pics
Hi Roger!
Nigel,
This is hard for me to say, but those are some very pretty sails you are flying!
You may get me started on my A-sail rant (I am a HUGE fan-always)-looks like you are using the pole when called for and going without at other times-perfect!
All things being equal, an A-sail is always faster on any point of sail than a conventional spinnaker-as long as you have a pole to square back when the breeze is aft, and the sail is designed as an "AP" sail. The myth that they are mostly for reaching comes from the fact that sprit boats can't square the pole back when sailing deeper angles, so they can't run as deep. This has nothing to do with the nature of A-sails, though.
The only potential limittion is in close buoy racing, where gybing an A-sail may be a tad slower-since it must collapse in the gybes and in theory a conventional kite can stay full-if the crew is good. But I'll take the A-sail anyday!
There-I said it. I feel better-do you?