Unstayed masts: why aren't they more common?

[dunedin]

Racing yachts, and offshore cost no object record breaking boats still typically have stayed masts - albeit mostly carbon not alluminium and steel wire. So presumably these rigs are still most efficient at sailing speeds up to 30 knots or so.
Foiling moths still have stays also. But suspect above 50 knots boat speed, on foils, unstayed starts to have an aerodynamic gain.

In slower yachts, the issue is often too much bend to keep a Genoa luff tight enough - and slot effect makes most una rigs slower upwind (until get to foiling speeds again)

 

[LittleSister]

Racing yachts, and offshore cost no object record breaking boats still typically have stayed masts - albeit mostly carbon not alluminium and steel wire. So presumably these rigs are still most efficient at sailing speeds up to 30 knots or so.
Foiling moths still have stays also. But suspect above 50 knots boat speed, on foils, unstayed starts to have an aerodynamic gain.

In slower yachts, the issue is often too much bend to keep a Genoa luff tight enough - and slot effect makes most una rigs slower upwind (until get to foiling speeds again)

Wouldn't disagree with any of that, but most yachts are not racers or record breakers, and for many cruising yachts that last ounce of potential max speed is 'rationally' less important than, say, getting most of the potential speed/pointing out of it more of the time, and/or ease of handling.

Not that I'm suggesting cruisers (or anyone) should have unstayed masts - they can have what they like - just that I suspect fashion, availability and reselling considerations are big factors in explaining the relative rarity of unstayed masts, rather than that they are 'objectively' unsuited to the practicalities of cruising yachts.

On the bending issue, I recall reading a PBO or YM test of aerorig vs, conventional rig versions of the same boat (Hirondelle Family cat?). The aerorig was a littlle faster overall, and they reckoned that what it lost by bending was more than made up for by being easier to have the trim right more of the time. (Not an issue if you have a crew of ten giving full concentration for a limited time, but in real life cruising. . . .)