I completely agree, though I'm not sure it's fully feasible.

  My main reason would be to short-tack to windward without having to touch the sails on a schooner rig.  Kind of like tacking in a mono with a self-tacking headsail -- turn and go.  We're about five miles from truly open water, and parts of our inlet are just 1/4 mile wide, so that's a lot tacking if we want to skip the motor.  Hours worth.

  Shunting would be the way to go in really light winds, when no multi would come about, and in big winds, where it would be nice to avoid the stress.  In the middle, just coming about would be awesome.

  However, that might require more rocker than we'd want in a proa.  A cat is easy to set up, even with rocker, by balancing out the weight, but the proa needs to be bidirectional.  If we want to keep the bows up, we might want less rocker, which also would be a benefit in terms of reducing leeway using the hull.

  I pretend that I'd be able to come about in 5-15 knots, perhaps sheeting in the aft sail in the first half of the tack, and the foresail in the second half of the tack, which could be done by hand with a 2:1 mainsheet without having to change the setting on the winch/cleat.  Pull, release, pull, release. 

  I also plan to use deeper foils most of the time to really grab the water when steering and resist leeway when beating.  Maine waters tend to be either deep or not, so an extra foot or two is fine.  That could also help tacking.

  But I'm not sure I'm being realistic.

---

  One note:  if you go through old posts, you'll see some by Rick Willoughby about experimenting with the lw hull to windward to eliminate rounding-up in really light winds.  It's definitely possible -- the question is if you can reliably get there without a motor.

        - Mike

 

One of Robs many innovations is the leeward facing bridge deck cabin
that nearly always provides shelter from the wind.

    I'm not sure that the sail on an HP or HP style boat need always be
to leeward....... It should be possible to tack or shunt with equal
facility, depending of the design of the boat.     On a long passage in
the tropics, one might choose to have the sail to windward to direct the
breeze into the cabin instead of sheltering the cabin, or perhaps one
might choose weather to have the wind to port or starboard based on sun
angle for shade or warmth.   In mild conditions, the choice of port or
starboard tack might be based on comfort criteria rather than rigid
sailing criteria of always having the sail to leeward.   I'm the kind of
guy who might change course for a few hours on a long passage  just to
get the sun out of my eyes, or tack downwind to eliminate the constant
rolling on a monohull.   Being comfortable is more important to me than
making the fastest time possible to the next tiki bar with scantily clad
barmaids and umbrella drinks.   If we are always in a hurry to get from
port A to port B, that suggests that most sailors don't really like
sailing..... they'd rather anchor in a crowded anchorage or park in a
slip in a floating trailer park. To me, sailing is about being at sea...
If I'm in a hurry to get someplace, I'll fly!

                                                   H.W.