square vs triangular

[tamkvaitis]

All lot of post in MF thread, stated that Rig of maltese falcon is bad. So What are the differences beetveen sqare riging and bermudian (triangular) riging? As I know and understand triangular sails perform better in upwind conditions.
Bigger oart of crtuising vessels use triangular, sails. I don't realy understand why. Cruisers rarely sail upwind, they prefer using motor in these conditions, because it is simply more comfortable. So If you are not sailing upwind quite often so why to use a bermudian rig? Isn't it influenced, by some kind of fashion?

[usa2]

Im not an expert on this subject by any means, but square rigs are harder to deal with unless you have a "push button" system like the Maltese Falcon has. Also, the technology for having a push button system on a smaller cruiser (under 100') has not been developed to the extent that it is a practical investment. Most cruisers are ketches or sloops, and that is generally a very easy rig to deal with. Another thing is nearly everyone knows how to make a ketch or sloop go forward, whereas with a square rigger people may become confused about how to go about sailing it. I dont think square rigs have much initial appeal to the mass market of bluewater cruising sailboats.

[Vega]

Originally Posted by tamkvaitis

Cruisers rarely sail upwind, they prefer using motor in these conditions, because it is simply more comfortable. So If you are not sailing upwind quite often so why to use a bermudian rig?

I don't think that this is true, except if you are crossing oceans and following trade winds. Most of the time, or at least more than half the time I am sailing as close to the wind as I can. I guess that this applies to other cruisers too.

And why should I go motoring in those occasions? Modern boats sail very well close to the wind.

[gggGuest]

Triangular is basically a pretty lousy shape for a sail. That's why a state of the art racing rig has full length battens and loads of roach to end up with something that approximates a trapezoidal profile.

However one of the few things that is worse is the traditional square rigger where you have a series of very low aspect ratio sails set one above the other with gaps between them. This is pretty much aerodynamic suicide!

Maltese Falcon, by minimising the gaps, has a rig that is entirely different from a traditional square rigger, and aerodynamic drag wise I suspect its probably pretty good, and I would be quite suprised if its not superior to a plain triangle.