A-mast arrangement

[YuriB]

I was looking through different gaff rig designs, and masts for this type of rig and found that it may be good idea to use A-mast, similar to the one installed on Procyon yacht, but also keep it in tilted backward position by means of forward and aft shrouds. Both are steel (or stainless steel) ropes, under high tension.
Rear shroud should act as a normal mast, i.e sail should be attached to it.
pls see picture, it is self explaining. Not sure about engineering aspect of this idea, but looks like less ropes, simple desgn, more angle to swing the boom, etc

[viking north]

Under the thread heading "Who could have designed this yacht" post #24 by TAD See the A frame system designed for one of TAD's "bartender" designs--- Geo.

[messabout]

Bolger and others experimented with similar arrangements where the forestay supported a huge jib like sail and a main was not used. Apparently the forces required to keep the fore stay sufficiently tight, placed a serious demand on other parts of the boats structure.

[pool]

a set of really large A-frames is going on the new Greenpeace vessel:

http://www.yachting.nl/EN/350/reaching-for-the-sky.html