Sail advice for Wa'apa outrigger sailing canoe

[John Bjorklund]

Hello fellow sailors. I continue to build my 16-ft Gary Dierking design Wa'apa outrigger sailing canoe. I am torn on what sail to use on the boat, and thus what rig I need to build. I really don't want to spend over $300 on the sail. The designs recommended in the book will cost well over $500 for someone to make.

1) snark sunflower sail. Correct square footage recommended for the design. Short mast and spars which is nice. I would build the spars out of wood and not use the cheap aluminum poles that comes with the boat. I can get a dacron sail for around $200. Drawback is that it's hard to reef. Unsure of the performance of the sail. Anyone have thoughts on the performance?

2) Leg o mutton sail, which I could possibly make myself from a kit. Decent performance and somewhat easy to reef. Drawback is it requires at least a 16-ft mast.

 

[Igor]

I would go simple, balance lug or oceanic lateen

 

[John Bjorklund]

I would go simple, balance lug or oceanic lateen

I do like like the balanced lug but worry about up wind performance.

If by oceanic lateen you mean a shunting rig, that's a very complicated rig. And I would have to redesign the boat.

 

[waterbear]

A lot of people like balanced lug.

There are instructions on making polytarp balanced lug sails in Jim Michalak's book, you can borrow that from the open library. Andrew linn also has instructions on making a 75 sq ft polytarp sail.

Personally I would make mast, yard and boom suited for a balanced lug and then use the snark sail for now. That way you can upgrade later.

 

[waterbear]

I do like like the balanced lug but worry about up wind performance.

I think it's fine. The fact that Michael storer uses it - and he's a performance nut - shows it's value.

 

[John Bjorklund]

Agreed. It is a popular sail design for small boats and simple to reef and lower.

Might have to just suck it up and spend some money on one.

 

[seasquirt]

If you have access to a household sewing machine, make your own sail. See my post in All Things Boats & Boating: DIY sail making.

 

[Zilver]

You could use a (non class legal) sunfish sail. Or second hand sunfish rig. In the Dierking book also are some diy sails I believe. You can make them from polytarp - the stresses in the sail cloth are not high. The lateen sail is very practical, low center of effort, and doesn't need as stiff a mast as the lugrig. Might be a bit less close winded than the lugrig, but the canoe will not sail very close winded anyway (relatively small leeboard).

 

[waterbear]

I would consider using the 75 sf sail from the Michalak Mayfly. Because the sail is a bit bigger and not too high aspect it will keep the center of effort about where it's supposed to be without moving the mast, or just moving the mast a bit. You can reef it down more than the lateen and you'll have more canvas in light air.

Plans for the mast, boom, yard and sail are in the back of Jim Michalak's book on open library. The sail is available from Duckworks.

You can see two of these sails reefed down on this Laguna. This particular set was made from tarp by Andrew Linn.

 

[waterbear]

Here's the design of Andrew's sail

75sqft Baalanced Lug https://andrewlinn.com/plans/120301_michalaklug/index.htm

And an image gallery of the construction

sewing a 76sqft lug sail https://andrewlinn.com/plans/100112_sails/sewing_start.htm

 

[Igor]

The sunfish rig is a very good suggestion, can be found for cheap used and will not look out of place on OC.

 

[John Bjorklund]

The sunfish rig is a very good suggestion, can be found for cheap used and will not look out of place on OC.

This is a very good idea. My concern is a sunfish rig has way more square footage than what it's called for in the design. The 16-ft only calls for 54 square feet of sail.

 

[Zilver]

That's indeed a lot smaller. If you can find a second hand rig, you could cut it shorter (trim a piece off at the leach side), and cut the tubes a bit shorter. It's not as convenient as a drop in rig, but still not too much work. For the material for the corner reinforcing you can use the cut off cloth, the leech can be just a fold over tab.

I have built a Kohler "little tri" 16 foot double outrigger boat, and used the sunfish rig with good succes. I think having a real mast is a big plus in handling, as opposed to have to lift the rig in place like in the standard Dierking style boat.

 

[waterbear]

The size of the rig is arbitrary. Dierking probably drew a smallish rig on Wa'apa to keep costs down since it's a simple, low cost boat. 75 square feet is not at all out of line. The hobie windrider 16, for example, carries something like 95 square feet.

I would just use what you can find. Snark, Sunfish, laser, whatever. My preference would be something that can be reefed, but if you're looking for a cheap rig just take what you can get.