On 5 Oct 2004 15:16:52 GMT, William R. Watt wrote:

Morgan Ohlson ) writes:

Now.... what pros and cons is there in designing a rig and letting the
sailmaker sew proper sails?
.... or are there any clear benefits (like price) to adapt to some existing
common class rigg+sail?

a cheaper home made sail will help you decide what kind of sail the boat
should eventually have. TF Jones has had 2-3 sails on some of his dingys
before he was satisfied. He buys all his sails or has them made. I like
experimenting with small sails I make myself, and I like saving money.

Jones writes, and he's right, the only thing a jib does on a daysailer is
give the crew something to do. (For solo sailing it a nuisance. Our club
used to have a solo dingy race where you had to set the jib and main
yourself. We tied teh edns of the jib sheets together and cleated the jib
on every tack so it wasn't much use.) JA Marchaj did wind tunnel tests on
a variety of small boat sails and found they all performed pretty much the
same. the bermuda sloop rig with jib pointed marginally higher but was no
better all around and worse on some points of sail. I prefer a simpler cat
rig (no jub), especially when I'm making the sail myself and trying to
save money. For low coast and easy handling I've been using sprit sails
which need no hardware but other people prefer other rigs.

I sometimes, when cruising boat builder forums get a feeling that there are
only two types of sailing boats.
A) racing
B) anti conformistic cruisers

My goal is to make a good, reliable and stable cruising dinghy ...and fast
to, if possible.

In my case it's like this. I don't build a boat because I like to... It's
because I have to... there are simply no design to buy that fill my demands.
....okey, almost... but the weight of them is 100% too heavy.

I have more or less desided to go Bermuda (or high ratio gaff or gunter.) Footing is still a question though.

My geatest quest is to get it right, or at lest so cloese to good that it
can be fixed without buying new materials.

If I understand right you like to experiment much, so do I.... but in this
case the exeperiments are made on paper and in my head. When I'm going into
action, no losses are acceptable. ;o)

A cat rig (no jib) could very well come into question... High positioned CE
or lowering the ratio (less area)?

How about self turning jibs?


Morgan O.