Why build a proa if it's all about out of the box thinking and speed, when a windsurfer or kite will be faster? Why did all the A Class sailors stick to cats when the Moths started to go faster? Why did the Moth sailors stick to Moths when the windsurfers were faster?
Surely it's the same simple answer in all cases - because some people like certain boats. In this case those who proposed the class like dinghies. It's not "in" or "out" of any box for them to play by the rules they want, just like it's not "in" or "out" of any box if a group of people decide to play football and not to play rugby.
I'm unsure why the bermudan rig doesn't work well with low tech materials. The most popular bermudan rig in the world was originally made from drainpipes, and it worked pretty well and still does.
Say what? I've never heard of it. Could you enlighten us? Did you mean the sail or the spars? Lower AR Bermuda sails can work quite well with less than optimal sail cloth materials. A major portion of the pdracer fleet, which has its sails made out of inferior materials such as "Tyvek", have leg-mutton sails, which are a version of the Bermuda sail. It's only when you get all fancy, with short battens everywhere, and try to put too much roach in the sail, do these weaker materials start to really fail. Another major portion of the fleet has Balanced Lug sails. They seem so equally popular, it's very difficult to determine which is dominant. It is a suspicion of mine that, with lower AR sails, the exact shape of "airfoil" is far less important than with higher AR ones.
I've never seen a crab claw or lateen sail perform particularly well, or read of one actually performing well. There have been some test reports, but the proa files note that no one has replicated Marchaj's results. I think I know someone who used to have a crab-claw sail in his New Guinea canoes. In the only reports I can find, they were whopped by much smaller Hobie 16s and even by Fireball dinghies.
They have been tried at least once in the pdracer fleet. That example didn't perform especially well. I suspect the original purpose of the Crab Claw was to get the end of the Boom high enough to not smack the crew, when it swung across the deck. Also, the Boom is cocked so high, there is little opportunity for the head to twist.
Working boat rigs are like that. They are often chosen for reasons other than balls-to-the-wall performance. The Gaff rig, for example, was popular on larger work boats, here in the States, because it's CA didn't move very far forward when it was reefed. Sprit sails were used because they didn't require a halyard, and all the spars could usually fit in the boat, when the rig was struck. The Boom Lateen was used on the Sunfish, Sailfish, and Snark, because the Boom and the Yard could be the same length, and a Boom Vang was not required to keep the sail from twisting. You could also wrap the sails around those two spars in a very neat bundle (especially when they were flat cut). And, once again, all the spars were usually no longer than the boat.
Lateens can't be great performers, or the Sunfish would leave all similar craft in its wake.
