new furling wingsails

new wingsails have been developed for us cruisers using a four sailgroove furler. The furler is turned so the sail grooves are fwd and two identical sails are inserted in centre grooves does not matter what sail size 80% or 120% as long as they fit the height of the furler.These sails are passed back past the furling drum either side and a cone shaped balloon is put between them. The top of the cone the small end to the masthead on the spinnaker halyard( the cone is built from light weight sail materialand inflated by air pump)and attached to the other to sail grooves by flaps. The furling drum becomes the leading edge of the wing.To adjust, the windward sail is sheeted tight forming the bottom chord of the wing the furler is turned by sheeting pressure toward the wind .the leeward sail is pulled around the balloon and the clew is brought around to the other windward clew closing the rear gap between sails and forming the curved top of the wings shape the balloon is either pumped up more or pressure released so the windward bottom chord is not deflected once the desired curve is made the wing will sailing. this set up i was assured can be used for headsl and mainsl . this could be on show if the balloons are made in time for the Sydney boatshow this weekend .They will be available from Doyles Sails l am told . l saw this in their loft after taking my sail in for a fix .I will update when i have tested it on my boat 20ft boomerang

 

That beats the old design I saw over 20 years ago that tried some sort of wire and batten setup to keep the leading edge firmly wider than the mast.

 

Can you elaborate with any pictures??

 

No, sorry I cant. it was a long time ago. I recall it was a Perth NA, and as I dimly recall he had short battens up the leading edge to provide the required tension, and other wires going up the inside of the two sails to push or pull these battens on one side or the other.

It looked quite good like idea on the 10 minute news item, but it never seemed to come to anything, and I have never seen it on the net either.

Inflation seems like a much better idea, should be quite a bit simpler.

 

Is it a third party product made by Doyle's or a Doyle's product? Thanks
Mick

 

I don't quite get the picture. Do you have a picture? Or drawing?

 

i am trying to get more info but no boat picks yet as soon as they come to hand i will definitely post them i think this will be a major change to sailing i will b e in sydney this weekend at the sydney boat show and i will see what i can gleen.

 

Anything at the Sydney boat show?? My spy's could not see anything