I chose the jib track location by looking at and understanding technology and personal experience. I used to live in SoCal and I owned a Piece of Shit Cal 20. I was racing against a some of the best sailors in the country and it's a full on arms race! I was 10 years late to the Cal 20 party and $30,000 short. All I had was a light boat that was stiff, a good rig and well thought out rigging with awesome sails. The same sailmaker I still use and sell sails for 27 years later. Needless to say after wining a big regatta my crew Tom Leweck ( yes the founder of scuttlebutt) said as we were lifting the boat out the water by a crane, Tom looks up and says in front of the whole fleet "you know if you would fair this boat the keel and paint it, I wouldn't have to work so darn hard!) I said Tom your right the boat does have some speed to gain.
Sailing Cal 20's taught me a big lesson in sail trim of a small jibs, twist, twist and more twist....
Oh did I mention twist is fast.
I truly feel that athwartship tracks are the best way to sail. When I put a boat together I choose a boat that I can set up the way I like to sail. I like floating leads, not moving to make a sail adjustments, plenty of purchase and big winches. Cal 20's don't point the keel is 3/4" thick like a star boat. We use twartship tracks as well. I one thing I figured out how to do, was to get the floating lead 2" further inboard than everyone else.
Adjustability is the key on how to figure a boat out. It takes time a lot of tweaking trying different things and an understanding what your ass is telling you when your sailing the boat. Simply put, I sail by the seat of my ass!
- If your struggling to control the boat you have to much sail area up.
- If the boat is not pointing the rig is not in the right place.
- If you have to much whether helm the rig is in the wrong place
- If your slow and racing one design you don't have enough twist.
- If your slow and can't point you have to much twist.
There are a lot of givens in the stated above I will write more about them as time permits..
With regards to your questions.
No, my Jibs don't fit the OEM tracks, the small jib is actually the same Luff length as the standard rig it's just the foot is shorter. If I were to build another small jib I would take another 2 feet off of the Luff. I like sailing with full mains. I hate reefing the main and avoid it as much as possible, especially fractional rig boats.