homebuilt wing mast

no not really ,thats more or less what I had in mind

 

I'm wondering a bit how much carbon has to be a part of the picture in cruising quality wooden aero sections, or wings? The Gougeons were into a 3-1 size spar with carbon re-enforcements, but they also made some rather low tech spars at times. Resawn 2x4s etc... Of course if one is out to win races carbon is probably necesarry. But what about the Jarcat spar a 2x4 on edge with 1/16 aero ply fairing; Gold coast 2-1 strip; Newick wooden strip. Some of these may have had carbon in them too. It can be a closed mouth field and so what is in all these little darlings can be a mystery. I would really like to know what is in the Jarcat spar other than the wood. Anyone know?

I'm heavily into wood and archery. The highest tech bows of the late 70s can probably be outshot by hickory bows of today (fiber performance wise). This does raise the question what if some better wood ideas were used, and some tougher species of wood were used in the Ibeams of these spars?

I am of the view that short of going somewhere pretty complicated with machined parts (I own a machine shop, and am put off by the thought of the parts required...) that the best bet for trailering as in Zini's case is a separate rig to a performance rig that one might use off a mooring for club racing. I get enjoyable speed out of my blown out hobie rig on my little tri, but even that rig is hard to raise. The option I am currently pondering is something more like this:

http://www.ikarus342000.com/KD650page.htm

I know the Gunter has it's problems but if this one worked it would be good for the road.

 

Not to sure about the gunter rig ,the only advantage I can see is if you live on a canal or something and have a bridge you need to get under to get to open water.

Problem occurs when you need to reef the sail in a blow,the gaff works best when its up tight against the mast .the sail is cut to this shape so to reef the sail you have to drop the gaff halyard to reduce the sail area ,the gaff now is not hard up against the mast and flaps around so you can't get any leech tension as the gaff is not locked in.
Also the highest point you can run a spinnaker/screecher halyard is to the top of the mast ,you can't hang any thing off the gaff.because of the above.

:idea: One possible way around this would be to have a track up the back of the mast which the gaff would lock into at the attachment point of the gaff halyard to keep it hard up against the mast so the gaff would lock into the mast vertically any slide up and down !

A standard gaff rig dosn't seem to matter when you reef, as the gaff is always at 45 degrees to the mast whilst the sail is up,when you reef you just drop the gaff halyard down to the reefing point lines up on the boom.

A single lenght mast is much less complicated ,I would say easier to build and lighter with less moving parts

 

My idea of trailerable means that it can be assembled by the crew without any help but the boat and the trailer...
Drive to the slipway assemble the boat and go.

To do this the weight is the most important point, the lighter is any part to be moved, the simpler the job.
This is the reason that direct me on carbon direction, nothing else.
One 15 Kg mast is easy to rig, even by a reduced crew, one 50 Kg mast requires a crane...

If I find a way to get a reliable mast built from paper that weight 15 - 20 Kg I am happy...

Paolo

 

Self Trimming Wingsail

You're just tinkering around with old technology.

How about a self trimming wingsail?

A wingmast is non-user friendly since you can't really feather it.
(Remember Bullimore)

Check the website on http://www.sailwings.net

 

I was talking with a friend at the club bar, my friend owns one monohull, a first 211, him uses the boat mainly for local and club regatta, nothing special, but competition is competition.
We talked also of wing mast, only a bar talk, not a real project...
But the boat (remember is a monohull) is narrow, it has two shrouds order, spreaders and a bridge stepped mast.
Retrofit with a single shroud order, with a so narrow base? No way...
Unstayed mast? Too invasive retrofit, no way...

Only one excuse for another beer...
But wat about one partially stayed mast?
I mean the mast can be deck stepped on the classical ball and supported only by the low order shrouds, the sections must be the sections of one unstayed mast obviously...
There is also the forestay problem, what about running backstay?

Paolo

 

bump...