You could make the sail bigger. Mine do not go all the way to the
back of the top spar. It really is already a big sail for the size
boat. Heeling her really helps in light air cuz it reduces wetted
area. In 8 kts, she sails very well. In 4-5 kt, she does move along.
The normal problem with lake sailing is the fluky winds and wind
shadows from trees. This is one reason for the paddle.
Basically, I'd go with the visqueen sails and make em as big as you
can. Then when you see what evntually works best you can make
somethign more permanent.
I have never seen any other MiniCups in person. I considered making a
conventional triangular sail with a boom and a jib too but that would
require some shrouds and a fore and back stay simply because I am used
to sailing a much larger boat like that. However, the lateen sail
really does give more sail area than anything else I could easily
build.
I think she sails well in light air and when you get about 9 kts and
look back at your wake you'll be amazed. Above 12 kts, the weather
helm really shows and you really have to hold the tiller and it will
try to bend to make her round up into the wind. Around 15 kts, it gets
exciting.
As you can see, I really like my boats.

The MiniCups were the first boats I built. After that, I built a
nesting dinghy for my 28' sailboat called a Two-Paw-9. Then I got
really ambitious because I wanted a power boat for exploring the local
coastline and spent a year building a Tolman Skiff. The boatbuilding
thing can really get into you and you dont want to stop.

Tomorrow, I start glassing the deck of MiniCup #2.

David

imagineero wrote:
Thats good to know.
Any ideas about maker her a bit more of a light-wind sailer? The winds
we get on our lake are usually more in the 5-10 range, and sometimes
even less than that :-( it seems there's either very little wind, or
there's way too much. probably the main reason i only see people
fishing and water skiing out there!

have you seen any with different rigs?

Thanks,
Shaun



Windward performance? Well, She does better in more wind, say about
12-15 mph although I have done a lot of tacking to get places in very
little air. With the lateen sail, I have difficulties judging how
close I am to the wind. I really like the lateen sails cuz they are so
simple.