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BORNFREEE said..
There is a Hunter yacht on the hard stand at Tin Can Bay it was sailed over from the USA it has no back stays never had how it managed to sail down wind and not loose the rig beats me , but i am no rigger, the interesting thing is the spade rudder(shudder) it has been torn off no stainless rod to be seen just a bit of pathetic foam, but hey they are like a huge power boat come caravan with a stick on them and the women just love the inside exactly how they where desighned for the lady.
I have not heard of any problems with the B and R rig as used on the Hunters.
They are probably not unlike the Diamond rig as used on modern day 'Cats' with their large roach mainsails.
The main disadvantage is that you have no backstay to crank on when going to windwind in a fresh breeze.
This will flatten out the main and to a lesser extent, tension up the headstay, helping depowering the yacht.
My wife and I owned a Noelex 25 once, all of which do not have a backstay either.
Generally all our sailing is offshore.
I remember in late December of 1998, we are trying to pick up a mooring inside Moruya Heads for shelter with the increasing winds.
At the time it was up to 45 knots and as soon as we got beam onto the wind, we ended up spearing into the breakwall.
We ended up surviving ok and my wife commented 'you take me out on the best dates Hon!
We spent the rest of that week bunkered down listening to ABC radio on the horrors unfolding in Basstrait.