This one is fairly cool, although I don’t
see any method of camber control. There was another one I found about six
months ago that had three or four lines going up the mast that allowed the nose
of the foil to swing though about 20 degrees or so and get more or less camber
as desired. That one also had a 3 or four foot horizontal rod at the top of
the mast to get the back of the sail tight. I really think the soft wings are
the way to go as I believe you could make the whole rig maybe 30% smaller than
a traditional one and still get the same drive.
Jerry Barth
From:
Sent: Thursday, February 27, 2014
4:43 AM
To:
Subject: Re: [harryproa] Matin
bleu wing sails
Just
came across a more advanced version of the soft wing rig. You may find this
interesting: http://soft-wing.ch/
Video
of the rig on a F-18 catamaran: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DNbCZkd9tX0
Arto
On
Tuesday, February 4, 2014 7:45 PM, Arto Hakkarainen <ahakkara@yahoo.com>
wrote:
Mike,
Like
I said in the earlier message I have no experience with these rigs. They are
very appealing and the theory sounds good but as we all know theory and
practice are the same only in theory :) I wish I had the chance to test the rig
in smaller scale first. May be a quick summer holiday Project. Now what would
be the fastest to build small proa as a test platform? Fewer build hours the
better and never mind the finish.
Arto
On
Tuesday, February 4, 2014 6:38 PM, Mike Crawford <mcrawf@nuomo.com>
wrote:
Arto,
I went to your link to matinbleu today after looking at that youtube
video and pondering the swing-wing again.
As much as I'm a fan of the swing-wing in theory, I have to admit that
most implementations of it look a little too homebuilt for my tastes, and the
video didn't help. I'd have a hard time putting those lower-aspect
junk-looking sails on a sleek proa.
But the matinblue site had these images of their soft wingsails:
http://img.over-blog.com/500x375/3/98/59/86/1-bilan-voyage/lazyjacks.JPG
http://img.over-blog.com/375x500/3/98/59/86/1-bilan-voyage/deux-ailes.JPG
And one of the sail on a new Beneteau:
http://www.voiles-alternatives.com/documents/ailes_souples/aile_beneteau/aile_beneteau1.jpg
Those are some pretty good looking sails.
I haven't had time to try to translate the blog to see if there are any
construction details (I'm pressed for time and my French is rusty), but they
appear to have the same general concept as the swing-wing, but with flexible
battens going to the leech. Of course, it could be a standard swing-wing
that's just cut and tuned well, but still -- that's not an ugly sail.
Those four reefing lines also look great -- the end result wouldn't be much
larger than a postage stamp.
Do you know anything else about this rig?
That design is so nice that I might even be willing to ignore my own
advice and add a rotating boom in order to skip the multiple junk sheets.
I'm not sure I could go with the rotating masts they use, but a boom might
work, and could conceivably be fixed at sea. The booms might also make
for a more manageable schooner rig as well.
Thoughts?
- Mike
Arto
Hakkarainen wrote:
Low aspect rigs are good downwind. They don't have as good L/D ratio as high aspect and so cannot be as good upwind as high aspect ratio sails.
Mike: take a look at matinbleu.over-blog.com to see one good version of the swing rig. The more I think about it the more I like it. Matin Bleu also has two identical sails arranged as schooner and claim to be very happy after sailing around the world with it.
Arto
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