G'day,

 

I started to build a solid wing sail with the mast in the middle many years ago.  Gave it up as a bad joke.  The biggest problem is shunting.  At some point, the sail has to be full frontal to the wind.  This is unsafe, so I never progressede the idea.  It is also a bear to trim the sail shape, there is far more weight aloft than with a sloop rig and if you luff the sail, you are probably stuffed as it would slam aback.

 

The solo boat will rarely sail with the apparent wind aft of the beam.  For this, a cat rigged, unstayed wing mast is the best rig available, apart from a solid wing sail, which is beyond my budget.

 

Maltese Falcon is, imrho, a classic example of throwing enough money at a silly idea and making it work, after a fashion.  Most of the pictures I have seen are of the boat heeling excessively under not much sail.  It also appears terribly balanced upwind in some shots.  Mr Perkins would have done more to advance the causes he espouses by building a giant cat with a wing sail.. 

regards,

 

Rob

 

 

On 8/7/07, George Kuck <chesapeake410@yahoo.com> wrote:

Hello Rob,

 

Have you ever considered a square rig on a unstated rotating mast similar to the one on the "Maltese Falcom" ?  It may need to be downsized just a little ! 

 

 http://news.com.com/2300-1008_3-6094519-1.html

 

Seriously, if you had a square sail and you could find a way to shift the camber in the sail from one leading edge to the other to help with upwind performance, would this work on your harryproa ? It may be a good sail for the Transpac, since as I understand this race is a downwind race.  But then you are gambling that the wind gods don't interfere !

 

George Kuck

Chestertown, Md,USA

Rob Denney <harryproa@gmail.com> wrote:

G'dday,

The flexible mast is a great safety device, although we could have made this one a little stiffer.  The top flexes in the gusts, so you are not suddenly overpowered.  A great relief to most cruisers, and their wives.  This boat is the cruiser version, which still needs some work on the sails. 

 

Blind Date is the sports version, which is about 40% lighter, with a stiffer mast and better sails.  Should have some video of that in the near future. 

 

My solo Transpac boat is the cruiser racer version, about one quarter the weight of Rare Bird, with a much stiffer (telescoping) wing mast, same sail area (very fancy sailcloth, courtesy of Dimension Polyant), but no headsail.  Should give us an indication of how much quicker is possible.

 

regards,

 

Rob

www.harryproa.com

 

On 8/7/07, Rolf Nilsen <rolf.nilsen@gmail.com > wrote:

While enjoying the video I could not help but notice the way the mast bent and made the leech twist off. Seems like the boat would be significantly faster with a stiffer mast, but as it's a cruiser I suppose it's fast 'nough

--
Mvh
Rolf Nilsen
http://multimani.blogspot.com/

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