Hi,
Just for the sake of argument, I didn't think the Dynarig could de-power completely on any point of sail unless the sails were furled, which the Maltese Falcon has a very expensive and complex method to achieve that.
Be interested to know how that is done more efficiently and less expensive.
Rigid wings have a whole different set of issues. Wing flutter, feathered oscillation effect, gust response, dampening, geometric balance, and inertia to name a few. But given enough engineering(s) the problems can be minimized and the controls simple. Took a whole lot of folks to make BMW Oracle, function and it was purpose built for one thing only.
Still, sail plans cannot be managed by the village idiot, or still get a knockdown, pitchpole and some other "stuff". Train the crew well. Big stick in the air with a lot of potential.
Sitting on the sidelines waiting for rudder issues to play out. Throwing gobs of money at a new house for now. (near a marina)
JT
--- In harryproa@yahoogroups.com.au, Mike Crawford <jmichael@...> wrote:
>
> Rick, et al,
>
> I think we're talking about two different sets of requirements here.
> he dynarigs are extremely good at what they do, but that doesn't mean
> they're good at everything.
>
> In Dennis' case, we're talking about a 60' racer/cruiser, a boat that
> needs to be as safe as possible while cruising, perhaps short-handed,
> and then moves as quickly as possible while empty. This combination is
> something that a harryproa can be uniquely good at.
>
> For the sake of discussion, let's define the cruising-safety aspects
> of the boat as follows (Dennis, please feel free to correct me or modify
> the list):
>
> - The ability to depower instantly and completely, on any point of
> sail, by releasing a single sheet.
>
> - The ability to stay depowered, without intervention, as long as
> needed to reef or unreef, check a chart, pee, fix a gash in someone's
> arm, and so forth. And remain depowered even if the wind changes
> direction or the boat yaws while drifting.
>
> - A fail-safe nature for all of the above, in that if the system
> fails, such as the mainsheet blows, the system goes to neutral and stays
> at neutral without intervention.
>
> - The ability to pull in just a touch on the mainsheet to get a just a
> touch of forward drive, even if there's too much wind for the sail area,
> and then back off simply by letting of a single sheet (and no other
> adjustments), going back to auto-depowered. Such as if the wind
> unexpectedly picks way up, but you need to get away from an obstacle
> now, without the luxury of having time to reef.
>
> - The ability for one person to do all of this, without having had a
> lot of time to develop a feel for how the rig handles.
>
> ---
>
>