soft sails, Dan's comments on 'straight line' speed is spot on. In many ways the Weston Hornet fleet  was a good example to focus on, as there was a good and competitive fleet  there so it was easy to make a reasonable comparison. In the light, flukey conditions, both the boats with fully battened mains could be seen to be struggling - typical northerly/easterly conditions at Weston. However, medium conditions, blowing up southampton water and the conditions were reversed. In both these circumstances the differences were scarcely more than marginal, but even allowing for the skill variation between boats, the advantages/disadvantages could still be seen.

Having grown up on super stiff camber induced windsurf rigs (one of my favourites being a 5.2m Ken Black race sail that was stiffer than most due to it's small size), I actually much prefer soft sails on hiking dinghies. One of the things I struggled with when transfering was the significant loss of feel when simply holding the mainsheet versus holding the whole rig. This is particularly so inland with shifty, gusty conditions.

However as soon you are fully powered up you start to get some of the feel back in fully battened rigs and I'm very comfortable with them again. It is simply the case that those conditions are far less prevalent than being underpowered to some degree, so on balance soft wins inland for me.

I sailed the original blaze rig and it was bloody awful.  The newer soft sail version was/is much better. However, I am not sure you are comparing apples with apples.  The newer soft sail was obviously a development and evolved over time whilst the old fully batten rig was as topper cobbled, and I guess had no development at all?

Edited by Ruscoe - 20 Oct 13 at 9:23pm

Agree with Russ, it wasnt apples with apples - the early blaze rigs were bad and the semi battening was only a part of the difference. Common currency is making a boat seem less threatening and more docile for most punters.
As a "fast" boat that will never have apparent aft of beam the 800 has less justification for doing it performance wise.