heeling mast

Hi,

read in yachting monthly an article about the new Fan Class 32. A boat with a heeling mast where the hull stays upright! Sounds pretty revolutionary to me but will it break through? Any chance we see them in the IRC races soon?

Please, share me your thoughts!

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http://www.boatdimensions.com

 

Some of the big tris do this, and I have built a couple of cats and tris that "cant" the mast up to 10 degrees. I also have a jib setup that cants the jib a lot more (it is adjustable). The results are very impressive, but most of the gains are due to having a light boat that can be lifted by the canting rig.
Here is last Fall's boat: http://s371.photobucket.com/albums/oo159/johnelliott24/Precarious the trimaran/
A new, similar one, is just getting finished.

 

windsurfer and multis run rigs like this a long time already.

not sure it is worth it for a cruising boat; anyway claim to plane downwind any boat can do that if design in the right way to the right weight.

 

If they just try to give the comfort of an upright boat without the marina prices of a catamaran, then this is a cruising boat...

Not sure you can gain performance wise in comparison with a conventional fixed mast...

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http://www.boatdimensions.com

 

Well, if you consider that hull can be optimized for one heel angle only (0°), then there might be some room for a gain in performance.