<<Do you concur? >>
Yes.
Until the need arises to steer without outboards in low wind,
and/or singlehanded, and or on the wrong angle of sail, with either:
a) no gasoline left, b) water in the gas, c) low fuel levels that
you want to conserve for entering a harbor, d) a mechanical issue
with the motor(s), or e) not enough time to deploy the motor and
start it up (because the need arose quickly while singlehanding).
At which point not having the ability to steer could be quite
uncool.
I'm still considering a schooner instead of an unarig, even though
it might mean abandoning a wing sail design, and one of the primary
reasons is steering with the sails. The ability to sail the boat
off a beach, without the rudders down (either because they're up, or
because they're gone), and shunt to windward, would be
extraordinary. As would a boat that is somewhat easily controlled
even after a submerged shipping container takes out the rudders.
But that would be as a backup steering system, not a primary
system. Having to go through the sail-steering process on every
shunt could get old.
An alternative to skipping the rudders would be to install them,
but then be a real man and not use them until needed.
Note: that's what I do with my sea kayak, at least until I have to
paddle diagonal to the wind for a long distance, at which point I
happily wimp-out and deploy the rudder.
- Mike
Thank you for the warning. This was not discussed in the proafile discussion on the topic. But for one, cruising, in my interpretation, requires no close quarter shunting and if insufficient wind to create the required leverage the outboard(s) will supplement. Do you concur?
--- In harryproa@yahoogroups.com.au, Micha Niskin <micha.niskin@...> wrote:
>
> The problems with steering with sails tend to appear when you're reaching;
> upwind it works great, but off the wind you don't have the leverage you'd
> need.
>
> --
> Micha Niskin
>
>
> On Sat, Nov 2, 2013 at 4:20 PM, LucD <lucjdekeyser@...> wrote:
>
> >
> >
> > As there are no stupid questions let me ask at least a naive one:
> > A schooner vis comes with two sails and two rudders and one or two
> > outboards.
> > Given that in enough wind one can turn with the sails only and in light
> > wind one can turn well using two outboards, could one do without the rudder
> > function of the boards and keep them fixed?
> >
> > Upwind, Easy Rigged BD requires 5-10 degree rotation of the aft rudder. A
> > schooner would solve that with the differential in the sails. Right?
> >
> > I imagine that in a shunt one could veer off with the sails, drop the
> > outboards for braking further and then veer up in the other direction while
> > the sails pick up the new heading and then the outboards are retracted.
> >
> > Then, of course, there is the Seabbatical rudder/prop combination.
> >
> >
> >
>