James,
Like you we free'd the foredeck and got rid of the club on our staysail !
The standard cabin top mount may be usable depending on how you choose to rig your Staysail sheet(s). We have gone with a single sheet that is attached with a 2:1 self tending block and tackle that attaches to the Staysail clew. The sheet is lead to the deck and aft on the cabin top to the winch mounted on the stb. side of the companion way. On some W28's there is an awthwartship track for the staysail tack, on others like ours, there is just a deck mounted block midship on the cabintop forward of the mast.
Another alternative is dual sheets with 2 short lengths of track mounted on the cabin top with genoa cars or blocks and the sheets lead to cleats on the cabintop on each side of the companion way. I've had a set of tracks and cars for that installation for years, but we have found our current single line system satisfactory.
Our 30 day passage on the wind from Rarotonga to Hawaii was on a different full keel boat similar to our current W28. We found that a single reefed main and a 110% jib gave us the best overall balance of speed and ride comfort. We broke our rudder 650 miles south of Hawaii but were able to steer the rest of the way by balancing the sails carefully. Thank goodness for a full keel!
On our current W28 we normally sail with a Mainsail, 125% roller reefing Genoa and a 100% Staysail. When we are hard on the wind we get our best balance with a single reef in the Main, the Staysail sheeted in fairly tight and the Genoa reefed to about 110%.
Kevin
