I am sure that Arne's rig is perfectly suitable for offshore sailing, although I would like to discover if a sail with lots of camber suffers more chafe on long passages than a flat or flattish sail, but am not criticising cambered sails in any way - I just don't know. I guess it is a better choice for inshore sailing, but it may also depend on your personality, on which criteria are more important to you, performance, cost or simplicity being some of the criteria to consider. I chose a flat sail in the end because I decided that it suits me, suits my boat and the way I sail. I have very little money, want a sail that I can reef and unreef on the darkest night without worrying about control lines and sail set, and anyway, I have never been performance oriented. When I launched Arion in 1996, I got talked into a lofty bermudian rig (the vision of the original builder) which ended up costing me as much as the partially fitted-out hull and deck did, with sails from one of the best racing lofts in Australia. The boat sailed magnificently in flat water but I soon discovered it gave me little advantage at sea. I have sailed several hundred miles in the open ocean alongside my sistership, Minke, rigged with a flat junk sail, and had the opportunity to compare the rigs in a variety of conditions. In light winds and flat seas I walked away from him. If the wind was light and the seas sloppy, I was marginally better. Once the wind freshened to 15 to 20 knots on the bow, I had to ease off to about 50 - 60 degrees off the wind (if I didn't, Arion was likely to pitch to a standstill on every fourth or fifth wave). We were pretty much neck and neck from then on, reaching fast. Once the wind came too far aft though, my troubles began. By the time I'd poled out the jib and vanged the main, Minke was well ahead. Or I could two-sail reach and gybe downwind, while Minke serenely sailed the direct course. Once it came time to reef and gybe, Minke ended up miles ahead and I wouldn't catch her until the next anchorage. As I see it, all rigs are compromises and you have to weigh them up according to the criteria that is most important to you. It seems to me that, even with my high-performance bermudian rig, there was only a small percentage of the sailing spectrum when Arion was more efficient than Minke, maybe 10%. 60% of the time we were equally matched both in speed and ease of handling. The other 30%, broad reaching and running, especially when we needed to gybe or reef, Minke was vastly more efficient. Given that most of my sailing is in the latter 90% of the spectrum, I feel that a flat or flattish sail will work perfectly well for me and I can avoid the cost and complexity of the cambered sail. And the other thing is entirely subjective, the choice of which rig is most suited to you is not just a technical question. I quite like slow and lazy sailing. I have never had the slightest interest in racing or even in sailing fast. I am quite happy to put in several extra tacks and take twice as long to get there, as long as I don't have to work up a sweat. I just want to laze in the shade, read a book, sip my tea, or play my ukulele. Go fast boats or go fast sails are wasted on me, a bit like trying to make a silk purse out of a sow's ear! To paraphrase my hero Joshua Slocum again, I'm just on a pleasure cruise, I have no cargo to deliver, and the days pass happily in the cabin of Arion, wherever I am. For many years, until 2006, I had no engine in Arion and had many memorable drifts, but am now quite happy to start my diesel and chug along if I need to get somewhere. If I don't need to get there, or can't (1000 miles from land) I am happy to wait. Anyway, I am probably happiest when I am alone at sea. I really don't care about when I get there. Getting off a lee shore in a gale is another matter, but I think the flat junk sail can do that as well as any other rig could, on Arion at least. For me, the flat sail makes sense. For others, it is obviously a different story. Life would be pretty boring if we were all clones!