wow! think a posting is dead and then it suddenly flares back into life with lots of life, who needs sailing anarchy

but as the original poster i just want to say thanks for all the replies, i know a lot more now than i did before

the reason i asked the question in the 1st place was to get an idea about the ultimate pointing ability of my 5.2 regardless of what it costs me in speed

next summer when i try to tempt my wife and 2 kids on board, (8yo and 6yo), speed will not be important. in fact they'll probably like it slow as they can count the times they have sailed on 1 hand.

without a jib the tramp will be much cleaner and give more space for kids to get out of my way without getting tangled in lines. as a newbie sailor i'll have 1 less thing to worry about. we reduce the already small chance of flipping the boat to an even smaller chance as i'd have to have the jib cleated and maybe most important on our small lake just a few degrees of better pointing means lots less tacks will all the bays, wind shadows and an island to get round

but then i may blow a tack and end up screaming at everyone while i try to stop backing onto the rocks

whatever, the info has been great and it'll be great fun to experiment with both rigs and mast rake and then compare all the gps tracks to work out what works best, in that lake with it's winds and me at the helm.