Switching sail types

All,

This is my first post and my first boat build, so please have a little patience. I am building the Glen L Buckboard, a roughly 12 ft long sailboard made of plywood, finished with epoxy and or fiberglass. I'm in the middle of building the hole, but looking ahead the sale type is a Lanteen style sail. Just curious if anybody has an experience, or thoughts, on swapping the sale type to a sloop-style rig, or even a cat-style rig. I'm just not crazy about an aluminum tube suspended from the top of the mast. Looking at some of the other designs on their site, there are boats with similar lengths (although wider beams) that have a sloop or cat rig.

As an aside, we had a Hobie 16 a while back and we have taken the American sailing association beginner course, so I do have a little bit of sailing experience, mostly on cat and sloop style rigs. Does the lanteen style offer any advantages? For a boat this small, would changing the rigging drastically alter sail performance? I don't have any experience with a lanteen sail.

I put a couple posts on the Glen L forum, but it doesn't seem to be as lively as this one. Thanks!

-Matt

 

Welcome,
Nothing wrong with lateen sail. Very versatile sail and you can adjust the center of effect fore and aft easy to accommodate for crew weight. Once you get the hang of one and can roll and tack around through a tack you might love it. It would need a free standing mast.

 

Ok. I also got a PM saying the Lanteen is a good sail, I'll give it a shot. Thanks!

 

There are two styles of lateen sail, a loose footed version used around the Mediterranean, and a version with a long curved boom and yard called a Pacific lateen or crab claw sail, found in many Pacific Ocean nations. The popular Sunfish sail is an example of it, sans the curved members, it uses straight tube.

 

I have seen people waste hours and thousands of dollars for a 1/4 knot + - in speed.

 

The truth be told.
I have wasted hours and many dollars for a 1/4 knot + - in speed

 

Steve Clark, who used to own the USA's biggest small sailboat manufacturer as well as being a world champ in ultra high-performance boats, says that when they've tried to do objective tests of similar boats the Sunfish, with its lateen rig, came out on top. Steve's son is now building a light modern version of the Sunfish, the Rocket, but he's kept the lateen sail.

For a skinny and flat boat like the Sunfish, the lateen is a good rig because it matches the hull's positives and negatives and the way it's used. The hull is inherently not that fast upwind and neither is the rig, but the rig's low centre of effort matches the hull's limited stability. The lateen is a good rig on a reach or run, and the Sunfish style hull is also good at those angles. So both the rig and hull are working pretty close to their optimums when they are paired, which makes them a good combination.