Square tops

I actually think square tops are easier to get to work with a solid mast, like those used by cats rather than a whippy carbon mast seen in some other classes (skiffs). So I think they can be made to work with a pretty solid mast which is designed with very little compliance. 

Cats go for rotating masts which are very stiff and need less in the way of stays to keep them upright. Then use sheet tension, Cunningham and battens to control the stability of sail (response to gusts). I think the use of carbon masts in cats is less about bend characteristics and more about weight. If you're using a stiff mast you don't have to rely on stays to keep it upright so much. And if you don't have to rely on stays you don't have bake in rig setting with stay tension and spreader length and deflection before going afloat. The penalty is having to rotate the tree trunk of a rig each tack. 

Trapeze skiffs with square tops don't have rotating rigs, so it pays to keep the mast diameter down. The downside of this is you need to rely on spreaders to keep the mast where you want it. It means the whole system is very complex and it's hard to get the control on that 4th corner so can mean more tuning on land.... but removes the faff of tacking the rotating the mast on the water. 

Personally, I don't want the tip of my mast for my square top bending dropping off to leeward in gusts at all. If the mast drops to leeward that is affectively sheeting you on. What you want is for the the fourth corner to open up or even the top batten to pop inverted. Getting that to happen is more a play with batten tension, batten stiffness, cunningham and sheet tension / kicker. 

Edited by Mozzy - 07 Jun 22 at 3:49pm