I've been fascinated by the mast-aft design for a while. Not enough
to consider one, but it's nice to see people think outside the box.
The Running Tide Yachts site is still working, with details at:
http://runningtidey
http://www.runningt
There are two reasons I wouldn't get one of these. The first is that
I'd like a boat that is demountable and transportable over roads in a
reasonable amount of time. With all that rigging, it's hard to imagine
being able to assemble and disassemble the boat as quickly as one with
an unstayed mast. The other reason is that it would be nice to be able
to short-tack up an inlet in light air without a crew of winch monkeys
dealing with the huge reacher that operates in front of the inner
forestay.
I realize that both of these reasons are moot if you're mostly in
open water, and/or don't mind paying to keep a large catamaran in a
boatyard.
More to the topic at hand: this particular rig seems more suited to a
boat that always points in the same direction, and would be hard to
implement on a proa.
However, someone has worked on a mainsail-less proa:
http://www.kproa.
http://www.kproa.
I'd probably go with a freestanding una rig or easy rig, but that's
because I've got five miles of upwind sailing to do before the water
really opens up. That means a lot of tacking or shunting, and I
imagine the una or easy rigs would simplify the process, especially if
the wind is light enough to tack instead of shunt.
Still, it's a very interesting design. Inexpensive sail, efficient
leading edges, no cost of sail track, batten cars, or batten,
nicely-aligned force vectors. If you cruise in open water, and don't
mind keeping one side to windward all the time (which one could argue
is part of the point in a proa), there's a lot to be said for the
shunting staysail.
- Mike
fitzgeraldskhayyam wrote:
Just some pics regarding some model rigs.
I've been bothered by the inefficiency of mainsails so this is
perhaps something that might work.
I don't know the technical ins and outs but do have some practical
experience.
Years ago there was a rig designed for cats that had a mast canted 5
degrees forward, a small wishbone boomed main and 2 large jibs -
cutter rig.
Didn't catch on, never heard anymore about it.
My mono hull wouldn't sail on main alone, went fine on just jib.
My favourite of the group pictured is the L rig. Don't know if its
possible to construct something like that full size, but I imagine
like any engineering problem there is a solution.
Any thoughts?
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