Tell me about the current fast Contender rigs

The current Contender rigs are based on a mast and sail which perform well by having a flexible top section and stiffer base (below the spreaders). The Proctor etched epsilon was very popular for a number of years, but favour moved towards the Wavelength rig during the late 1990s. Graham Scott designed the Wavelength alloy mast to provide a more affordable alternative to the Australian Goldspar which was also popular and successful at this time.

All of these rigs allow the flexible topmast to bend off in the gusts, depowering the rig and providing a highly responsive rig that requires the minimum of tweaking whilst sailing. Other popular masts in the past have been the Superspar M2 and in the past a few other bendy rigs such as Needlespars, Scaglias and Holmespars were seen.

From the beginning of 2002 the use of carbon for mast construction has been allowed, and carbon is now widespread. From 2004, the tip weight was reduced to its current level.  In practice, carbon masts seem to offer little noticeable performance advantage over alloy (the decision to change was not driven by improved performance, but a lack of availability of suitable alloy sections).

Again, the leading carbon masts in the UK are from Wavelength. On the continent, Avant Garde masts have also become established, but again no clear leader has yet emerged. Proctor carbon masts were around for a short while, but showed a tendency to break which resulted in the class being reluctant to use them.

At the same time as adopting carbon masts, the class rules were also changed to allow the use of simple tubular booms and loose footed sails. These did not initially catch on, as the combination does not provide any substantive performance advantage, but from March 2003 carbon booms has also been allowed.

As the carbon boom is significantly lighter many people have made the switch, but again it would be difficult to identify a performance difference in most conditions. But they are certainly lighter on the head!