That's clear; thanks so much.

Hello Roger,
Thanks for the kind words, it certainly was an arduous journey to get her on the water. The rig is from a Tornado catamaran, and has been reduced in size to approximately the same sail area as the standard Tiki 21 specs. The reason why we chose this was not specifically for performance but an opportunity to recycle what is available. Also it reduced my build time by not having to build a mast and gaff.

She performs exceptionally well, the first season we had a larger head sail (more like a genoa) which made it difficult to balance sails well. The second season we had a smaller head sail made, now in ideal conditions (around 5-8 kts with calm sea she will pretty much stay on course under correct sail trim alone. Under those conditions we can beat at about 45-50 off the wind, but have not done an analysis as comprehensive as yours.

I also wanted to say thank you for your very informative blog, it has kept me and obviously others inspired to build and further improve their Tiki 21's. Keep up the good work. Cheers Michael.

Hi Michael,

Interesting to hear about the rig. I'm guessing that it performs quite a bit better than the tiki rig. I am a fan of the tiki rig for its simplicity and safety (I just built a new rig for Little Cat), but it is not a performance rig. The standard tiki jib is also a bit big for anything more then 10 - 15 knots and I am looking at trying a Star jib which will fit in the foretriangle and has battens for better sail shape. Keep posting the excellent pictures.

Roger